MANAGING FOR A CHANGING CLIMATE
Forests are one of Minnesota’s most valuable tools for mitigating climate change, removing vast amount of carbon dioxide (CO₂) from the atmosphere and storing it in trees, soil, and wood products. Management decisions can impact the amount of CO₂ our forests can absorb and store.
To better understand how Minnesota’s forests can help address climate change, the Minnesota Forest Resources Council (MFRC) asked the University of Minnesota to assess how much carbon is currently stored in Minnesota’s forests and wood products, and to model how that might change under different forest management scenarios over
the next 100 years.
Forests can reduce the greenhouse effect by capturing and storing carbon.
Forests are one of the best tools we have to reduce atmospheric carbon. Trees absorb
CO from the atmosphere as they grow, storing carbon in trunks, branches, and roots
in a process called carbon sequestration. Forests also store carbon in the soil, in dead
wood, and in fallen leaves. Altogether, these different parts of the forest are called carbon
pools.
Harvested wood products such as lumber, paper and biofuels form another carbon pool,
and continue to store carbon for years or decades. How we manage forests and use wood determines how much carbon is captured, stored or released.
To learn more:
University of Minnesota New Research Informs Carbon-Aware Forest Management Practices