Restoring Trees to the Landscape: Creating “Shovel-Ready” Jobs across the United States

The briefing proposes an annual federal investment of $4–4.5 billion in tree restoration to create over 150,000 jobs and remove up to 540 million tons of carbon dioxide per year in the United States. It suggests utilizing the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), and state/local grants to restore up to 60 billion trees over 20 years. The author criticizes the Trillion Trees Act, arguing it lacks sufficient funding and could increase emissions by promoting timber harvests and relaxing environmental reviews.

• An annual federal investment of $4–4.5 billion in tree restoration could create more than 150,000 jobs and generate $6-12 billion in annual economic activity. Over a 20-year period, this funding could restore up to 60 billion trees through methods including reforestation, urban forestry, alley cropping, silvopasture, and restocking forests.
• Tree restoration offers significant environmental and public health benefits, including the potential to remove up to 540 million tons of carbon dioxide annually, which is nearly 10% of the annual net greenhouse gas emissions of the United States. Additionally, existing trees in the U.S. provide $6.8 billion in yearly health benefits by avoiding mortality and respiratory illness.
• The author identifies three primary federal policy levers to increase tree restoration on non-federal lands: adding dedicated funding to the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), expanding the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) to include unproductive grazing lands (requiring an acreage cap increase of up to 12 million acres), and providing grants to state and local governments for urban and suburban forestry.
• The Trillion Trees Act is criticized for potentially causing a net loss of trees and increasing greenhouse gas emissions. Specific concerns include its recommendation to increase timber harvests on public lands, the relaxation of National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) reviews for timber harvests, and the allocation of only $55 million per year in new reforestation funding.

APA

Rudee, A. (2020). Restoring Trees to the Landscape: Creating “Shovel-Ready” Jobs across the United States. World Resources Institute. https://files.wri.org/s3fs-public/expert-note-tree-restoration.pdf

Chicago

Rudee, Alex. Restoring Trees to the Landscape: Creating “Shovel-Ready” Jobs across the United States. World Resources Institute, 2020. https://files.wri.org/s3fs-public/expert-note-tree-restoration.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Rudee |first1=Alex |title=Restoring Trees to the Landscape: Creating “Shovel-Ready” Jobs across the United States |publisher=World Resources Institute |date=April 2020 |url=https://files.wri.org/s3fs-public/expert-note-tree-restoration.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{rudee2020restoring, author = {Rudee, Alex}, title = {{Restoring Trees to the Landscape: Creating “Shovel-Ready” Jobs across the United States}}, institution = {World Resources Institute}, year = {2020}, month = apr, url = {https://files.wri.org/s3fs-public/expert-note-tree-restoration.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }