Texas Land Conservation Assistance Network

Carbon sequestration is the process by which atmospheric carbon dioxide is taken up by trees, grasses, and other plants through photosynthesis and stored as carbon in biomass (trunks, branches, foliage, and roots) and soils. The sink of carbon sequestration in forests and wood products helps to offset sources of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, such as deforestation, forest fires, and fossil fuel emissions.

Sustainable forestry practices can increase the ability of forests to sequester atmospheric carbon while enhancing other ecosystem services, such as improved soil and water quality. Planting new trees and improving forest health through thinning and prescribed burning are some of the ways to increase forest carbon in the long run. Harvesting and regenerating forests can also result in net carbon sequestration in wood products and new forest growth.

According to statistics published by the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) starting in 1960, more than 60,000 wildfires occur in the United States each year. More than 3.0 million acres have burned every year since 1999, and the acreage burned each year is increasing. Wildland acreage nationwide has been relatively constant since 1910: it decreases whenever population growth expands urban development and increases whenever former farmland reverts to wildland.3 While the annual number of wildfires has not been increasing in recent years, the acres burned per fire have been trending strongly upward since about 1990.

Annual NIFC data show that the United States experienced 5.6 million wildfires between 1960 and 2013.4 Over these 54 years, the burned area totaled 235.8 million acres, or 362,849 square miles. The cumulative acreage burned between 1960 and 2013 is 9.6 percent of the total land area of the nation (3.8 million square miles).

Check out the NIFC fire information page to see fire status reports for each state where fires have been reported.

Forestry Best Management Practices (BMPs) are the principal means of controlling NPS pollution during forestry activities. These voluntary conservation practices help protect your soil and water resources, two key elements necessary for growing a healthy, sustainable, and productive forest. BMPs can include such measures as leaving a buffer zone of trees next to a stream, installing a culvert to cross a stream, or establishing grass on forest roads to prevent erosion.

Those who carry out forestry practices should use these nonregulatory BMPs in order to protect and maintain the surface water quality of Texas streams and rivers.  Most streams that originate or flow through more than 60 million acres of forestland are sources of water supply, prime recreation, and other high quality uses. Because of this, forest management programs should incorporate adequate measures to protect water quality. The only practicable approach for maintaining low levels of nonpoint source pollution from forestry activities is through the use of preventive Best Management Practices (BMPs).

Forestry Best Management Practices (BMPs) are the principal means of protecting water resources during forestry activities. Forestry BMPs are conservation practices that protect soil and water resources, two key elements necessary for growing a healthy, sustainable, and productive forest. BMPs can include methods such as leaving a buffer zone of trees next to a stream, installing a culvert to cross a waterway, or establishing grass on forest roads to prevent erosion. Learn More »

What Can BMPs Do to Help Protect My Property?

• Use a professional forester to help plan and conduct your forest management activities, and be sure to choose a logger that has been trained in BMPs when harvesting your timber
• Become familiar with BMPs and include them in your timber sale contracts
• Leave a strip of trees 50 feet wide along both sides of streams when harvesting your timber to prevent sediment from entering the water.
• Prevent erosion from your forest roads by installing appropriate water control structures that allow water to drain quickly away from streams. Stabilize and retire roads that you no longer use.
• Avoid building roads across streams whenever possible. When necessary, cross streams at straight, narrow sections and at right angles. Remove temporary crossings and any logging debris from stream channels, and be sure to stabilize stream banks following operations.
• Make sure the ground is stable enough for heavy equipment so rutting does not occur.
• Conduct operations on the contour of the land.
• Read and follow manufacturers’ labels before applying silvicultural chemicals such as fertilizers and pesticides.
• Properly dispose of all oil and trash associated with the operation.

The Texas A&M Forest Service provides Forest Management Information Sheets on the following topics:

• Managing Forestland
• Timber Management and Harvesting
• Reforestation
• Managing For Wildlife and Other Forest Resources
• Forest Health Issues
• Fire Information
• Central, South and West Texas Regional Information
• Economic Impact of TFS Forestry Programs

Texas has 63 million acres of forestland, all of which provide a myriad of economic, environmental and social benefits. From aiding in soil erosion prevention to producing goods we use on a daily basis, forests improve the quality of life for all Texans. In 2015, the forest sector had a total economic impact of $32.5 billion and supported more than 144,500 jobs.  With roughly 94 percent of forestland in Texas privately owned, the trees, forests—and the benefits they provide - rests in the hands of thousands of Texans. The majority of these timberlands are located in East Texas near the neighboring states of Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana and are often referred to collectively as the "Pineywoods." 

Intact forestlands supply timber products, wildlife habitat, soil and watershed protection, aesthetically beautiful scenery and recreational opportunities. As these areas become fragmented and disappear, so do the myriad benefits they provide. Local governments can guide development away from the most sensitive areas through traditional land use tools such as zoning and performance standards, but sometimes these measures are not sufficient to fully protect the forested component of our state’s valuable natural resource base. 

Texas is under threat of losing much of its working forests to non-forest uses. As population increases and development moves into rural areas where working forests now exist, the likelihood of keeping those forests working, both economically and ecologically, is reduced.