Coalition Statement on House Agriculture Reconciliation Package
September 21, 2021
SAF joined forty five members of the
Forest-Climate Working Group in a statement in response to the US House Agriculture Committee’s recent passage of a budget reconciliation package containing $40 billion dollars in forest-related investments.
“The House Agriculture Committee’s budget reconciliation package stands as the most significant legislative action yet to leverage forests and forest products as a powerful nature-based solution to help combat climate change. The bill’s $40 billion dollars in forest-focused investments will dramatically bolster our sector’s ability to increase resilient carbon storage in America’s forests and forest products and better protect human and natural communities from climate impacts. We commend the committee for standing with the forest community in taking this bold action.
The bill provides support for several FCWG priorities, including:
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Leveraging forestry best practices to promote wildfire resilience and recovery.
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Incentivizing private landowner actions to increase carbon sequestration.
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Providing grants to foster innovation within the wood products industry.
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Investing in applied forest-climate science, as well as foundational research and technological innovation to enhance
the U.S. Forest Service Forest Inventory and Analysis Program.
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Funding urban forestry initiatives to provide equitable tree cover across our rapidly heating cities.
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Catalyzing workforce development by building a new Civilian Climate Corps
Since 2007, the Forest-Climate Working Group has brought together every part of our sector to provide unified support for federal policies that can increase the power of America’s forests and forest products as a natural climate solution. The investments made in the House Agriculture Committee’s package represent
priorities that the Forest-Climate Working Group has long supported, and – combined with additional forest investments from the bipartisan infrastructure bill – will help put America on track to delivering impactful, sustainable forest-based climate solutions.”