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Myths & Facts…
Forests,
Carbon, and
Global Warming
Doug Heiken
Oregon Wild
(formerly Oregon Natural Resources Council)
Mission: To aggressively protect and
restore Oregon’s wildlands, wildlife,
and water as an enduring legacy.
Goal: To permanently protect roadless
areas and old-growth forest
ecosystems.
Climate change threatens forests.
Conserving forests will store carbon
and help mitigate a threat to earth’s
climate and to the forests themselves.
Facing Reality …
• Nearly everything we do
must change.
• All net carbon emissions
are adverse. None can be
considered insignificant.
• All ecosystems are
important. Forests just
happen to store a lot of
carbon.
• Forest conservation is
part of the solution to a
very large problem.
We can’t save the forests and continue to drive our SUVs.
Ingerson, Ann L. 2007. U.S. Forest Carbon and Climate Change. Washington, D.C.: The Wilderness Society.
Understanding
forest carbon flows
• Forests absorb, store, and
emit carbon. Forest
management affects all three.
• Relevant carbon pools
include not just trees, but the
atmosphere, dead wood,
other vegetation, roots, litter,
soil.
• To debunk myths, find the
grain of truth, “follow the
carbon” and consider the
longevity of carbon in each
pool.
OVERVIEW
• Young Forest Myth
• Wood Products Myth
• Harvest Myth
• Fire Myth
• Tropical Forest Myth
• Albedo Myth
• “Doomsday” Myth
• Substitution Myth
• Methane Myth
• “No Surprises” Myth
• SOLUTIONS
YOUNG FOREST MYTH:
Fast-growing young forests absorb
more carbon and are better for the
climate than slow-growing old
forests.
Reality:
• Most old forests are still growing
and absorbing carbon.
• Old forests store far more carbon
than young forests.
• Mature forests cannot be
converted into young forests without
losing most of the carbon to the
atmosphere.
EXPERTS AGREE
“In contrast to the sink management
proposed in the Kyoto protocol, which
favors young forest stands, we argue
that preservation of natural oldgrowth forests may have a larger
effect on the carbon cycle than
promotion of regrowth. ... [I]ncreasing
life-span of the stand, proportionally
more carbon can be transferred into a
permanent pool of soil carbon ...
[R]eplacing unmanaged old-growth
forest by young Kyoto stands ... will
lead to massive carbon losses to the
atmosphere mainly by replacing a
large pool with a minute pool of
regrowth and by reducing the flux into a
permanent pool of soil organic matter.”
Ernst-Detlef Schulze, Christian Wirth, Martin Heimann. CLIMATE
CHANGE: Managing Forests After Kyoto. Science 22 September 2000:
Lots of photosynthesis still happening here.
Lots of carbon stored here too.
… and here.
Logging creates
arbon contrast.
Photosynthesis stopped here …
Where did the carbon go?
WOOD PRODUCTS MYTH:
It’s better to store carbon in wood
products, rather than in forests.
Example:
"Carbon stays trapped in the
wood, locked in the lumber …."
Reality: Carbon is stored more
securely in long-lived forests than
in short-lived wood products.
Where did the carbon go?
The timber industry transfers most of the carbon in the forest to the
atmosphere as logging slash, mill waste, and processing emissions.
Ingerson, Ann L. 2007. U.S. Forest Carbon and Climate Change. Washington, D.C.: The Wilderness Society.
Carbon stored for hundreds of years here.
Carbon may be stored for years here.
Or months here…
HARVEST MYTH:
Timber harvest “absorbs” carbon.
Source: California Forest Products Commission. Modern Forestry & Climate Change.
Actually, logging emits carbon.
Just follow the arrows from harvest back to the atmosphere.
Ingerson, Ann L. 2007. U.S. Forest Carbon and Climate Change. Washington, D.C.: The Wilderness Society.
Carbon is more secure in live trees than dead trees.
Logging kills trees, stops
photosynthesis, starves
the soil foodweb.
Carbon is safer when protected by tree bark …
rather than paint.
Living trees have an arsenal of
defenses that help keep carbon
safe from decay, insects, and fire.
Carbon is safer in big pieces of wood,
rather than small.
Logging fragments large wood and increases
surface area exposed to bacterial decomposition.
Carbon is more secure in a cool forest than a warm forest.
Reducing canopy cover warms the soil surface
and increases the rate of decomposition.
Logging debris is burned on site, emitting carbon.
Long-lived forests are better than…
short-lived wood products.
FIRE MYTH:
Forests are not good places
to store carbon because
forest fires release stored
carbon through combustion.
Example: “When a tree
burns it releases all the
carbon it previously stored."
Actually: Some forests are maintained by fire.
Some trees die …
… so that others may live long and grow large.
Fire is an essential ecological process that helps forests stay healthy.
Fires occur in limited areas for a limited duration,
while photosynthesis dominates everywhere else.
BIG PICTURE: The places that don’t
burn absorb more carbon than is
emitted by the places that do burn.
Most forest fires emit far less carbon than logging.
Wayburn, Laurie A., et al. 2000. Forest Carbon in the United States:
Opportunities & Options for Private Lands. San Francisco: Pacific Forest Trust.
Most carbon remains on site after forest fires.
Large dead trees can last for many decades.
Fire creates charcoal which is very stable form of carbon.
Fire + logging = carbon desert.
TROPICAL FOREST MYTH:
Forests outside the tropics are
unimportant because they do
not contribute significantly to
global carbon storage.
Reality: Pacific NW temperate
rainforests can attain the
greatest biomass per acre of
any ecosystem on earth.
