Hug A Tree Today

Because it could be your savior.  A bill is pending in the Massachusetts legislature to ban all logging on state owned forests.  The idea is that logging destroys a valuable carbon storage, which is the best and highest use of public forest at this point in man's journey.  Allowing the natural storage of carbon in trees is a strategic option in the global effort to reduce planetary warming that has been documented as economically and ecologically beneficial.  In fact, logging contributes to CO₂ emissions through the use of motorized equipment at every stage of timber production.  A study in Oregon found logging to be the most significant contributor to carbon emissions in the state.  Not only is there active contribution to carbon emissions but the removal and conversion of long lived trees into short term wood and paper products that end up in landfills is unsustainable from a carbon budget perspective.

Logging, contrary to its proponents, is a money loosing proposition.  The industry is heavily subsidized by government.  Taxpayers loose an estimated $2 billion a year from the federal timber program on public lands managed by the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management.  Researchers at the Center for Sustainable Economy estimate that societal values obtained from intact forests are two to three times higher than from logged forests.  Even the regime argument that logging prevents or reduces wildfires is flawed because after a fire, the remaining fuel, such as snags and root boles continue to store carbon for decades.  It should not be necessary to remind logging lobbyists and their political handmaidens using sham arguments to protect profit, that the fire which burned down Paradise, CA occurred in a forest that had recently been logged and thinned under intensive 'management'.  So hug a tree, it is your best friend and former home.

credit: C. Briscoe
Koalas hug trees to stay cool.