Tree Planting as Climate Policy?

The Trillion Tree Initiative and related congressional actions seek to expand the area of forest and the carbon mitigation benefits they can provide through sequestration of atmospheric carbon in standing forests and wood products. In the United States, forest area has increased over time as private sector investment has offset the loss of forests to urban growth with forest establishment on agricultural land.Efforts to significantly expand the US forest carbon sink would benefit from a careful consideration of the nation’s history of tree planting and forest investment and the current structure of timber supply and demand. Establishing additional forests can be accomplished with direct funding of tree planting on private land, but the structure of land markets suggests a high potential for benefit leakage when planting expands timber supplies. Government investment in ecological and riparian restoration efforts, urban forestation, and in a forest carbon reserve may mitigate leakage effects but provide somewhat limited opportunities. The greatest potential for forest climate benefits at scale may arise through expanding the demand for wood products, thereby incentivizing further investment in forest growing and carbon storage benefits in products.