ort forest biodiversity. Plants and animals rely on different forest ecosystem stages to meet their habitat needs. In Australia, the Regional Forest Agreement (RFA) attempted to prevent the clearfelling of defined "old-growth forests". This led to struggles over what constitutes "old growth". For example, in Western Australia, the timber industry tried to limit the area of old growth in the karri forests of the Southern Forests Region; this led to the creation of the Western Australian Forests Alliance, the splitting of the Liberal Government of Western Australia and the election of the Gallop Labor Government. Old-growth forests in this region have now been placed inside national parks. A small proportion of old-growth forests also exist in South-West Australia and are protected by federal laws from logging, which has not occurred there for more than 20 years.[citation needed] In British Columbia, Canada, old-growth forests must be maintained in each of the province's ecological units to meet biodiversity needs. In the United States, from 2001, around a quarter of the federal forests are protected from logging. In December 2023, Biden's administration introduced a rule, according to which, logging is strongly limited in old growth forests, but permitted in "mature forests", representing a compromise betw