President Joe Biden's order to protect the nation’s oldest forests against climate change, wildfires and other problems devastating vast woodlands is raising a simple yet vexing question: When does a forest grow old?
Millions of acres are potentially on the line — federal land that could eventually get new protections or remain open to logging as the administration decides which trees to count under Biden's order covering "old growth” and “mature” forests. Underlining the urgency of the issue are wildfires in California that killed thousands of giant sequoias in recent years.
