Forestry

• Author: Federico Cheever with Robert B. McKinstry Jr. and Robert L. Fischman
• Pages: 823-844

Page 823

I. Introduction—Forests, Forestry, and

Deep Decarbonization

Forests provide signicant ecological services that have

long been recognized. “Forests perform many critica l eco-

logical roles. ey are the lungs for the planet, clea ners of

the air, catchers of rainfall a nd protectors of soils, lters

for streams, and homes to countless species.”1 Many fail

fully to appreciate the essential role forests and forest ma n-

agement must play in preserving a carbon sink critical to

prevent climate disruption. Deforestation and conversion

of forestland to other uses has signi cantly contributed to

1. U.S. F S, U.S. D  A, N R-

  S F—2010, at I-12 (2011) (FS-979) [hereinafter

N R  S F], https://www.fs.fed.us/research/

sustain/docs/national-reports/2010/2010-sustainability-report.pdf.

Chapter 31

Forestry

by Federico Cheever with Robert McKinstry Jr. and Robert L. Fischman

Summary

Forests and forest management have signicant roles to play in addressing climate change in the United States.

U.S. forests currently sequester nearly 40 gigatons (Gt) of carbon and are growing at a rate that osets about 700

million tons (0.7 Gt) of CO2 emissions per year, roughly 10% of U.S. total emissions. Forest management in the

coming decades could increase forest carbon capture by another 100 million tons per year. However, forests and

forest sequestration cannot substitute for emissions reduction in the long term, because forests will eventually

reach steady state, where CO2 uptake and release are roughly in balance. Achieving an additional 100 million

tons of sequestration per year will present signicant challenges, requiring the addition of 2.7 million newly

forested acres per year for the next several decades, as the amount of additional land suitable for reforestation

declines. Moreover, many existing forests will be stressed by the climate changes that are now inevitable, and

those same changes will reduce the area s that can support forests. Failure to manage forests with climate change

in mind will result in signicant additional carbon releases as trees are assaulted by wildre, insect infestation,

and disease increased by a changing climate. is makes the deep decarbonization necessary to stabilize climate

all the more dicult. Because forest ownership and authority in the United States are distributed among the

federal government, state governments, local governments, and private owners, a variety of legal tools must be

employed to realize the potential for carbon sequestration and limit the potential damage of climate change.

Federal, state, and local governments all have parts to play. National and state laws and regulations should

require carbon sequestration tracking and provide credits for sequestration in sustainably managed forests in

emissions trading programs. Federal and state programs should include additional incentives for use of biomass

generated from “low-use” wood produced through sustainably managed forests in programs to replace fossil

fuels for local heating and cooling and to co-re biomass in electricity generating stations with carbon capture

and sequestration capacity. Incentives include local land use regulation and conservation easements to protect

existing forests and to encourage reforestation that will sequester carbon, private certication of carbon seques-

tering forests, and conservation tax incentives to enhance carbon capture on private land.

Editors' Note: Federico Cheever died suddenly while on a rafting trip

shortly after submitting the second draft of this chapter. Robert McKinstry

and Robert Fischman have revised the chapter to reect peer review

comments, other editorial revisions, and subsequent developments, while

striving to preserve the thrust and the spirit of Professor Cheever’s work.

Page 824 Legal Pathways to Deep Decarbonization in the United States

the increase in concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2) in

the atmosphere. If we ignore forests and follow a business-

as-usual approach, forest carbon emissions wi ll continue to

increase through land conversion, forest res, disease, and

decay. If we discourage further deforestation, encourage

aorestation, actively manage forests to sequester ca rbon,

and use biomass from sustainable forest management for

energy production with geological sequestration, the forest

sector can play a signica nt role in mitigati ng carbon emis-

sions in the short term and, more signicantly, in limiting

future cl imate disr uption.

