Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack is going the extra-mile to make sure the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Forest Service does all it can to restore forests, improve resilience and address the ongoing climate crisis.
Vilsack recently made his announcement at the inaugural 1t.orgUSChapter Summit, where the issue of how the coalition can best go about backing federal efforts to conserve, restore and grow forests across the country was also discussed, according to a June 23 news release.
“Globally, forests represent some of the most biodiverse parts of our planet,” Vilsack said in the release. “Yet drought and intensifying and catastrophic wildfires are threatening our forests to such a degree that many are not able to regenerate on their own.”
As part of the plan, Vilsack outlined how he is now directing Forest Service Chief Randy Moore and Under Secretary for Natural Resources and Environment Dr. Homer Wilkes to take needed steps to build carbon stewardship and climate resilience in our national forests, the release reported.
The plan comes after President Joe Biden recently put forth his executive order on strengthening the nation’s forests, communities and Local economies which entrusts the USDA to take actions to pursue science-based, sustainable forest and land management, according to the release.
"America’s forests already capture more than 10% of our nation’s carbon emissions each year and they have the potential to do more,” Vilsack said in the release. “We must safeguard and restore our forests to ensure they store carbon, rather than release it through catastrophic wildfire.”
Earlier this week, USDA and partner agencies also announced wildland fires would receive a substantive raise in a push to bring their pay in line with their state and local government counterparts, while also building a more stable, permanent wildland firefighting workforce to better protect forests from catastrophic wildfire, the release reported.
