G
George Wuerthner
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One of the many unaccounted “costs” of logging is the loss of carbon from forest soils. Soils hold more than three times the carbon the atmosphere does. Forest soils store an estimated 40% of the world’s terrestrial carbon, but estimates suggest that around 15%–30% of that soil carbon is lost when a forest is logged.
Forest soils store more carbon than the atmosphere. Drift Creek Wilderness, Oregon. Photo by George Wuerthner
Across the West, the federal and some state agencies are logging our forests, suggesting that “fuel reductions” will preclude large blazes and create “healthy” forests.
Removal of logs by timber cutting reduces forest carbon, but the greatest loss may be the release of soil carbon from the forest ecosystem. Clearcut in winter, Whitefish Range, Flathead National Forest, Montana. Photo By George Wuerthner
But like so much propaganda from the timber industry and its lackeys (including far too many so-called conservation groups like The Nature Conservancy), they ignore how logging harms forest ecosystems.
The wood products industry is a major source of carbon emissions in some states. For instance, in Oregon, logging emits more carbon than all the transportation sources in the state.
According to researcher Beverly Law: “The wood products sector generated about one and a half times more emissions than the transportation or energy sector emissions.”
While forest fires also emit carbon, they were less than a quarter of all forest sector emissions studied between 2001 and 2015.
Thinning forests disturb soil carbon, leading to a loss that takes decades to restore. Photo by George Wuerthner
The irony is that logging advocates argue that cutting trees will reduce carbon emissions from wildfires, but they ignore the much greater carbon losses from logging itself. Carbon is lost when wood is removed from the site.
Much of the United States has suffered major drought, created by climate warming, due to human-caused carbon emissions.
Although some atmospheric carbon is recaptured when logged forests regrow, that carbon capture takes decades to hundreds of years to offset the losses from tree cutting.
And we need to reduce all sources of carbon emissions today. Disturbance and compaction of forest soils associated with logging can sustain long-term carbon losses.
Clearcuts Oregon Coast Range. Photo by George Wuerthner
One study in British Columbia found dramatic carbon loss when trees and the forest floor were removed. Total soil carbon dropped 52% within 5 years and remained below pre-logging levels for the study’s 20 years. The researchers estimated it could take up to 86 years for soil carbon to return to pre-logging levels.
A second study recently completed in Nova Scotia, Canada, found that logging dissolved the chemical bonds that keep deep soil carbon out of the atmosphere.
Clearcuts in northern Maine. Photo by George Wuerthner
The study design examined carbon in forest soils at one year, fifteen years, forty-five years, and eighty years, and in a reference stand of old-growth forest more than 125 years old, where individual trees exceed two centuries in age. They also examined soil carbon at different depths, in part because deeper soil carbon tends to be more stable.
Sedimentation from logging road, Helena National Forest, Montana. Photo by George Wuerthner
However, the study’s main finding is that logging reduced deep soil carbon. Carbon in the organo-metal fraction was significantly lower at the fifteen-, forty-five-, and eighty-year sites than at the old-growth reference. Total storage in this dominant pool fell from 96 megagrams of carbon per hectare at the 125-plus-year site to just 35 megagrams at the fifteen-year site, a loss of more than sixty percent that had not fully recovered even eight decades after harvest.
Logging near Destroit Lake, Oregon. Photo by George Wuerthner
Logging clearly degrades forest ecosystem health, though most timber-harvest advocates ignore these costs.
Economic and environmental analyses usually ignore soil carbon loss. The best way to preserve forest carbon is to reduce logging and promote proforestation. According to Susan Masino, in many areas, proforestation is a faster, more powerful, and more practical option for sequestering carbon than afforestation (planting trees) or reforestation (replacing logged forests). Old growth forests continue to accumulate carbon for well over 150 years.
Old growth forests store carbon for hundreds of years. Eliminating logging on public lands could contribute to a reduction in carbon emissions and climate warming. Photo by George Wuerthner
About 90% of the wood used in the United States for home construction comes from private timberlands. Thus, by shifting how we log (longer rotations) and how we build (less wood and more alternatives), we could eliminate logging on public lands. Only 2% of wood products are produced off of public lands. Proposed legislation like the Fix Our Forests Act, rescinding the Roadless Rule, and other recent proposals will only enhance carbon emissions, leading to greater climate warming, one of the primary factors that is contributing to wildfires.
