President Biden is restoring the environmental protections around the largest national forest in the US after they were removed by the Trump administration.
The Tongass National Forest in Alaska had previously been known as the "lungs of America", the Independent reports, and is one of the world's largest intact temperate rain forests that soaks up about 8% of all carbon emissions in the US.
"While tropical rainforests are the lungs of the planet, the Tongass is the lungs of North America," Dominick DellaSala, chief scientist with the Earth Island Institute’s Wild Heritage project, told PBS. "It's America's last climate sanctuary."
While logging, mining, and other developments were banned back in 2001 under a roadless rule policy, the Trump administration opened up nine million acres of the forest - more than half - to both logging and road construction.
The New York Times reports that this week, the Biden administration vowed to "repeal or replace" Trump's ruling in order to protect the forest.
The new policy will be formally published in August and put into action over the next two years.
Reacting to the news on Twitter, the Centre for Biodiversity wrote: "Biden plans to restore roadless rule protections in the Tongass National Forest. This is a step in the right direction, but restoring full protections to roadless areas in this ancient rainforest is crucial for wildlife and our climate."
Biden's plan to restore the protections, however, was slammed by Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski who said it will "cost jobs, diminish income, keep energy prices high, and cripple the ability of the communities in the region to develop a sustainable, year-round economy."
She continued: "The Trump administration, through the Forest Service and USDA, put considerable work and effort into the final rule and now the Biden administration is literally throwing it all away.
"We need to end this 'yo-yo effect' as the lives of Alaskans who live and work in the Tongass are upended every time we have a new president. This has to end."
Biden's decision, meanwhile, has been praised by environmentalists including Ellen Montgomery, director of public lands campaigns for Environment America, who said she hopes it "will be a swift process to restore full roadless rule protections to the Tongass National Forest," as per the New York Times.
It's not yet known if Biden plans to completely restore the roadless rule protections in the area, or if he plans to protect some areas while maintaining development opportunities in others.