Reforestation in the Infrastructure Act

Money to accelerate reforestation was included in the Infrastructure Investments and Jobs Act passed last November. The Act increased fourfold the annual investments in reforestation on national forests. The goal is to plant 1.2 billion trees in 10 years. That will be enough to plant between 2 and 2.5 million acres. 49,000 jobs will be created to get the job done.

That's an important objective and meets a pressing need. But I think there's an even more important reforestation provision in the Act. The bill provided $200 million to fund the country's national seed and seedling strategy.

Here's what makes this so critical to the future of U.S. forests. Right now, there isn't enough tree seed to meet the 1.2 billion seedling goal for the national forests. Further, much of the available seed currently in storage isn't clearly labelled to tell nursery growers where it came from. With weather patterns changing, the next generation of trees started from seed falling at a given site may wind up experiencing very different rainfall and temperature patterns than their parents did--and grow more poorly or not survive as a result. Today's climate projection models are much better than the models from 10-20 years ago. Today's models can describe climatic conditions 50-75 years in the future, enabling reforestation researchers to map where future climate conditions will be like conditions where seed was produced the past few years. With accurate seed labeling describing where it was gathered, nurseries can choose the best seed source to grow seedlings that will be planted, grow, and mature under future climatic conditions. Sometimes, that may mean choosing seed gathered 100-200 miles away or a couple thousand feed of elevation different from where the seedlings will be planted because future climatic conditions at the planting site will be the same as recent climatic conditions where the seed was collected.

Matching climatic zones--current conditions with future conditions--is a critical part of developing the national seed strategy that was funded in the Infrastructure Act. To do the best job of reforestation over the next decade, the climate projection modeling and mapping needs to be completed in the next 18-24 months. New seed collection and labeling initiatives need to be implemented for this summer's and autumn's seed collection activities. Only after these critical links in the reforestation chain of activities are forged can the new seedling strategy and research results be used to select the best seed for growing seedlings for the 2024 planting season. Until those links are forged, I think there will still be lots of :"guessing and hoping for the best." The next generation of America's forests deserve better than that.

The Infrastructure Act provided the funding to get the necessary research and mapping done. Lack of money was the critical impediment preventing this work to be done sooner. Now, money is no longer the issue. The bipartisan legislators who passed the bill deserve our thanks for that!

Photo credit: Thomas D. "Tom" Landis, USDA Forest Service, Bugwood.org.