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EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler Op-ed: One Trillion Trees Initiative will build on President Donald Trump’s commitment

Contact Information: EPA Press Office (press@epa.gov)

USA Today

By EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler

February 12, 2020

At the Environmental Protection Agency, we are fulfilling our mission of protecting human health and the environment, and we are doing it by making commonsense regulatory decisions that support our economy and help create jobs.

As the president stated in his State of the Union address, the United States will join the One Trillion Trees Initiative, an ambitious effort to bring together government and the private sector to plant new trees in America and around the world.

Planting and restoring trees, along with sustainable forestation practices, are some of the most beneficial means to protecting our environment, sustaining land and resources, reducing carbon in our atmosphere, and ensuring a natural environment for various species and wildlife. In joining the initiative, the United States will continue to show strong leadership in restoring, growing and managing our forests.

Healthy forests capture carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. In fact, trees are among the most efficient carbon offsets. In 2017 alone, American forests and lands absorbed enough carbon dioxide to offset more than 11% of our nation’s emissions that year.

But this is not all we are doing. Americans should be optimistic with the environmental progress we are making and with the vision President Trump has for our future.

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