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Forest Restoration

Background: A quarter of the world’s forests are in the temperate zone, mostly in the northern hemisphere, and include the boreal forests of Canada and Siberia. 99% of these forests have been altered by human activity through logging, conversion to other uses, or fragmentation.

Temperate forests are carbon sinks, pulling CO2 out of the atmosphere and sequestering it in both trees and in the soil. Converting deforested land back to forest in the U.S. could sequester up to 250 MtCO2 (WRI).

In California, wildfires are increasingly the main cause of deforestation. Improving Fire Management methods is crucial in order to reduce the incidence and severity of fires.

Goal: Identify degraded, non-agricultural forest land. Depending on the cause of deforestation, support policy changes to allow trees to grow back and reforest the land.

Existing Programs

  • Sonoma County Ag Preservation & Open Space District
    In 1990, Sonoma County residents created the Sonoma County Agricultural Preservation and Open Space District to permanently protect the greenbelts, scenic viewsheds, farms and ranches and natural areas of Sonoma County.
  • Climate Action Through Conservation
    C-CAT is a GIS model that can be run for a county or other jurisdiction . It estimates how changes in land use, land management, and land cover affect landscape carbon sequestration and conservation values over time, and helps to identify ...
  • Carbon credits used to purchase Buckeye Forest
    The Buckeye Forest in Sonoma County was purchased to be used for sustainable forestry, restoration, grazing and public recreation by combining funds from nonprofits and carbon credits from California’s Cap & Trade Program.
  • Sierra Club Forest Carbon Policy
    Policies that will: protect old-growth and mature forests, achieve sustainable food & fiber production while protecting ecosystem services, and promote responsible, effective policies for carbon offsets and sequestration.
  • Forest Carbon Reserve
    The creation of a Forest Carbon Reserve will be an essential part of any future Green New Deal. It would result in a substantial reduction in, and avoidance of, carbon emissions from forest degradation and fossil fuel production…
  • Sierra Club Report: Forests, Wood & Climate
    Is using wood beneficial or detrimental in the fight against climate change? Forest protection and stewardship are key.