Working forests are the most powerful clean-air technology on earth.

By providing a continuing cycle of planting, growing and harvesting, active forest management optimizes a forest’s ability to sequester and store carbon and improves resiliency, maintaining the ability to sequester carbon in the future. At the landscape scale, managed forests are carbon sinks, reducing the net amount of CO2 in the atmosphere as they grow.

Alabama’s Forests:

• 23.1 million acres of forests cover 71% of the state. 

• Alabama’s forest carbon stock increased by 29% from 1990 to 2019.

• Carbon density in aboveground trees across Alabama averages 24.2 tons per acre.

• Forests, urban trees and harvested wood products in Alabama:

  • Remove 41% of all CO2 emissions in the state (compared to 14% nationwide).

  • Store the equivalent of 47 years of all CO2 emissions produced in the state.

What About Wood?

As trees grow, they absorb carbon dioxide from the air and convert it into wood, releasing oxygen through the process of photosynthesis. Most of this stored carbon is found in the tree’s stem. When trees are harvested and used to create wood products such as lumber and plywood, the carbon they captured remains stored for the life of those products—whether in homes, offices, or furniture. After harvest, forests are replanted with trees that begin the cycle all over again.

Healthy Markets = Resilient and Growing Forests = More Carbon Captured