Northern Research Station FIA issues national greenhouse gas reporting update

MINNESOTA—The third issue of a new series of annual updates by the Northern Research Station, Greenhouse gas emissions and removals from forest land, woodlands and urban trees in the United States, 1990-2019, delivers an overview of the status and trends of greenhouse gas emissions and removals from forest land, woodlands, harvested wood products and urban trees nationally. The bulletin includes a complete inventory of greenhouse gas emissions and removals for Alaska's forests, a feature that improves the overall completeness of national estimates—a core requirement of United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change reporting.

The estimates of greenhouse gas emissions and removals were developed by Forest Service scientists and partners as part of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency National Greenhouse Gas Report, which was released on April 14. The Forest Inventory and Analysis team that developed the estimates is led by Grant Domke, a research forester based in St. Paul.

As a signatory to the framework convention, the United States has been reporting an economy-wide inventory of greenhouse gas emissions and removals since the mid-1990s. Forest land, harvested wood products and urban trees within the land sector collectively represent the largest net carbon sink in the United States, offsetting more than 11% of total greenhouse gas emissions annually. Live vegetation in forests and urban trees account for nearly 80% of the carbon sink strength.

While more complete estimates from Alaska were the headliner in this year’s bulletin, last year FIA debuted state data tables, which generated considerable interest. This year, a companion data set will be published for the entire time series 1990-2019. This data is valuable to carbon scientists, state resource managers and industry.

Forests serve as a major carbon sink, offsetting greenhouse gas emissions. USDA Forest Service photo.

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