The Potential Role for Management of Public Lands in Greenhouse Gas Mitigation and Climate Policy

Public lands, including federal and state lands, offer significant opportunities for increasing greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation from the management and restoration of forests, rangelands, and wetlands. This paper provides a rough estimate of the potential mitigation opportunities from public lands, including near-term sequestration generated from an elimination of timber harvests in public forests and improving management of some rangelands. It also presents policy options that decision makers and land managers can pursue to increase mitigation on public lands. This is a revised version of a paper that was published in July 2010.