As of March 2024, 894,898 acres across California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, South Dakota, and Washington are slated to be logged under a "community protection" measure proposed by the U.S. Forest Service. Resistance is growing. In addition to a lawsuit filed against the agency by a coalition in California, a National Day of Forest-Climate Action will take place on May 28, and the group Lost Sierra Forest Defense is organizing a Climate Action Camp in Plumas County from May 23-29.

The logging plan targets over 200,000 acres in Plumas National Forest, including 133,321 acres of mature and old-growth forest. The U.S. Forest Service plans to sell to timber corporations hundreds of thousands of mature and old-growth trees from remote public forests, even as the Biden Administration is creating policies that could potentially protect such forests.

Deceptively attempting to spin the project, the Forest Service ignored stacks of scientific studies—many from its own scientists—finding that logging under the guise of “thinning” kills more trees than it prevents from being killed and makes fires spread faster, often toward towns. The Forest Service’s approach here—logging vast areas of remote forests and telling the community that the “thinned” forests would act as a “firebreak”—is the same one that led to the destruction of numerous towns in the northern Sierra Nevada recently, including Paradise, Greenville, Grizzly Flats, and many others. John Preschutti, of plaintiff group Plumas Forest Project, lost his family home in the Camp fire.

Lost Sierra Forest - Climate Action Camp | Feather River Action! on Forest Fires and Clearcuts | Community Groups Sue U.S. Forest Service over Unprecedented Plumas Forest Logging Plan | Day of Forest Action May 28th | National Day of Forest-Climate Action

See Also: Biden Administration Moves to Protect Old-Growth Forests | Report: Federal Logging Projects Put 10 Climate-Saving Forests on Chopping Block | Biden Launches Process for Protecting Mature, Old-Growth Forests on Federal Lands