© Nick Hall for TNC
In an era where political discourse is driven more by conflict than collaboration, there are few ideas that bring Americans together like Natural Climate Solutions (NCS). These solutions are actions that reduce emissions and increase carbon storage in forests, farms, grasslands, and wetlands, including efforts to employ techniques that retain carbon in soil, conserving and …
Eamon Mac Mahon
Done right, carbon credit projects have the potential to both reduce emissions and empower communities. But done wrong, they can make the situation worse for populations already vulnerable to climate change, as well as actually exacerbate the climate crisis. The stakes for getting carbon credit projects right are only going to keep rising.
Maddie McGarvey
By supporting the fight against the emerald ash borer and other damaging pests, American Forests and its partners are bringing solutions to the ground level and finding ways for reforestation efforts to have the greatest possible longevity.
Coastal wetlands support a huge range of life on Earth and provide the major benefit of capturing and storing carbon—so-called “blue carbon.” Conserving and restoring these ecosystems can contribute to broader efforts that combat climate change.
Larry Ditto/American Forests
Seedlings are desperately needed to restore the 85,000 acres of thornforest in the Texas’ Rio Grande Valley that have been identified as a high priority for reforestation. It would take 85 million seedlings to reforest that many acres, a number that would take 166 years to grow at the current rate of production among nurseries. Seed hunters like Gisele Garza are helping to meet this challenge head on.
© Stuart Chape/TNC Photo Contest 2021
America’s landscapes are unlike anything in the world. But the twin crises of climate change and global biodiversity loss present an existential threat to these places and our future. The America the Beautiful initiative is an ambitious but achievable goal to respond to this threat by conserving, connecting and restoring 30% of our lands and waters by 2030.
Alita Films
Perennial grain crops hold unique and robust potential to help mitigate climate change by capturing significant amounts of carbon dioxide from the air and putting it back into the soil.
Blue carbon ecosystems are exceptional at storing carbon because they are more effective at burying plants that have settled in the soil. When these plants get buried they do not decompose, which keeps the carbon that is stored in them from being released back into the atmosphere. Learn how WILDCOAST, an international conservation team, is helping to conserve and restore blue carbon ecosystems.
Alita Films
Agroforestry is, in a nutshell, farming with trees. A renewed interest in agroforestry comes from the opportunity it presents to turn farmers into climate heroes, sequestering carbon on working farmland while keeping it productive and profitable.
Jessica Sherry
Climate change is here. As the Minnesota’s climate becomes warmer—and drier during the growing season—these cold-hardy trees are beginning to struggle. The Forest Assisted Migration Project is the kind of big solution needed to adapt to climate change in Minnesota.