I am responding to the recent exchange of letters regarding the effects of logging on carbon emissions.
One letter questioned a previous author’s claim that there is no shortage of old-growth forests. This relates to earlier writer’s claims that Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is logging 80-year-old stands of timber. They aren’t. About 50 percent of DNR lands are mature or old-growth reserves. The rest is available for harvest to fund trust beneficiaries (schools, fire, libraries) and for our growing wood product needs. Given the thinning of a very small percentage of small-diameter trees on federal forests, this mature and old-growth set-aside percentage seems adequate, allowing for a more normal forest where all successional stages are present.
The claim that even after replanting, logging releases more carbon than not logging, is at odds with a recent scholarly University of Washington case study: Climate Benefits of Timber Harvests on DNR State Trust Lands Quantified). Logging of 80-year-old DNR timber, 11.71 metric tons per acre more of carbon is stored or offset over the non-logged forest.
This climate benefit grows as much as 72 metric tons per acre when the new planted forest reaches 40 years. How? The full carbon calculation indicates there is no carbon “debt” after harvest when accounting for substitution (cement or steel) and leakage (additional transportation costs to outsource). Carbon sequestration rates effectively stop after stands reach 70-80 years old, whereas younger trees have accelerated rates.
Will Miller
Marysville
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