The Forest Service was created over a hundred years ago to address the damage
caused by uncontrolled logging.
Concerns for water supply and river navigation where paramount.
During the last century,
America's forests,
grasslands, and waterways have recovered
and our forested land area remains relatively stable.
We met the conservation challenges of our early years.
Today our forests and grasslands face new threats
from climate change.
Fires are a natural part of forested landscapes,
but each year, the fire season comes earlier and ends later.
Fires burn hotter and are more damaging and dangerous.
Insects are also a natural part of forested landscapes, but now destructive
pests are spreading more rapidly.
Winter cold isn't knocking back some populations.
Warmer winters also affect our water supplies.
The snowpacks are thinner, and they melt earlier in spring,
so the water wruns out from the forest earlier in summer.
Extended droughts make trees more vulnerable to fire and
insects and reduce the amount of water available to fish, wildlife,
communities, and agriculture.
The impacts of rising temperatures on aquatic systems are a major concern.
Many species, such as the bull trout, are highly susceptible to
temperature increases that could result from climate change.
These impacts threaten the capacity of our forests to provide all kinds of
ecosystem services that people have come to expect,
including clean air and water,
habitat for fish and wildlife,
and opportunities for hunting,
fishing, skiing, and other kinds of outdoor recreation.
The changes in climate we are now experiencing are strongly influenced
by increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
Since the Industrial Revolution
and particularly in the 20th century,
CO2 emissions have increased dramatically.
What if we had a machine that soaked up carbon from the atmosphere,
a device that would lock up CO2 for a long time?
Of course, it would have to be environmentally friendly.
It would also have to be efficient,
reliable, cheap
and easy to produce.
Here's what it might look like.
Trees and forest play a crucial role in regulating our climate.
Through photosynthesis,
they remove CO2from the atmosphere, binding it
and storing the carbon as wood.
The carbon is held in the forest biomass-- in the trucks,
branches, foliage, and roots--
and in the soil as organic carbon.
The process is constant and is going on all around us.
In young forests,
carbon is soaked up, or sequestered, quickly.
In mature forests, sequestration slows and is eventually almost equaled by
decomposition. The carbon balance changes little from year to year. At this point,
the forest doesn't absorb much carbon
but has become a vast carbon reservoir.
But if the trees are destroyed,
they release carbon into the atmosphere, thus becoming a source of greenhouse gas
emissions.
Forest cover almost one-third of the world's total land area.
They account for 90% of the annual interchange of carbon
between the atmosphere and the land.
The carbon stored in these ecosystems is the equivalent of about
4.5 trillion tons of CO2.
That's more than the total carbon contained in the world's remaining oil
stocks,
more, in fact, than the total amount of carbon in the atmosphere itself.
So it's no surprise that forests
can be a big part of the answer
to the problem of climate change.
But forested lands are being lost worldwide.
The pace of deforestation
mainly due to human population growth, has accelerated in recent decades.
The Forest Service works with partners in many parts of the world to promote
sustainable forestry practices.
Here in the United States,
the Forest Service has three main roles in responding to climate change.
Mitigation includes those actions that can help reduce the concentrations of
CO2 in the atmosphere.
Adaptation involves preparing forests and rangelands to the increasingly
stressful effects of climate change as they occur in the coming decades.
And sustainable operations
mean that we will do our part to reduce our agency's ecological footprint.
Our mitigation efforts focus not only on National Forest System lands but also on
providing leadership for the nation's forests,
57% of which are in private ownership.
By conserving and managing existing forests, we can protect and maintain the
carbon they store.
By planting new forests,
we create new carbon sinks.
Planting trees in urban areas decreases the so-called heat island effect that
occurs when solar energy is absorbed by roofs and pavement.
This reduces energy use for air conditioning.
Another thing we can do is promote the use of wood in our everyday
lives.
Wood use for energy is bioenergy,
sustainable energy that can replace fossil fuels iand the emissions they produce.
For example,
the Fuels for Schools programs helps schools in the western states use woody
biomass as an energy source for economical heat.
The Forest Products Lab is developing new ways to use wood fiber from our forests.
When it comes to constructing homes in other buildings,
wod has the lowest energy consumption and the lowest CO2 emission of any
commonly used building material.
Designing buildings to use more word instead of concrete, plastic, and steel
could result in a significant drop in greenhouse gas emissions.
Forest Service researchers are developing new processes for converting wood
to ethanol and other liquid fuels.
Wood has the potential to produce fuel more efficiently than corn
and could replace a significant portion of our demand
for transportation fuels.
By using wood more efficiently,
particularly the smaller trees, we are able to both manage for a healthier forest
and lock up the carbon stored in that wood.
While w must take measures now to curb greenhouse gas emissions,
the benefits of these actions won't be realized for some time.
Changes to our climate over the next 30 to 40 years,
caused by past emissions,
are largely inevitable.
For decades, Forest Service scientists have been studying in assessing climate
change effects on forests,
rangelands,
and watersheds. This focused research will help build the firm scientific
foundation for our management actions.
We will need to be adaptive in our management of forests and grasslands,
helping them become more resilient to the stresses caused by climate change.
Many migratory bird species, such as the Kirtland warbler,
may be vulnerable because of their highly specialized habitat requirements.
Understanding the implications of climate change for threatened and
endangered species is a high priority.
We must also consider the impacts of climate change on people
and on the ecosystem services we depend upon.
Throughout much of the arid West,
water shortages will be worsened by climate change.
Operation of ski areas on Forest Service lands may be altered as snow conditions
change.
Managing watershed functions of forests and grasslands will be critical
as we try to maximize how they collect,
filter, store, and release water.
Reparing degraded meadows and fixing roads
makes watersheds more resilient
and able to function better under a warmer climate
with longer droughts.
Many actions, such as thinning overly dense forests, for us
will be win-win solutions,
increasing forest health
while at the same time decreasing susceptibility
to catastrophic wildfires,
a major source of CO2 emissions.
Although we don't know all the ways our management will adapt
in the face of climate change,
we know it will,
and we are committed to using the best science available
and to being flexible in our responses.
The Forest Service is already taking action to reduce our impact on the
environment.
Wemust be thoughtful about the office supplies we use,
the energy and water we consume,
the efficiency of the vehicles we drive, and so much more.
Across the Service, groups of employees are forming Green Teams to craft local
solutions to sustainable operation.
We are using energy and water more efficiently
and shifting towards renewable energy sources such as solar power and biomass.
We're changing our travel practices
and using hybrid vehicles
and alternative fuels when we can.
By reducing our environmental footprint,
we can operate more sustainably
and conserve natural resources in our forests and grasslands
and in our workplaces.
It's not only about changing lightbulbs,
it's about changing attitudes and behavior.
We also have a responsibility to teach each other
and our communities
about the effects of climate change and about how we can all be part of the
solution.
If we are to be conservation leaders,
we must lead by example and each do our part.
The Forest Service was created
in response to the destruction of forests and waterways in the late
19th century.
Throughout the 20th century,
we met other great challenges, such as the Dust Bowl
and the need for housing inthe postwar baby boom.
Tackling climate change will require the best ideas and efforts from every part
of the Service.
Trees, forests, and
forested ecosystems are key to addressing climate change.
The Forest Service is uniquely qualified to address this challenge.
We have a significant land base,
a professional and committed workforce,
many years of research,
and strong relationships with private, state,
and international
natural resource managers.
The Forest Service
and you
have a vital role to play.
Future generations
will judge us on
how we respond to the great
conservation challenge
of the 21st century.