Clearcutting negatively impacts climate change.
- Clearcutting exacerbates the three most likely effects of climate change on forests: lessened snowpack and early run-off due to warmer soil temperatures, especially where there is no forest canopy cover; an increase in the number and severity of wildfires due to hotter, drier conditions in open areas; and an increase in insect infestations within forests that are stressed from heat and drought.
- Climate change further stresses forests in terms of forest health and fire risk. State of California climate change studies find that diverse, multi-aged forests will fare better under climate change impacts than “even-aged” tree plantations. (“Even-aged” is a euphemism for the tree plantations that replace forests of diverse species, ages and sizes of trees.)
- California studies have recommended a greater use of selection harvest and less dependence on clearcutting as a means to lessen the effects of climate change in the state.
Forests play a vital role in carbon sequestration.
- Widespread clearcutting of California forests is causing large-scale depletion of California’s carbon stores. Large, mature trees store carbon in their trunks, branches and leaves, and their root systems store carbon in the soil. Almost all of stored carbon is lost to the atmosphere when mature trees are cut and soil and roots are disturbed.
- Clearcutting in California forests releases more CO2 emissions than other logging methods such as selection logging. The resulting emissions exceed the potential carbon storage in plantations for many decades.
- Older trees absorb and store more CO2 annually than do younger trees in post-clearcutting plantations. In fact, big trees are even more valuable than was already known. A new study published in Nature finds that big trees continue to grow faster—and take more carbon out of the atmosphere—as they get older and bigger. This contradicts the previously held assumption that younger trees grow faster, often cited by the timber industry to justify cutting down older forests and replacing them with tree plantations. We already knew that big trees and older forests are critical for wildlife habitat, stable soils and clean water; now we know that they are great at fighting global warming, too.
California is developing a Forests and Climate Change plan to help slow down climate change, but already the timber industry is trying to subvert the science and play politics with the survival of our forests. Learn more about this critical plan at http://fire.ca.gov/fcat/. Play close attention to the public comments made by many of the California forest health and protection not-for-profit groups.