Annual Carbon Stored by Forests

In the 1800s and early 1900s, deforestation was a source of CO₂ emissions in the United States as it is in many developing nations today. However, by the 1950s, U.S. forests had become a sink, absorbing more CO₂ through forest regrowth than was being lost through harvesting. The average annual amounts of carbon absorbed by U.S. forests since 1950 are shown in Table 8. As depicted, although U.S. forests continue to store carbon, the rate of storage is decreasing.7

Table 8

Sources: 1990 and 1998 data are from USEPA, 2000b. Estimates for the 1950 - 1990 period are from Birdsey and Heath, 1995.