Please don't hear me advocating clearing old growth
trees .....BUT.... removing old growth forests in and of itself does
not release much carbon dioxide (apart from the logging equipment
used) unless the timber is burnt or allowed to rot. Monoculture
plantations APART from their environmentally devastating impacts, are
very effective at taking up Carbon dioxide, as that Carbon is being
actively used to lay down new biomass. I am fully aware of the
problems for disease, species biodiversity, water catchment quality
and quantity (a huge issue for Australia at the moment), and so on.
My point was simply that at present, planting more forest plantations
seem to be our most effective means of sequestering atmospheric
Carbon - far more so than simply never harvesting existing plantation
timber. The conundrum is to find ways of alleviating the
environmental problems associated with timber plantations, or of
finding more effective means to 'harvest' the Carbon from the air.
John Tongue
Ulverstone, Tas.
On 07/06/2007, at 1:45 PM, Greg wrote:
Hi John and others,
The point about old growth trees is that they have been sequesting
carbon for hundreds of years and although they may be carbon
neutral in their old age they are storing the carbon collected over
decades. By clearing these old growth trees large amounts of
carbon are released and it would take a large number of young trees
many years to compensate for this release.
Greg Clancy
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