Alabama residents get more than half their public drinking water from private forests, and 60% of the state’s surface water flows through privately owned forestland before reaching treatment systems.⁶ When those forests are healthy, the water is cleaner and cheaper to treat, and the evidence from Alabama’s own watersheds shows what reforestation delivers.

Between 2005 and 2009, 1,372 acres of riparian forest buffers were planted along Crowdabout Creek in northern Alabama. EPA modeling estimates these buffers prevent approximately 3,035 pounds of nitrogen, 3,537 pounds of phosphorus, and 344 tons of sediment from reaching Alabama waterways each year, confirmed when the creek was removed from Alabama’s list of impaired waters in 2014.⁷ Alabama’s 2024 official list of waterbodies failing water quality standards documents ongoing impairment across river basins statewide, with agriculture and pasture grazing among the identified sources.⁸

A USDA Forest Service study of 1,746 southeastern US drinking water intakes, including Alabama, found that increasing upstream forest cover significantly reduces nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment concentrations at downstream treatment facilities, with measurably lower nutrient levels for every 1% increase in upstream forest cover.⁹

Research shows that for every 10% more forest cover in a drinking water watershed, treatment and chemical costs drop by approximately 20%.¹⁰ Southern watersheds currently have about 50% forest cover on average,⁹  putting many Alabama communities in the range where reforestation would directly reduce what utilities spend to clean the water, and what ratepayers pay for it.

A peer-reviewed modeling study found that reforesting marginal cropland with low-infiltration soils (soils where water runs off the surface rather than soaking in) can reduce total nitrogen runoff by 95–97% and phosphorus by 96–99%, virtually eliminating fertilizer pollution from those lands. These results reflect high-priority conversion sites; actual reductions depend on local soils, slopes, and precipitation.¹¹

Longleaf pine ecosystems support 28 threatened and endangered species, including the gopher tortoise, red-cockaded woodpecker, and Louisiana pine snake, that depend on the open, fire-maintained habitat longleaf forests provide.^{4, 13} Restoring longleaf on private lands restores the forest structure that supports the entire web of life these species anchor, including game species like wild turkey, bobwhite quail, and white-tailed deer that are central to Alabama’s hunting economy and rural identity.¹³

Alabama ranks #1 nationally for freshwater mussel, fish, snail, crayfish, and turtle diversity and first among all states east of the Mississippi River in total species diversity.¹⁴ Freshwater mussels are biological indicators: their presence means water is clean; their decline is a warning that water quality is deteriorating. Of Alabama’s 180+ native mussel species, 58 are currently threatened or endangered, a decline tied to degraded water quality across thousands of miles of Alabama rivers.¹⁵ Reforestation of upland and riparian areas is among the most direct tools available for restoring the water quality these species, and communities, require.

Hunting, fishing, and wildlife recreation generate $15 billion annually for Alabama’s economy and support 135,000 jobs, according to the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.¹⁶ In the Black Belt alone, hunting and fishing generates $1.7 billion in annual economic impact, built on the forests, wetlands, and healthy waterways that define the region.¹⁷ This economy depends on the same forest cover and clean water that reforestation maintains, connecting biodiversity, water quality, and rural economic opportunity in a single investment.

There are up to 7 million acres of opportunity in Alabama to restore forest cover for climate mitigation. Reforesting these areas could capture 17 million tonnes of CO₂ per year, equivalent to removing 3.7 million cars from the road every year. 98.6% of this opportunity is on privately owned land, making voluntary landowner programs the essential pathway to realizing it at scale.¹⁸