USDA CLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION STRATEGY

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1 Gallatin National Forest USDA CLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION STRATEGY FEDERAL FORESTS

2 OVERVIEW Background Federal Forests Stewardship Restoration of Resilience Reforestation How can you contribute? Gallatin National Forest

3 BACKGROUND - US FORESTS ARE IMPORTANT With approximately 766 million acres of forests the United States is the fourth most forested country in the world. Boise National Forest

4 BACKGROUND - NFS FORESTS ARE IMPORTANT 19% of all forests in the United States are National Forests. The National Forests currently serve as a major carbon sink. 24% of the total US carbon stocks Annually National Forests sequester approximately 13.5% of total US carbon stock change Boise National Forest

5 USDA CLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION STRATEGY Federal Forest Stewardship: To recover & enhance resilience & carbon sequestration capacity of the NFS carbon sink Two Key Actions: Restoration of Resilience Reforestation Photo by Phil Chi, USFS, Deschutes National Forest

6 RESTORATION OF RESILIENCE Roughly 65 to 82 million acres in the National Forest System are in need of restoration. Of these, 11.3 million acres are high restoration priority due to high risk of severe wildfire. Keep Forests as Forests Increase forests resilience to climate change stressors In the even of wildfire, decrease the severity of wildfire and associated impacts

7 RESTORATION OF RESILIENCE Restore landscape heterogeneity Increase the relative amount of fire that burns under moderate conditions Decrease stand density, understory tree density, and surface fuel loadings in forest types that historically burned in frequent, lowseverity fires.

8 Fire itself is one of our most important tools for increasing ecological resilience to fire RESTORATION OF RESILIENCE

9 RESTORATION OF RESILIENCE 4.6 million acres/year Treat 2.9 million acres of NFS lands annually to sustain or restore watershed function Treat 1.7 million acres of high priority fuels in the wildland urban interface

10 RESTORATION OF RESILIENCE Treated Area Untreated Area The 2015 North Star Fire in Washington burned through treated and untreated areas

11 REFORESTATION 560,686 acres are in need of planting due to disturbance. 98% of these needs are due to wildfire. Reforestation Planting Trees: Both adaptation and mitigation Accelerate forest growth & recovery and carbon sequestration Malheur National Forest

12 REFORESTATION Planting 32,000 acres/year for 10 years Planting acres caused by wildfire, insects & disease, weather Estimated that this will sequester approximately: 1.8 MMT by MMT by MMT by 2115 Calculations based on GTR: NE-343 by Smith, Heath, et. al Methods for calculating forest ecosystem and harvested carbon with standard estimates for forest types of the United States.

13 REFORESTATION Percent Carbon Stock by PNW NE NLS NPS PSW RMN RMS SE SC

14 WHAT CAN YOU DO? Plan for climate change adaptation and resilience Regional Silviculturists, Regional Geneticists & others such as Climate Change Coordinators & FS R&D scientists can provide guidance & support Many, many good resources out there Climate Change Resource Center Report back what s working, what s not, what are your needs? Know that your work makes a difference! the potential carbon sequestration from the reforestation building block is included in the U.S. s 2 nd Biennial Report a reporting obligation under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)

15 FINALLY Thank you for all your work to keep our forests healthy so they can help keep our planet healthy, now and into the future. Contact info: Regional Contacts: Robyn Darbyshire, Vicky Erickson, Becky Gravenmier WO Contacts: Nicole Balloffet, Jim Alegria, or Frank Fay Photo by Kyle Stott, Deschutes National Forest

16 REFORESTATION CLOSER TO HOME An opportunity for restoration and adaptation and carbon sequestration Species Selection which ones are good at sequestering carbon? Promoting soil carbon? Restoring degraded sites? Density/Spacing/Arrangement trees as small as 2 in diameter can survive fire how?

17 SOUTHWESTERN OREGON Managing early succession for biodiversity and long-term productivity of conifer forests in southwestern Oregon (Bormann et al, Forest Ecol & Mgt, 2015).

18 RESULTS Fifteen years of growth of shrubs and hardwood trees in the Early-seral plantation was remarkable, resulting in total aboveground biomass increment (18 Mg ha1 yr1) double that of the Douglas-fir plantations. Important process effects related to primary productivity were noted: losses of soil organic matter from the B horizon in young Douglas-fir