1. USDA Forest Service, Raleigh, NC * steve_mcnulty@ncsu.edu
Climate Change Mitigation Impacts on Community Water Supply: Or
A Tale of Unintended Consequences
Steven McNulty
USDA Forest Service, Raleigh, NC *

2. WASSI-CB

3. Model Rationale Land use Climate Anthro change Demand Supply Ground
water
Demand
Supply

8. FS Chief’s Goals for Reducing the Buildup of Greenhouse Gases
A national effort:
To sustain and strengthen the role of America’s forests as a net carbon sink
To increase the amount of America’s energy that comes from forests

9. Potential Additional Role of Forests in Mitigating Greenhouse Gas Emissions
U.S. forests currently sequester 700 million tons of CO2 per year – 12% of emissions from using fossil fuels
There is potential to sequester an additional 1,000 million tons of CO2 per year
Avoid deforestation
Afforestation
Restore (increase) C stocks
This will be covered in greater detail in the second part of the presentation.

10. WASSI-CB

12. Forest Carbon Sequestration Forest Water Use nother
A Inconvenient Truth
nother
Forest Carbon
Sequestration
Forest Water Use

13. Forest Carbon Sequestration 101
Forest take in carbon dioxide (CO2) from the air,
and using sun light, convert it to wood, while releasing
oxygen back to the atmosphere. The process is called
carbon sequestration
Because CO2 is a major greenhouse gas, the more CO2
removed from the atmosphere the less global warming
Unfortunately, it takes water to make carbon. (Which is why
you will not find giant redwoods in the desert!)
4) The more carbon that trees sequester the more water trees
will use
5) Anyone see a problem developing here?

15. Relationships Between Ecosystem Services
(Sun Model)
Water Availability
WaSSI-CB
Carbon
Sequestration
Biodiversity
(Constanza Model)
(Law Model)

17. Take Home Messages
For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction
Newtons Third Law
First do no harm 
Hippocratic Corpus
Always look both ways before you cross the street
My Mom
Carefully consider ALL aspects of policy decisions to avoid unexpected and unwanted consequences at the community level
Steve McNulty