This summary of external research relevant to Northeast Wilderness Trust’s (NEWT) conservation work was prepared by the organization’s Wildlands Ecology team. NEWT played no role in the funding, design, or execution of the research summarized here.

Study Title: “Adaptation and mitigation capacity of wildland forests in the northeastern United States”

Authors: Edward K. Faison, Danelle Laflower, Luca L. Morreale, David R. Foster, Brian Hall, Emily Johnson, and Jonathan R. Thompson

Publication: Forest Ecology and Management

Year Originally Published: 2023

Summary of Findings: This study compares wildlands to nearby forests that are comparable in size, climate, and geographic setting, but open to active management. The authors found that forests within wildlands store significantly more carbon than actively managed forests.

Using long-term Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) data collected by the U.S. Forest Service from hundreds of permanent plots across the northeastern United States, the authors paired wildlands with comparable managed forests based on climate, underlying geology, and topography. This paired design allowed them to isolate protection status as the primary factor influencing forest structure and carbon storage.

The study reinforces the importance of Wildlands as a natural solution to climate change, featuring these key takeaways:

1. Wildlands store more carbon. On average, forests within Wildlands stored 20 percent more above-ground carbon than comparable forests open to logging.
2. Wild forests grow just as fast as managed forests. Challenging the longstanding belief that logging is necessary to maximize carbon uptake, the study found that forests within Wildlands grew just as quickly as managed forests. Across the region, growth rates were similar between the two groups. In both groups, forests that had been untreated for some time grew faster than recently harvested forests.
3. Wildlands have greater structural complexity. Forests with greater complexity support a wider range of plant and animal species and are more resilient to disturbances. Throughout the study area, permanently protected forests were found to have:

• More large/old trees
• More standing dead trees (snags)
• Taller trees on average
• A wider variety of sizes and age classes

4. These features developed after protection. When authors compared forest conditions at the time of wildland designation to conditions of unmanaged paired forests, they found no major differences. This indicates that the above benefits developed specifically because of the lack of management, not because of inherent factors in the landscape.

Outstanding Questions/Caveats:

• The study only focuses on above-ground carbon and does not include soil carbon. Soil structure and biota in unmanaged systems are thought to have enormous potential for carbon storage.
• Forest Inventory and Analysis plots do not capture some key measures of forest complexity, such as coarse woody debris.
• Limited to northeastern temperate forest systems.

Application to Northeast Wilderness Trust’s Work: This study focuses specifically on forests within NEWT’s service area of the northeastern United States. It provides clear empirical support for NEWT’s core mission of permanent Wildlands protection, highlighting that all lands are working lands, even when passively managed.

• Wildlands should be recognized as a natural climate solution
• Both carbon and structural benefits increased over time, adding importance to permanent protection
• Intact, unmanaged forests are functionally different than forests that merely appear intact

Link to the Paper: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2023.121145