The United States has tripled annual reforestation spending to tackle a four-million-acre replanting backlog driven by intense, climate-driven wildfires. Sources: Reuters, Timberbiz
The US Forest Service reforestation funding rose to more than US$100 million this year as part of moves to plant more than a billion trees in a decade under President Joe Biden’s infrastructure package, the Department of Agriculture (USDA) said in a statement.
US wildfires are now so ferocious they incinerate entire stands and their seeds, leaving forests unable to regenerate without replanting, US Forest Service (USFS) Chief Randy Moore said.
Average annual US wildfire acreage has about tripled since the 1980s when the US Forest reforestation budget was capped at US$30 million.
Before this year the agency met around 6% of replanting needs, 80% of which are driven by wildfire, USDA data shows.
Forest biologists say the new reforestation budget, set under the infrastructure bill’s REPLANT Act, needs to grow further to address the backlog and new blazes.
The USDA said it expected spending to “significantly increase” in coming years, without giving further details.
“You will need maybe another REPLANT Act or amendment that increases that value another fourfold or tenfold so we can do this right and not be doing it as a catch-up game,” said Owen Burney, head of the Southwest’s largest tree nursery in New Mexico.
The Forest Service is counting on partner nurseries like Burney’s to scale up seedling production, agency officials said. USFS nurseries produce around 30 million seedlings a year.
