Clean water is the most valuable resource that comes from our forests.
Forests in the United States, covering roughly 651 million acres, supply abundant clean drinking water for some 180 million people, more than half of all Americans. Healthy forests store water, filter pollutants, and transport clean water to downstream communities, but do it naturally and essentially for free. The U.S. Forest Service values the water that flows off of our National Forests alone at over $7.2 billion annually.
