Opportunities for Nature-Based Climate Solutions Federally Managed Lands and Waters and Monitoring for Effects of the Policies

Nature-based climate solutions (NBS) require monitoring of carbon sequestration and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions at scales relevant to management actions. Over 2M km2 of CONUS lands are managed by federal agencies. Of those, roughly 1.2M km2 or 60% is managed by the Department of the Interior (DOI). DOI lands comprisediverse land goals for cover types (forests, grasslands, wetlands, surface waters) and management objectives (resources, equity, wilderness). A recent GHG inventory indicates CONUS federal lands store 22.5 Pg C (63% in soils, 26% in live vegetation, 11% in dead vegetation) with a decadal increase of 1.6% due to climate, land use and landcover changes. Under new national climate policies such as the bipartisan infrastructure law, federal land management agencies are authorized to invest in large-scale ecosystem restorations using NBS, prioritizing management actions such as increasing areas of conservation, improving infrastructure resilience, and restoring wetland hydrology and vegetation community. Therefore, tracking effects of the policies on climate mitigation and other co-benefits becomes a priority. In this presentation, we will the size of opportunities under the policies for NBS for carbon sequestration and GHG emission reduction on lands managed by DOI, and outline a prototype monitoring system for tracking the effects of the management actions at the landscape scale.