As trees grow, they absorb CO2 in t he photosynt hetic

process and store carbon in both standing biomass and

soils. A growing forest can remove ve to 11 tons of CO2

from the atmosphere per hectare (2.47 acres) per year.2

Widespread deforestation in the United States during the

18th and 19th centuries released signicant amounts of

stored carbon into the atmosphere. However, as a result

of the adoption of sustainable forestry management, our

forests are regrowing and removing that CO2 from the

atmosphere. In June 2013, a broad cross section of for-

est indust ry, conser vation, landowner, and agenc y groups

signed a letter to President Obama on behalf of the Forest

Climate Working Group of the American Forest Foun-

dation. e letter asserted that U.S. forests currently

sequester 12% of U.S. annual carbon emissions and that

strategic conservation and susta inable forest management

could increase annual c arbon capture to as much as 20%

of annual emissions. At the same t ime, the letter cautioned

that, absent bold action, U.S. forest carbon sequestration

could stop growing and eventually decline as a result of

development pressure and climate change-related eects

on forests, including wildre, pests, and disease. e sig-

natories urged that “U.S. Forests must be included as part

of any solution to address climate change, or we risk los-

ing one of the nation’s most powerfu l tools to mitigate

climate change.”3

e 2015 Deep Decarbonization Pathways Project

(DDPP) policy report reects the potential of forests for

removing and sequestering CO2 through improved for-

est management and aorestation. e report cites U.S.

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates for all

carbon capture from land use, including forestry, at 831

million metric tons of CO2 equivalent emissions in 1990,4

2. Brent Sohngen & Robert Mendelsohn, An Optimal Model of Forest Carbon

Sequestration, 85 A. J. A. E. 448-57 (2003).

3. Letter From Forest-Climate Working Group to President Barack Obama

(June 27, 2013), http://stateforesters.org/sites/default/les/publication-

documents/FCWG%20letter%20on%20President%27s%20Climate%20

Action%20Plan%20Final.pdf.

4. J H. W  ., P  D D  

U S, U.S. 2050 R, V 2: P I 

D D   U S 17 (Deep Decarbonization

Pathways Project & Energy and Environmental Economics, Inc., 2015), avail-

able at http://usddpp.org/downloads/2015-report-on-policy-implications.

pdf.

rising to 979 million in 2012, but then remaining at that

level from 2012 to 2050. However, forests will eventu-

ally reach steady state, where CO2 uptake and release are

roughly in balance unless additional measures a re utilized

to take full adva ntage of the capacity of forests to capture

and sequester CO2 from t he atmosphere.

e DDPP policy report does not address the full

potential of the forestry sector, considering all of the addi-

tional mechanisms whereby CO2 can be captu red and

sequestered. In November 2016, shortly before the elec-

tion, the White House released United States Mid-Century

Strategy for Deep Decarbonization, which maps U.S. poli-

cies to achieve an 80% reduction in national greenhouse

gas (GHG) emissions from 2005 levels by 2050. In the

authors’ words, the Mid-Century Strategy is “grounded in

decades of research and analysis by the U.S. government.

It draws heavily on peer-reviewed academic literature and

is informed by a wealth of studies on the decarbonization

of energy systems and land sector carbon dynamics.”5 e

Mid-Century Strategy recognizes the role of forests, forest

management, and other biological sequestration mecha-

nisms in deep decarbonization in the United States. e

report lists sequestering carbon through forests and soil as

a part of one of the three primary strategies for reducing

GHG emissions.6 e report states:

U.S. landscapes w ill play an increasi ngly important role

in supporting economy-wide decarbon ization over the

next 30 years. Some la nd uses and activitie s emit CO2 to

the atmosphere and others remove it by sequestering CO2

in trees, plants, soil s, and products. In agg regate, U.S.

lands have been a net “carbon sin k” . . . for the last t hree

decades, large ly due to millions of acres shif ting into for-

est from other uses and t he continued growth of trees on

already forested la nds. . . . In 2014, the U.S. land carbon

sink sequestered nearly 0.8 Gt of CO2, o setting 11 per-

cent of economy-wide GHG emissions.

With early and susta ined eort, maintaining a nd enhanc-

ing the land car bon sink beyond today’s levels could o-

set up to 45 percent of economy-wide emissions in 2050,

with U.S. forests playing a c entra l role.7

is 45% gure also includes rapid deployment of bio-

energy carbon capture and storage (BECCS) technologies,

where CO2 is biologically captured from the atmosphere

and converted to biomass. at biomass is then used to

produce energy, and the CO2 is captured and injected into

geologic formations. As discussed in Chapter 29 (on nega-

tive emission technologies), BECCS or other forms of air

5. T W H, U S M-C S  D

D (2016) [hereinafter M-C S], https://

unfccc.int/les/focus/long-term_strategies/application/pdf/mid_century_

strategy_report-nal_red.pdf.

6. Id. at 7.

7. Id. at 10.