BPC’s Mackler Applauds White House Trillion Trees EO Establishing Interagency Council to Conserve and Restore America’s Forests

The following is a statement from Sasha Mackler, director of the energy project at the Bipartisan Policy Center, on the Trump administration’s Trillion Trees Executive Order. The order establishes the One Trillion Trees Interagency Council to develop, coordinate, and promote federal interactions with the World Economic Forum’s One Trillion Trees Initiative to grow and protect one trillion trees globally by 2030:

“This executive order is a great step in conserving and restoring our nation’s forests. It encourages sustainable forest and rangeland management through partnerships between the federal government and states, local communities, tribes, non-governmental organizations, and the private sector. Enhanced conservation and restoration of forests can have multiple environmental and economic benefits including improved water quality, reduced risk of catastrophic wildfire, conservation of wildlife habitats, and generation of new jobs and opportunities for diversified wood products markets.

“This effort by the Trump administration aligns with BPC’s Farm and Forest Carbon Solutions Initiative. We believe, by engaging a diverse coalition of stakeholders to develop a shared federal policy agenda for natural carbon solutions, focused on agriculture and forestry policies, we can create opportunities to capture carbon from the atmosphere and store it in soils, vegetation, and wood products. These policies—and complementary efforts like the One Trillion Trees Interagency Council— are uniquely positioned to advance both near- and long-term goals for helping Americans get back to work, supporting rural economic development, and enhancing the environmental and climate change-related contributions of U.S. farms, grasslands, and forests.”