The rates at which lands in the United States were cleared for agriculture,
abandoned, harvested for wood, and burned were reconstructed from historic
al data for the period 1700-1990 and used in a terrestrial carbon model to
calculate annual changes in the amount of carbon stored in terrestrial ecos
ystems, including wood products. Changes in land use released 27 +/- 6 peta
grams of carbon to the atmosphere before 1945 and accumulated 2 +/- 2 petag
rams of carbon after 1945, Largely as a result of fire suppression and fore
st growth on abandoned farmlands. During the 1980s, the net flux of carbon
attributable to land management offset 10 to 30 percent of U.S. fossil fuel
emissions.