US will plant more trees to combat losses due to climate change
US will plant more trees to combat losses due to climate change
Jul 26, 2022
Issue: Climate Change
Subject: USFS
The Biden administration plans to replant trees on millions of acres of forest affected by wildfires and other symptoms of climate change, like insects and drought. Warming temperatures and less rain mean hotter and bigger fires are taking out trees more rapidly than in the past, leading toa backlog of 4 million acres of forest in need of replanting. This comes on the heels of legislation passed last year requiring the Forest Service to plant 1.2 billion trees in national forests, called the REPLANT Act.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which houses the Forest Service, said it will have to quadruple the number of seedlings produced by its nurseries to get through the backlog and keep up with future tree loss. The agency said it plans to scale up to about 400,000 acres annually. It planted about 60,000 acres last year. Most of the replanting will occur in the West. The price tag on these efforts could reach $260 million, according to the Forest Service, which is set to spent over $100 million on reforestation work this year.
But this replanting effort could be stymied by the very conditions that precipitated it, as many seedlings won’t be able to survive to adulthood due to climate change. That’s according to Joe Fargione, science director for North America at the Nature Conservancy.
“You’ve got to be smart about where you plant,” he said. “There are some places that the climate has already changed enough that it makes the probability of successfully reestablishing trees pretty low.”
This comes on the heels of the Forest Service announcing plans to cut down small trees on thousands of acres in order to better protect California’s giant sequoias from wildfire, further highlighting the challenges of fighting climate change as it ravages Western public lands.
Quick hits
Heat wave to hit Northwest as Northeast sees some relief
This is almost the sole source of water in the central part of New Mexico and we’re not trying to save it just for the fish… We’re trying to save it for everybody and if the fish is that piece that helps us do that, then that’s what we have to use.”
Happy 32nd anniversary to the Americans with Disabilities Act!
Our public lands are for ALL people. For decades, Interior and its bureaus have worked to improve access to public lands and create new and innovative ways for participation and inclusion. Photo by Jacob W. Frank
(featured image: A pine tree seedling freshly planted in February 2009, USFS/Flickr)
Each day, the Center for Western Priorities compiles the best of Western public lands and energy development news. Take a look at our recent newsletters, and sign up here.
Kate hosts a live episode in Salt Lake City on CWP’s Keep Parks Public tour! Guests: Erika Pollard, National Parks Conservation Association; Davina Smith, Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition and Grand Staircase Escalante Partners; Scott Braden, Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance; Doug Tolman, Save Our Canyons. Resources Keep Parks Public: Tell us why you love public lands […]
Aaron hosts a live episode in Denver, kicking off CWP’s Keep Parks Public tour. Scott Fitzwilliams, former supervisor of the White River National Forest in Colorado, Kelly Nordini, CEO of Conservation Colorado, and Kara Matsumoto, public lands director at the Conservation Lands Foundation, join us to discuss threats to Colorado’s public lands posed by the […]
This is an automatically generated transcript. Please excuse spelling and grammar errors. Aaron: Welcome to The Landscape, your show about America’s parks and public lands. I’m Aaron Weiss with the Center for Western Priorities in Denver. Kate: And I’m Kate Groetzinger in Salt Lake City. Today on the pod, we’re taking a break from Trump […]
The President promised Tribal leaders he would protect this sacred Nevada landscape. What is he waiting for? It’s been 100 days since President Joe Biden promised he would protect a large swath of Mojave Desert in southern Nevada called Avi Kwa Ame that is sacred to multiple tribes, including the Fort Mojave Indian Tribe and the Hopi Tribe. […]
DENVER—The White House today announced it is re-nominating Laura Daniel-Davis to serve as the Assistant Secretary for Land and Minerals Management at the Interior Department. This marks the third time Daniel-Davis has been submitted to the Senate. In 2022, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer declined to place Daniel-Davis’s nomination on the Senate floor calendar, despite her having […]
This is almost the sole source of water in the central part of New Mexico and we’re not trying to save it just for the fish… We’re trying to save it for everybody and if the fish is that piece that helps us do that, then that’s what we have to use.”