Watershed Conservation and Restoration

In many cities around the world, water quantity and quality are are reliant on forests. In the United States alone, over 180 million people rely on forested land for their water, including the residents of Los Angeles, New York, Boston, Portland, and Atlanta. Many of the world’s watershed forests are under threat due to deforestation, land use change, and pollution. These threats affect how much water an ecosystem can supply, its ability to purify water, its ability to prevent floods in nearby areas, and much more.

Much of Cities4Forests’ work at the “nearby” scale focuses on conserving and restoring watershed forests. We help cities develop policies, acquire forested land with watersheds, and promote better land stewardship to protect existing forests. For degraded watersheds, we work with cities to create restoration projects and use innovative financing mechanisms to fund them.

See relevant projects and resources below.