• We will enhance existing quantitative tools used in land management and develop new tools to assist in the analysis of the impacts of climate change on terrestrial and aquatic systems and the appropriate management responses.
• We will improve Resources Planning Act (RPA) assessments by adding analysis of climate change impacts on wildlife and water, in conjunction with the analysis of climate change impacts on forests linked to the analysis of carbon sequestration/biofuel/energy options and their impacts on ecosystems.
• We will develop coordination for a large-scale research program and the associated means of support and execution aimed at predicting national climate change impacts.
• We will use pilot projects, particularly in the national Experimental Forests and Ranges, to develop and test strategies and systems for conserving and enhancing resource productivity and health (e.g., soil, water, habitat, biodiversity, vegetation, etc.).

2. Research to Increase Carbon Sequestration (Mitigation)

Climate Change and Carbon Sequestration

Mitigation research is aimed at reducing atmospheric CO2 concentration by increasing the amount of CO2 removed from the atmosphere by US forest and grassland ecosystems (including agroforested and urban forest ecosystems). Transferring biomass out of forests and into wood products is critical to enhancing continued carbon sequestration into forests, and relative to some other materials, wood may require less fossil fuel in harvest and production processes. Sustainably managed forest and range resources can replace fossil fuels with fuels derived from biomass, which utilize carbon already present in the global carbon cycle, rather than creating new carbon. Silvicultural and genetics research help to increase growth and enhance sustainability. Avoided deforestation and forest preservation also have strategic roles.

Current Research

Carbon sequestration research is focused on assisting public, state, and private landowners and the forest industry with integrating carbon management into their forest management and production goals, and in assisting policy makers in balancing carbon and forest resilience with requirements imposed by economic exigencies. Carbon research includes:

• Development of new concepts and information from monitoring and modeling of CO2 dynamics of forests in response to management and disturbance, from studying land use changes and their causes, and from experiments to determine how increasing atmospheric CO2 concentrations affect forest growth under changing climate and air pollutant stresses.
• Invention of new wood products from currently unused forest growth, the development of new processes to generate fuels from cellulose more efficiently, and the creation of new equipment that minimizes transportation and fuel costs while processing small diameter woody biomass and other residues.
• Analyses to document and reduce the carbon "footprint" of forest management and administrative activities within and outside the FS.

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