Restoring America's Forests

The United States is home the world’s tallest, largest and oldest trees. Its forests cover more than a third of the country — only three other nations have more forest cover.

Forests in the United States:

• store and filter more than half of the nation’s water supply;
• provide jobs to 1 million forest product workers;
• generate $13.6 billion in recreation-based economic activity on U.S. Forest Service lands alone;
• are habitat to more than 4,000 forest-dependent wildlife and plant species, 27 percent of which are at risk to extinction;
• offer a million square miles to sportsmen and families for outdoor recreation;
• are a major carbon sink that sequester 15 percent of all fossil fuel emissions in the United States.

Currently, a forested area larger than Oregon is at immediate risk to extreme fires, pests and climate change. Future generations of Americans risk losing the natural benefits our forests provide if we do not work to restore forest health now.

The Nature Conservancy's Restoring America's Forests program is working to reverse these threats by doubling the pace of forest restoration on federal lands to at least 7 million acres a year, in coordination with many partners in 25 states around the country.

Learn more about this effort:

• Helping lead the Fire Learning Network and the Fire Adapted Communities Learning Network
  

Resources:

• Fiscal Year 2017 appropriations fact sheet
• Restoring America’s Forests fact sheet
  

For media inquiries contact Jon Schwedler.