Welcome to the supplementary materials for Healthy Forests for our Future: A management guide to increase carbon storage in northeast forests.
If you're visiting this site after reading a paper copy of the guide, note that a pdf copy of the guide including links to resources and cited references, is available here.
Climate-smart forest management refers to ways of managing forests that both maintain or increase the amount of carbon stored in the forest, and sustain or improve forest resilience (the forests' ability to survive and recover from climate impacts). In other words, forest management that helps prevent and prepare for climate change. Both in the US and globally, climate-smart forest management (sometimes called improved natural forest management) is a critical tool in the fight against climate change. More information, including case studies, is available on the nature4climate.org site.
As we note in the Healthy Forests for our Future Guide, many climate-smart forest management practices require the assistance of trained foresters and harvesters. Some require materials, such as fencing, tree shelters/cages, or saplings. We know there are many landowners who are interested in these practices but could use financial incentives to help cover these costs. The Healthy Forests for our Future guide lists some of the potential funding sources that were available at the time of publication (late 2021). Additional resources are below.
To help those interested in accessing funding from the Natural Resources Conservation Service, we developed a crosswalk between the practices in the guide and fundable practices in the EQIP and other incentive programs. View the crosswalk here.
The Family Forest Carbon Program is a carbon market program that pays landowners to implement several of the practices detailed in the guide.
