1 thought on “Climate: Logging leads to long-term release of carbon from soils in Northeastern hardwood forests”

1. “Forest Pillage” Call It Management of the Public Land and Wilderness Encroachment “Landscaping”.

   I am always wary and skeptical about man’s management of ecology, especially when there is an obvious self-serving rationalization so manifest as timber extraction. I am also skeptical of “man” for he is just not that ecology wise. And of course, a politician moving his lips is probably lying or demagoguing or working for some commercial interest.

   The timber industry and supportive politicians have been good at alternative reality talk for cutting down forests. Instead of calling it clear cutting, they are now calling it active management, forest fire prevention, beetle infestation prevention, fire suppression, salvage from dead trees, thinning. Thinning or dead tree or snag removal does not prevent fires and damages the ecology. “Dead trees aren’t a wildfire threat, but overlogging them will ruin our forest ecosystems (Los Angeles Times) There are now 66 million dead trees in California’s forests due to several years of drought and native bark beetles, creating a “catastrophic” Read the full story in LA Times.). In the recent past I have read it called linear clearing, meadow formation, wildlife grazing opportunity, wildlife movement opportunity. Maybe this kind of talk can catch on and the coal industry can call mountaintop removal landscaping. The timber industry could use that one too. Oh yes, and anyone or group that opposes them or asks about the impact on wilderness or wildlife are “fringe environmentalists”, left wingers. Of course the big one is calling it jobs creation. Now it seems to me that most animals like shelter to run to in danger, not a clearing. Forests provide food and shelter for animals, CO2 re-uptake for the environment, soil integrity, water absorption, clean water and much else. Burning forests, not man made of course, has been the history of western forests. Burns are part of the cycle of forest life and ecology. We should protect private structures, within reason, but require less infringement on national forests However, I have never happened upon a clear cutting and said, “Wow! What beautiful landscaping! The animals of the forest will really appreciate this!” The birds and elk and other wildlife really like those oil rigs and all the animals are cognitively stimulated by the sounds and sights and bustle of all the extraction industry businesses. Oh, I forgot one I have heard, “Clear cutting makes prey safer from those sneaky predators who under the cover of forests sneak up on those cute critters who are just wanting to graze, so we need the new meadows. On EAJA, it allows suit when the government is allowing something wrong that endangers wilderness on wildlife. Conservationist are successful in about 85 % of cases and are then reimbursed, not if they were wrong or fail in the suit. Managing our national forests with lumber sales has nothing to do with management, fire prevention, fire suppression, it is commercializations of our forests. It is demagoguing for jobs. It is another republican, mostly, assault on public lands and wilderness.

   “Dead trees aren’t a wildfire threat, but over logging them will ruin our forest ecosystems
   Los Angeles Times There are now 66 million dead trees in California’s forests due to several years of drought and native bark beetles, creating a “catastrophic” Read the full story “

   References
   http://missoulian.com/news/opinion/columnists/blowing-smoke-about-forest-thinning/article

   http://sacb.ee/6H3u Dead trees don’t mean catastrophe for California

   http://missoulian.com/news/opinion/columnists/forest-thinning-is-snake-oil/article

   http://billingsgazette.com/news/opinion/guest/u-s-needs-new-approach-to-forest-management/article

   https://exposingthebiggame.wordpress.com/2014/12/03/climate-logging-leads-to-long-term-release-of-carbon-from-soils-in-northeastern-hardwood-forests/

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