WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Angus King (I-Maine), a member of the Senate Working Forests Caucus, has introduced legislation to protect and restore Maine’s forests, aiming to bolster both the economic success and environmental health of the state. The bipartisan bill, America’s Revegetation and Carbon Sequestration (ARCs) Act of 2023, would work to restore ecosystems, boost carbon sequestration through tree planting, improve fire risk reduction and expand forest products and wood innovation. The forestry and forest products sector is one of Maine's strongest industries, producing 2.5 times the concentration that would be expected for the state’s size.

“The health of America’s forests has long been essential to the long-term economic and environmental health of our nation,” said Senator King. “As one of the most forested states in the country, Maine understands that working forests support jobs and communities, help to prevent forest fires, and mitigate the effect of climate change. In the face of shifting market demands and increasing risks of forest fires, we need to encourage innovative solutions that support the long-term health of our forests and our timber industry. This legislation is the approach we need at the moment – a commonsense, bipartisan bill that protects our forests today and lays the foundation plants the seeds of future success by incentivizing forward-thinking technologies like cross-laminated timber.”

“While we were fortunate to have avoided impacts from widespread wildfires, as other states have seen in recent years, the Maine Forest Products Council appreciates Senator King’s efforts to protect this important resource for this and future generations,” said Patrick Strauch, Executive Director of the Maine Forest Products Council. “Maine’s forests are working, providing more than $8 billion in economic benefits to our state annually. America’s Revegetation and Carbon Sequestration Act would help protect our valuable forest resources while expanding the use of innovative forest products.”

The America’s Revegetation and Carbon Sequestration (ARCs) Act of 2023 would:

• Sequester Carbon and Improve Ecosystems Through Revegetation: By creating a locally-driven, national revegetation effort. ARCs establishes regional revegetation task forces, each comprised of federal agencies and on-the-ground, non-federal partners. Regional task forces will each develop a 10year comprehensive revegetation strategy and implementation plan, and carry out the plan with special attention paid to ensuring adequate nursery and seed capacity.
• Mitigate Carbon Emissions Through Wildfire Prevention: By incentivizing more mechanical thinning and timber harvesting projects on National Forests at very high risk to wildfires. ARCs establishes a non-federal funding stream for these projects through an innovative, first-of-its-kind approach that allows money exchanged for voluntary carbon credits to be used by the Forest Service and its state and local partners.
• Store Carbon Through Expanded Use of Wood Products: By increasing mass timber (e.g., crosslaminated timber) demand, research, and education; by ensuring salvage logging projects can be completed in a timely manner, where appropriate, after disturbance events; and by expanding the use of biochar, a specialty charcoal with immense carbon sequestration potential.
• Eradicate Invasive Grasses That Make Rangelands More Flammable: By establishing action plans to identify and eliminate harmful invasive grasses, such as cheatgrass and ventenata, that make landscapes more prone to wildfires.

As a member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Senator King has been a national leader in efforts to support Maine’s forest products industry with efforts to address climate change, support the health of ecosystems and bolster sustainable wood production. Most recently, Senator King introduced the bipartisan Timber Innovation Act to improve forest health and improve Maine’s rural economy. This summer, during a Senate Energy and Natural Resource hearing, Senator King pushed for proactive forest management and highlighted the growing risk of severe wildfires and pressed the Director of the U.S. Department of Interior’s Office of Wildfire Land on solutions to reduce these risks.

Earlier this year, Senator King also introduced bipartisan legislation that would establish a “Future of Forests” panel tasked with making recommendations to secure the health of America’s forests. He also was key in establishing the Forest Opportunity Roadmap Maine (FOR/ME) Initiative, a participant-led initiative that is helping to diversify the state’s wood products businesses, attract investments, support research and development, and develop greater economic prosperity for rural communities impacted by mill closures.

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