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Carbon-Neutral Birding

To: "Greg" <>
Subject: Carbon-Neutral Birding
From: John Tongue <>
Date: Thu, 7 Jun 2007 14:24:48 +1000
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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