Climate and Carbon

Vermont’s forests are powerful climate solutions. They absorb and store carbon, protect clean water, provide habitat for wildlife and support sustainable wood products.

At the same time, a changing climate is bringing new challenges—rising temperatures, stronger storms, shifting species distributions and increasing threats from invasive pests and diseases.

Through thoughtful stewardship and climate-smart forestry, landowners and forestry professionals can help forests adapt, store more carbon and continue providing the many benefits we rely on.

This page offers resources, tools and guidance to help you understand the connection between forests, climate change and carbon sequestration and storage—and take action to ensure the long-term health of your woodlands.

The Changing Face of Vermont’s Forests

Climate change is already reshaping Vermont’s forests, affecting their composition, resilience, and long-term viability. Some of the key impacts include:

• Shifting Species Distributions – Some tree species may struggle in warming conditions, while others may expand their range.

• More Extreme Weather Events – Heavy storms, flooding and droughts can damage trees and disrupt forest growth.

• Invasive Pests & Diseases – Warmer temperatures are accelerating the spread of threats like emerald ash borer, hemlock woolly adelgid, and beech leaf disease.

Using proactive management strategies, landowners and foresters can help Vermont forests remain healthy, productive and resilient for future generations.

Forests and Carbon: A Natural Climate Solution

Vermont’s forests sequester and store vast amounts of carbon, helping to offset greenhouse gas emissions. Trees remove carbon from the atmosphere and store it in their trunks, roots and soils—playing a critical role in climate mitigation.
 Vermont’s forests are powerful allies in the fight against climate change. They both sequester carbon—by removing CO₂ from the atmosphere through photosynthesis—and store it long-term in living trees, deadwood, forest soils, and harvested wood products. Together, these processes help offset greenhouse gas emissions and build climate resilience across the landscape. 

But forests don’t manage themselves. Active, thoughtful forest stewardship plays a key role in maintaining and enhancing this carbon benefit over time. By supporting forest health, diversity, and productivity, good stewardship ensures forests continue to function as reliable carbon sinks even in a changing climate. 

Key Strategies to Enhance Forest Carbon Sequestration and Storage: 

• Encourage climate-resilience. 
• Maintain continuous forest cover  
• Use sustainable harvesting practices that promote regeneration, support long-term forest productivity, and promote regionally sourced wood products.. 
• Foster structural and species diversity across the landscape by managing for a mosaic of young and mature trees to maximize carbon, ecological, economic and social benefits.

Building Climate Resilience with Climate-Smart Forestry

Adapting to a changing climate requires thoughtful, science-based forestry.

Through workshops, tools and partnerships, Vermont Woodlands Association supports strategies that:

• Encourage climate-resilient tree species to support long-term forest health.
• Enhance soil and water retention to prepare for intense storms and droughts.
• Monitor and manage invasive species and pests to reduce ecosystem stress.
• Use sustainable harvesting techniques to balance conservation and working forests.
• Increase forest carbon storage through smart land management.

Healthy, well-managed forests are a cornerstone of climate solutions. They do more than off set greenhouse gases—they clean our air and water, provide habitat for wildlife, support rural economies, and help our landscapes adapt to a changing climate.