The U.S. Department of Agriculture has announced plans to address a four-million-acre backlog in reforestation of national forests and to plant more than one billion trees over the following ten years, according to a news release.

"Forests are a powerful tool in the fight against climate change," U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said in a statement. "Nurturing their natural regeneration and planting in areas with the most need is critical to mitigating the worst effects of climate change while also making those forests more resilient to the threats they face from catastrophic wildfire, historic drought, disease outbreaks and pest infestation.”

The Repairing Existing Public Land by Adding Necessary Trees (REPLANT) Act, made possible by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, has allowed the Forest Service to invest more than $100 million in reforestation this year—more than three times the amount invested in previous years, the news release said. The Forest Service's goal over the next 10 years is to eliminate the reforestation backlog and to also develop nurseries and other reforestation infrastructure.

"Our reforestation efforts on national forests only increase through strong partnerships with other federal agencies, tribes, state and local governments, communities and organizations," U.S. Forest Service Chief Randy Moore said. "We recognize that successfully increasing reforestation on national forests is dependent on these strong partnerships.”