Abstract
As a signatory to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the United States has been reporting an economy-wide inventory of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and removals since the mid-1990s (U.S. EPA 2019). Forest land, harvested wood products (HWPs), and urban trees within the land sector collectively represent the largest net carbon (C) sink in the United States, offsetting more than 11 percent of total GHG emissions annually (U.S. EPA 2019). Estimates of GHG emissions and removals are compiled by U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service scientists and are based primarily on national forest inventory (NFI) data collected and maintained by the Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program within the USDA Forest Service. This report—the first in a new series of annual updates—provides an overview of the status and trends of GHG emissions and removals from forest land, HWPs, and urban trees in settlements in the United States from 1990 to 2017. The national estimates summarized here are based on the compilation reported in the Land Use, Land-Use Change, and Forestry chapter of the U.S. EPA (2019) submission to the UNFCCC. The national scale estimates reported here will also be disaggregated by individual State in future Resource Updates and are currently available upon request (see contact information, page 4).
Keywords
climate change,
greenhouse gas (GHG),
emissions,
removals,
national forest inventory (NFI)
Citation
Domke, Grant M.; Walters, Brian F.; Nowak, David J.; Smith, James, E.; Ogle, Stephen M.; Coulston, John W. 2019. Greenhouse gas emissions and removals from forest land and urban trees in the United States, 1990-2017. Resource Update FS-178. Newtown Square, PA: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Northern Research Station. 4 p. https://doi.org/10.2737/FS-RU-178.
