Land use planning: a time-tested approach for addressing climate change

Abstract

Oregon’s land use planning program has protected an estimated 1.2 million acres of forest and agricultural land from development since its inception in 1973. As a result, these resource lands continue to provide forest products and food as well as another unexpected benefit: carbon storage. By keeping forests as forests, land use planning capitalizes on the natural landscape’s ability to sequester atmospheric carbon, a key contributor to climate change. Nationwide, however, forest land is the land type most frequently converted to more developed uses. When this happens, carbon storage opportunities are lost, and the new use, such as a housing development, often becomes a net carbon producer.

Citation

Mazza, Rhonda; Kline, Jeff; Cathcart, Jim. 2009. Land use planning: a time-tested approach for addressing climate change. Science Findings 113. Portland, OR: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station. 5 p.