资源环境科技发展态势分析平台

The wood products industry strongly influences the amount and structure of forests in the United States, especially on private lands. This explainer reviews how markets for durable wood products in the United States alter land uses and carbon sinks in the built environment and forests. It provides an overview of the opportunities for maintaining forest land and expanding the carbon sink through wood products markets, along with related challenges (here, we use “carbon sink” to include carbon captured from the atmosphere and stored in standing forests or wood products [1]). The explainer concludes with a case study demonstrating strong positive relationships between wood products markets, forest area, and forest carbon in the southeastern United States, the region with the highest harvest rates. Other explainers in this series provide insights into the policy issues and carbon dynamics associated with wood bioenergy.

The forest sector sequesters substantial atmospheric carbon through the growth of trees that are then stored in vegetation and soils for long periods of time. The carbon stored in forests represents about 52 times the nation’s annual emissions and has grown steadily since 1990. Wood products store harvested forest carbon in the built environment, where wood may persist for many decades. Wood products markets also determine demands for forest land uses and forest management that thereby augment forest carbon stocks, the focus of this explainer.