Temperate and boreal forests
are very extensive and
currently serve as net carbon
sinks.
http://www.fao.org/forestry/static/data/fra2005/maps/2.2.jpg
Global Ecosystem Carbon Density.
Olson, J.S, J.A. Watts, and L.J. Allsion. 1985. Major World Ecosystem Complexes Ranked by Carbon in Live Vegetation: A
Database. ORNL/CDIAC-134, NDP-017. Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center, U.S. Department of Energy, Oak Ridge
National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, U.S.A. (Revised 2001) http://cdiac.ornl.gov/epubs/ndp/ndp017/ndp017.html
http://www.fao.org/forestry/static/data/fra2005/maps/2.7.jpg
ALBEDO MYTH:
Forests are dark green, so they
exacerbate global warming by
absorbing rather than reflecting
the sun's energy.
Actually, albedo only trumps forest carbon storage
when forests are replaced by snow for long periods.
This might happen in boreal areas with
long, cold winters, but not in temperate
forests of the Pacific Northwest.
Forests can also have a cooling
effect by increasing albedo.
Forests transpire a lot of water and emit “cloud
condensation nuclei” which help create reflective clouds.
THE “DOOMSDAY” MYTH:
Protecting forests won’t help
because climate change will be
extreme, causing forests to release
large amounts of carbon due to
stress and disturbance.
http://www.x-cd.com/mcss04/S01a.pdf
Actually, many forests may thrive
before they decline.
Longer growing seasons
Drought tolerance
CO2 fertilization
Fire
Insects
Drought
Forests will first …
“Green Up”
Then …
“Brown Down”
Increased CO2 makes trees more
drought tolerant.
With more CO2 in the air,
plants quickly get their fill
of carbon, then actively
close their stomata to
reduce water loss.
Even under extreme climate
scenarios, forest conservation
still makes sense.
• Keeping more carbon in the forest
instead of the atmosphere will help
prevent a bad situation from getting
worse.
• Even if forests switch from being
carbon sinks to carbon sources, we
could make the source worse
through mismanagement of forests.
• If the effects of economic
exploitation of forests are added to
anticipated climate stresses, carbon
emissions will increase.
Don’t forget all the other
reasons to protect forests.
Managing forests for carbon
storage is complementary with
other important ecosystem services
that flow from forests.
• Clean water
• Fish & wildlife habitat
• Soil conservation
• Quality of life
• Economic diversification
• Capture, storage & release of water,
nutrients & sediment.
Water
Wildlife
METHANE MYTH:
Allowing wood to rot in the
forest releases methane
(CH4) which is 23 times
worse than CO2.
Reality: A small fraction
of burning and rotting
wood may be converted
to methane instead of
CO2. Allowing wood to rot
in the forest is no worse
than wood that rots in our
cities and landfills.
SUBSTITUTION MYTH:
Using wood products from
short-rotation clearcutting
reduces carbon emissions by
substituting for more carbon
intensive products like steel
and cement.
Reality: Using wood does not
guarantee that fossil fuels will
stay in the ground, and
extending harvest rotations is
still best for the climate.
The alleged value of wood product substitution.
Ingerson, Ann L. 2007. U.S. Forest Carbon and Climate Change. Washington, D.C.: The Wilderness Society.
But if we start from a native forest instead of a clearcut…
It takes a very long time for substitution to off-set the carbon deficit
caused by logging native forest. What discount rate do we apply?
SOLUTIONS:
• Expect surprises.
• Correct the market.
• Conserve forests.
“NO SURPRISES” MYTH:
Climate change will be slow.
Forests will make a smooth
transition to a new equilibrium.
Reality: Accelerating climate
change will increase
disequilibrium between the
climate and biosphere.
Reorganization of ecosystems
will sometimes be rapid and
chaotic. Ecosystems will
disassemble and reassemble in
novel ways.
Holling et al. In Search of a Theory of Adaptive Change
Prepare forests for climate change:
• Manage ecosystems to be resilient
to change.
• Manage for diversity in all its
dimensions. Maintain functional
redundancy.
• Facilitate migration of species.
Establish a network of protected
areas along climatic gradients.
• Rely on self-organized ecosystem
processes rather than human
intervention.
MARKET CORRECTIONS:
Ensure that carbon consequences
are reflected in the price of wood and
other products. This will help:
• Level the playing field between
wood and alternative materials.
• Reduce demand – e.g., reverse the
trend toward larger houses,
“supersized” stuff, and excessive
packaging.
• Reuse/Recycle – e.g., “salvage”
wood from old buildings, not forests.
• Increase longevity of products –
Build things to last.
• Reward forest owners for
conservation.
FOREST MANAGEMENT RECOMMENDATIONS
HELP FORESTS “RETAIN” AND “REBUILD” CARBON STORES.
• Conserve existing large stores of
carbon in mature and old-growth
forests and roadless areas.
• Let young forests grow longer.
Extend harvest rotations.
• Retain more live trees and dead
during harvest.
• Avoid uncharacteristic highseverity fire. This might require
logging small trees.
• Protect large trees and soil both
before and after fire.
Current policy is going in the wrong direction.
• About 1 million acres of mature
and old-growth forests remain
unprotected on public lands in the
northwest.
• Spotted owl habitat is a great
carbon store but the Bush
administration is removing
safeguards for owl habitat.
• BLM is proposing a 7-fold increase
in old-growth clearcutting in Western
Oregon.
• Forest Service and BLM have
eliminated protections for
biodiversity.
It’s not just about forests …
Oceans, prairies, rivers are all at risk,
and can play a role in mitigating climate change.
Thanks for listening!
Doug Heiken
[email protected]
www.oregonwild.org
Detailed report on forests-carbonclimate available:
http://tinyurl.com/2n96m5