America’s Revegetation and Carbon Sequestration Act of 2023

Short title— This Act may be cited as the “America’s Revegetation and Carbon Sequestration Act of 2023”.

Title of contents— The table of contents for this Act is as follows:

revegetation efforts can meet multiple goals, including guarding against climate change, improving conservation and habitats, securing public water supplies, and providing for economic and cultural benefits;

a range of practical constraints, including cost, available infrastructure, and whether land has been converted to other uses that are unlikely to be abandoned, significantly limit the areas that are viable for revegetation projects, and hence revegetation projects must be targeted;

reforestation projects should occur in areas that were historically forested but have become degraded or impacted from wildfire events, windstorms, or other events, rather than other natural habitats, such as grasslands;

forests and rangelands are important for storing carbon;

established forests and native rangelands, including actively managed forests and rangelands, are preferable to new forests and rangelands that are a result of revegetation efforts, because intact forests and vegetation communities are more effective at sequestration and are more resilient to fire, storm, and drought;

natural regrowth of forests and rangelands is cheaper and more efficient than revegetation projects, as long as nonnative invasive species are not adversely impacting the landscape;

native plant development and restoration generates sustainable private sector jobs in a wide variety of sectors;

selecting the appropriate species of trees and of other vegetation and promoting biodiversity using a mixture of species naturally found in the local area, rare species, and species of economic importance are crucial to the success of revegetation efforts;

species selected for revegetation efforts and the specified planting density and structure should be suitable for the local climate, taking into account future climate resilience and other considerations;

scientific knowledge should be combined with local knowledge, and site conditions should be taken into account, in developing revegetation projects, and ideally small-scale planting trials should take place before planting large numbers of trees;

partnerships with local communities are key to the success of tree and vegetation planting projects because local people often have the most to gain from those projects;

a successful planting project must include a plan on how to source seeds or seedlings that match desired species and genetics, and that plan should involve working with local stakeholders;

the sustainability of revegetation projects is dependent on the economic impacts for all stakeholders; and

invasive grasses are a catalyst for wildfires in forests and rangelands.

Carbon sequestration— The term carbon sequestration means the capture and long-term storage of atmospheric carbon dioxide.

National Forest System— The term National Forest System has the meaning given the term in section 11(a) of the Forest and Rangeland Renewable Resources Planning Act of 1974 (16 U.S.C. 1609(a)).

Secretaries— The term Secretaries means the Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of Agriculture, acting through the Chief of the Forest Service.

Secretary— Except in sections 103, 105(b), 201, 202, and 302, the term Secretary means the Secretary of the Interior.

Secretary concerned— The term Secretary concerned means the Secretary of the Interior or the Secretary of Agriculture, acting through the Chief of the Forest Service.