In response to President Biden releasing the framework for the Build Back Better Act, American Forests President and Chief Executive Officer Jad Daley issued the following statement:
Today is an important milestone toward advancing Tree Equity, mitigating catastrophic wildfire, and setting up our forests as crucial climate change problem solvers.
The $105 billion in resilience funding outlined in the Build Back Better Act framework is game-changing, especially for areas often overlooked such as our hard-working urban forests. The bill’s truly transformational investment in urban and community forests will save lives and improve Tree Equity by expanding vital tree cover in communities most susceptible to extreme heat islands. Communities of color have 33 percent less tree canopy, and lower-income communities have 41 percent less. Addressing these disparities will help stem the ever-increasing pace of heat deaths, reduce energy consumption and related greenhouse gas emissions, create good-paying jobs in communities that need them most, and reduce stormwater flooding and air pollution, all while providing almost 20 percent of total U.S. forest carbon sequestration.
Additionally, the reconciliation framework includes historic investments to prevent catastrophic wildfires through hazardous fuels treatment and vegetation management. Coupled with funding to accelerate reforestation after wildfires, these investments affirm Congress’s commitment to restoring America’s forest infrastructure, which stores massive amounts of carbon, filters drinking water for tens of millions of our neighbors, and provides livelihoods and economic vitality for communities both rural and urban.
Other essential investments included in the framework amplify this unprecedented response to the climate crisis through historic commitments to reforestation, carbon incentive funding for private forest owners, wood products innovation, partnerships and the new Civilian Climate Corps. Together, these provisions will yield huge carbon benefits and create thousands of new jobs in communities where they are needed most. This multi-pronged approach to sequestering carbon underscores the significance and versatility of trees as a vital natural climate solution.
American Forests is deeply grateful to the congressional champions for these investments, including Majority Leader Schumer, Speaker Pelosi, Senate Agriculture Chair Debbie Stabenow, and House Agriculture Chair David Scott. We also appreciate the efforts of the more than 150 diverse leaders representing forest product companies and other landowners, government agencies, Fortune 100 companies and social justice and climate justice organizations who have spoken in one voice in support of these landmark forest provisions. Now is our time to stand together as One Nation Under Trees and get this framework passed into law. Our climate cannot wait, and neither can our communities.