Federal Forest Policy

U.S. forests today soak up an impressive 13 percent of our annual carbon emissions and the USDA Forest Service estimates that U.S. forest carbon sequestration could be almost doubled.  And yet without concerted action U.S. forest carbon storage is projected to decline over the next 20 years given escalating land use pressures.  Making a substantive investment in forest conservation and sustainable forest management for carbon storage must be a high climate priority that will reap many co-benefits including clean water, biodiversity and wildlife protection, climate adaptation, recreation, and forest jobs.