Executive Order Underscores Vital Role Forests Must Play in Climate, Resilience Strategy

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The president’s commitment to conserve, restore, and inventory the country’s oldest forests underscores the essential role trees and federal lands have to play in making communities and ecosystems more resilient, while naturally sequestering carbon, protecting clean drinking water, and safeguarding wildlife.

“Nature is one of our most potent allies in the fight against climate change and old growth trees can play an outsized role because of immense amounts of carbon they store,” said Collin O’Mara, president and CEO of the National Wildlife Federation. “The president’s executive order shows that the Biden Administration sees the forests for the trees — recognizing the crucial role that healthy forests play in bolstering resilience, naturally sequestering carbon, providing critical wildlife habitat, and purifying clean water. This inventory of old-growth trees and forest ecosystems will provide a strong foundation for the Biden Administration, forest managers, and communities to identify priorities for forest restoration and conservation, while reducing risks of massive megafires.”

 

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