Timber sale: Protect old-growth forests

Re: “102-acre King County timber sale paused as politicians air climate concerns” [July 29, Local News]:

Seattle Occasions reporter Daniel Beekman writes that the timber trade lobbying group the American Forest Useful resource Council believes blocking the logging of mature forests, just like the forest within the Wishbone timber sale, will power builders to “use extra carbon-intensive constructing supplies like concrete and metal.” This declare by trade is a purple herring. The carbon storage advantages of wooden merchandise have been grossly exaggerated by the timber trade. Clear-cutting mature forests and milling bushes into paper and wooden merchandise leads to the fast launch of a lot of the unique forest’s saved carbon. Scientists have discovered that younger plantations are web carbon emitters for the primary 10-20 years after being clear-cut.

Mature forests excel at capturing and storing carbon for lengthy intervals of time, conserving it out of the ambiance and thereby mitigating international local weather change. Analysis from 2018 exhibits that mature and old-growth forests proceed to behave as web carbon sinks even into their outdated age, which means they proceed to sequester and retailer extra carbon than they emit.

I’m glad that some members of the Metropolitan King County Council have joined on this battle for the legacy forests. I hope the commissioner of public lands is listening.

Jane Hutchings, Seattle