Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Healthy Forests for our future: a management guide to increase carbon storage in Northeast forests

Informally Refereed

Abstract

As a forest landowner or manager, you know that what you do on your land is important. This is especially true when it comes to climate change. The decisions that you make affect how well your forest can handle droughts, recover from storms, and cope with insect outbreaks, events that are increasing in frequency and severity as the climate changes. This ability to "bounce back" is often called forest resilience. Your decisions also affect climate change by storing more or less carbon in your woods (carbon stocks) and by changing the rate at which carbon is absorbed by your trees (carbon sequestration). When forests are lost, they can no longer store or absorb carbon. The most effective thing you can do to impact forest carbon on the land you own or manage is to keep your forest as forest. This includes planning ahead for what will happen to your forest after you no longer own it.

Keywords

forest carbon management, natural climate solutions, climate change, mitigation, adaptation

Citation

​Marx, Laura; Zimmerman, Chris; Ontl, Todd; Janowiak, Maria. 2021. Healthy Forests for our future: a management guide to increase carbon storage in Northeast forests. Arlington, VA: The Nature Conservancy; Madison, WI: Northern Institute of Applied Climate Science. 40 p.
https://www.fs.usda.gov/research/treesearch/63533