The Biden administration is dropping its plan to conserve old-growth forests after getting pushback from Republicans and the timber industry.

The president will exit office without securing lasting safeguards for the nation’s most ancient trees, which play a key role in mitigating climate change.

Forest advocates said the National Old Growth Amendment allowed too much logging, while the timber industry called it too restrictive.

The U.S. Forest Service has dropped plans for a final environmental impact statement related to managing old-growth forests on public lands such as those across Western North Carolina’s national forests.

The Forest Service's proposal to limit logging in old-growth areas of national forests was sure to be abandoned by the incoming Trump administration.

The Biden administration is dropping its efforts to issue a policy to protect old-growth forests — though the president previously touted protecting such forests as an important component of his climate agenda.