Forestlands Health and Carbon Sequestration

Book excerpt: There is general and widespread agreement that human actions are causing changes in global climate through increased emissions of greenhouse gases. There are a number of strategies to tackle the problem. Forests have the potential to help reduce emissions and slow changes if they are protected, expanded, or returned to healthier condition. In the western United States, forest restoration-an ecologically-guided thinning process-could be a way to increase carbon sequestration. By preventing unnatural catastrophic wildfire and creating healthier ecosystem conditions, restoration can store biomass carbon.