Forest soils store more carbon than the atmosphere. Drift Creek Wilderness, Oregon. Photo by George Wuerthner
Across the West, the federal and some state agencies are logging our forests, suggesting that “fuel reductions” will preclude large blazes and create “healthy” forests.
Removal of logs by timber cutting reduces forest carbon, but the greatest loss may be the release of soil carbon from the forest ecosystem. Clearcut in winter, Whitefish Range, Flathead National Forest, Montana. Photo By George Wuerthner
But like so much propaganda from the timber industry and its lackeys (including far too many so-called conservation groups like The Nature Conservancy), they ignore how logging harms forest ecosystems.
The wood products industry is a major source of carbon emissions in some states. For instance, in Oregon, logging emits more carbon than all the transportation sources in the state.
According to researcher Beverly Law: “The wood products sector generated about one and a half times more emissions than the transportation or energy sector emissions.”
While forest fires also emit carbon, they were less than a quarter of all forest sector emissions studied between 2001 and 2015.
Thinning forests disturb soil carbon, leading to a loss that takes decades to restore. Photo by George Wuerthner
The irony is that logging advocates argue that cutting trees will reduce carbon emissions from wildfires, but they ignore the much greater carbon losses from logging itself. Carbon is lost when wood is removed from the site.
Much of the United States has suffered major drought, created by climate warming, due to human-caused carbon emissions.
Although some atmospheric carbon is recaptured when logged forests regrow, that carbon capture takes decades to hundreds of years to offset the losses from tree cutting.
And we need to reduce all sources of carbon emissions today. Disturbance and compaction of forest soils associated with logging can sustain long-term carbon losses.
Clearcuts Oregon Coast Range. Photo by George Wuerthner
One study in British Columbia found dramatic carbon loss when trees and the forest floor were removed. Total soil carbon dropped 52% within 5 years and remained below pre-logging levels for the study’s 20 years. The researchers estimated it could take up to 86 years for soil carbon to return to pre-logging levels.
A second study recently completed in Nova Scotia, Canada, found that logging dissolved the chemical bonds that keep deep soil carbon out of the atmosphere.
Clearcuts in northern Maine. Photo by George Wuerthner
The study design examined carbon in forest soils at one year, fifteen years, forty-five years, and eighty years, and in a reference stand of old-growth forest more than 125 years old, where individual trees exceed two centuries in age. They also examined soil carbon at different depths, in part because deeper soil carbon tends to be more stable.
Sedimentation from logging road, Helena National Forest, Montana. Photo by George Wuerthner
However, the study’s main finding is that logging reduced deep soil carbon. Carbon in the organo-metal fraction was significantly lower at the fifteen-, forty-five-, and eighty-year sites than at the old-growth reference. Total storage in this dominant pool fell from 96 megagrams of carbon per hectare at the 125-plus-year site to just 35 megagrams at the fifteen-year site, a loss of more than sixty percent that had not fully recovered even eight decades after harvest.
Logging near Destroit Lake, Oregon. Photo by George Wuerthner
Logging clearly degrades forest ecosystem health, though most timber-harvest advocates ignore these costs.
Economic and environmental analyses usually ignore soil carbon loss. The best way to preserve forest carbon is to reduce logging and promote proforestation. According to Susan Masino, in many areas, proforestation is a faster, more powerful, and more practical option for sequestering carbon than afforestation (planting trees) or reforestation (replacing logged forests). Old growth forests continue to accumulate carbon for well over 150 years.
Old growth forests store carbon for hundreds of years. Eliminating logging on public lands could contribute to a reduction in carbon emissions and climate warming. Photo by George Wuerthner
About 90% of the wood used in the United States for home construction comes from private timberlands. Thus, by shifting how we log (longer rotations) and how we build (less wood and more alternatives), we could eliminate logging on public lands. Only 2% of wood products are produced off of public lands. Proposed legislation like the Fix Our Forests Act, rescinding the Roadless Rule, and other recent proposals will only enhance carbon emissions, leading to greater climate warming, one of the primary factors that is contributing to wildfires.