Climate Resilient Forests

Overview

In the U.S., there are over 150 national forests that cover millions acres of public lands. Our national forests play a critical role in providing incredible outdoor recreation opportunities and critical wildlife habitat. America’s national forests also play an important role in supporting local jobs and communities as well as providing essential ecosystem services such as clean air and water.

The Need to Create More Climate Resilient Forests

Climate change and related drought and wildfire threaten older forests like never before. To continue to capture the carbon, clean water, and wildlife habitat benefits these forests provide we must inventory them; and adopt a range of ecologically appropriate management techniques that protect stand structure, function, and composition, to ensure their resilience and persistence. Per Executive Order 14072 “Strengthening the Nation’s Forests, Communities and Local Economies,” the Biden Administration is working to identify and inventory mature and old forests by April 2023. It will then create a policy and management strategy to conserve inventoried forests to provide clean air and water, recreation opportunities, sustain plant and animal life, and combat climate change. Older forests account for roughly four-million acres in the United States—conserving them could be one of the more substantive and durable executive contributions to habitat conservation and the American the Beautiful plan in President Biden’s first term.

God writes the Gospel not in the Bible alone, but also on trees, and in flowers and clouds and stars

Martin Luther

What are the climate benefits to protecting and restoring old growth?

Protecting older, carbon-rich forests is a simple and cost-effective strategy for mitigating climate change and adapting to future climate impacts. Old and mature forests are an invaluable climate adaptation tool. Forest resilience rises with increasing plant species richness, suggesting that preserving mature forest ecosystems would provide an added buffer against potential ecosystem transformation to future climate change. The extensive root systems of older forests slow and filter rain, prevent erosion, and help reduce the risk of flooding in watersheds across the country. The thick bark and tall trunks of mature forests also helps separate the forest canopy from fast moving fires along the ground, making older forests more resistant to wildfire impacts. Our ability to pull carbon from the atmosphere and store it for the long term will play a major role in determining the severity of the future impacts of climate change. It will take time and significant federal investment to decarbonize the electricity sector and electrify the transportation sector. Protecting our natural carbon sinks represents a more straightforward climate solution that can be implemented much sooner.

What are the climate benefits to protecting and restoring old growth?

How do Climate Resilient Forests Benefit Wildlife?

Old and mature forests serve as critical habitat to a wide variety of plant and animal species. For example, older forests and trees in the West provide critical habitat for wildlife, such as pileated woodpeckers and bears. And large diameter snags play a key role in supporting wildlife in Arizona. The primary impact of this work will be on the community of flora and fauna that comprise older forests. The habitat connectivity provided by large, contiguous forest areas spanning environmental gradients, such as latitude, altitude, rainfall or temperature, maximize the potential for key processes such as gene flow and genetic adaptation to play out, while also allowing species to track shifting climates.

How do Climate Resilient Forests Benefit Human Communities?

Over 60 million people in 3,400 local communities rely on National Forest System lands as their source of clean drinking water. Protecting old growth and mature forests will also help increase the availability of drinking water for drought-stricken communities. For example, streamflow was 50% lower in a 40–43-yr-old plantations relative to 110-yr-old forests. Intact forests also have a positive effect on the redistribution of runoff and reduce the potential for catastrophic flooding. The forests help stabilize water table levels, retain soil moisture, stabilize slopes, prevent erosion, and regulate the transport of nutrients and sediments to ensure healthy wildlife habitat and ecosystems. Creating more resilient forests will also benefit tens of millions of recreation users. Through thoughtful conservation efforts aimed at creating more Climate Resilient Forests we will also reduce carbon emissions and optimize older forests’ ability to store carbon.

Chama Basin Watershed Protection Special Interest Area: This 17,790-acre area encompasses the headwaters of the Rio Chama providing critical habitat for migrating elk, mule deer and many other species. This area is of critical importance to the cross border collaboration of the Rio Grande National Forest and the Carson National Forest, state game agencies and various Tribal communities.

Jim Creek Special Interest Area: This 9,500-acre tract has native Rio Grande Cutthroat trout and protecting this area in the forest plan will ensure preservation and restoration of the native species and habitat.

Carnero Creek Special Interest Area: This 42,800-acre area has a high-quality population of native Rio Grande cutthroat trout. Designating this area in the forest plan will improve native Rio Grande Cutthroat trout habitat and ensure that species conservation is the management priority for the area.

What is the relationship between Infrastructure Legislation and Protecting and Restoring Old Growth Forests?

The recently passed Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) has key provisions focused on protecting and restoring old growth forests. The IIJA included historic investments in forest restoration on national forests and public lands. Among other investments, section 40803(a) appropriates $3.4 billion for wildfire risk reduction and forest restoration on these lands. Along with additional requirements, section 40803(g)(6) of the IIJA requires the prioritization of funding for projects that: “fully maintain or contribute toward the restoration of the structure and composition of old growth stands consistent with the characteristics of that forest type, taking into account the contribution of the old growth stand to landscape fire adaption and watershed health, unless the old growth stand is part of a science-based ecological restoration project authorized by the Secretary concerned that meets applicable protection and old growth enhancement objectives, as determined by the Secretary concerned.”