County Commissioners Protecting America's Natural Resources 

  HOME    ABOUT US    NEWS & EVENTS   ADVICE TO ADVOCATES    CONTACTS    NEWSLETTER    JOIN  

Climate Change

Global Warming Impacts On Forests

“Rising global temperatures are causing a host of environmental problems including the loss last year of 10 million acres to wildfires in this country alone.  This is a devastating loss compounded by the fact that trees help slow global warming by sequestering carbon,” said Deborah Gangloff, Ph.D., executive director of American Forests, during a press conference held at the National Press Club.
American Forests Launches Global Releaf2 Campaign With Goal to Plant 100 Million Trees by 2020. American Forests. April 24, 2007.
http://www.pr-inside.com/american-forests-launches-global-releaf-r103054.htm.

Millions of acres of Canada’s lush green forests are turning red in spasms of death.  A voracious beetle, whose population has exploded with the warming climate, is killing more trees than wildfires or logging.
Rapid Warming Spreads Havoc in Canada’s Forests: Tiny Beetles Destroying Pines. Doug Struck, Washington Post Foreign Service. March 1, 2006. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/28/AR1006022801772.html.

The projected 2◦C (3.6◦F) warming could shift the ideal range for many North American forest species by about 300 km (200mi.) to the north.
Global Warming – Impacts: Forests. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
http://yosemite.epa.gov/OAR/globalwarming.nsf/content/ImpactsForests.html, Accessed May 1. 2007.

Global forests currently store just over half of the carbon residing in terrestrial ecosystems (FAO 2001).
Forests, Carbon and Climate Change: A Synthesis of Science Findings. A project of The Oregon Forest Resources Institute/ Oregon State University College of Forestry ODF, p.12.

Global forests currently store just over half of the carbon residing in terrestrial ecosystems (FAO 2001).
Forests, Carbon and Climate Change: A Synthesis of Science Findings. A project of The Oregon Forest Resources Institute/ Oregon State University College of Forestry ODF, p.12.

“The stakes are high, because climate change will hurt the region and the forest industry economically,” said Eric Kinglsey, vice president of Innovative Natural Resource Solutions, a consulting firm in New Hampshire and Maine.  If present warming trends continue, New England’s sugar maples – prized by makers of fine furniture - will give way over the next century to a mix of mid-Atlantic hardwoods, predominantly hickory, he said.  The maple syrup industry would collapse, and sawmills geared toward northern hardwoods would have to retool.
Forests Can Make Money While Slowing Global Warming.
http://www.chiefengineer.org/content/content_display.cfm/seqnumber_content/2922.htm, Accessed May 1, 2007.

. . . forest fires are likely to become more frequent and severe if soils become drier.  Changes in pest populations could further increase the stress on forests.
Global Warming – Impacts: Forests. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
http://yosemite.epa.gov/OAR/globalwarming.nsf/content/ImpactsForests.html, Accessed May 1. 2007.

Climate change will exact a major cost on North America’s timber industry and could drive as much as 40 percent of its plant and animal species extinct in a matter of decades, according to a new report from an international panel. . . .North American forests also will suffer from a warming climate, the report states, and increases in wildfires, insect infestations and disease could cost wood and timber producers $1 billion to $2 billion by the end of the century.
U.N. report warns warming will harm timber industry.  Juliet Eilperin, The Washington Post.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2003669257_warming17.html.

Paradoxically, a warmer climate may result in an increase in winter damage to some tree species.  If a warmer climate produces a decrease in snowfall, the frost may penetrate deeper into the ground and damage tree roots.  This type of damage has already been implicated in the decline and death of hardwood trees in Canada.
Forests and Global Warming. Prepared by Thomas Curran, Science and Technology Division. Government of Canada, Depository Services Program. April 1991.
http://dsp-psd.pwgsc.gc.ca/Collection-R/LoPBdP/BP/bp254-e.htm.

We know that carbon markets have the potential to add streams of revenue to forestland owners, perhaps significant enough to help conserve forests from conversion to other uses less beneficial to the climate.
Forests, Carbon and Climate Change: A Synthesis of Science Findings. A project of The Oregon Forest Resources Institute/ Oregon State University College of Forestry/Oregon Department of Forestry, p.15.

CARBON SEQUESTRATION

Through photosynthesis, forests naturally remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store it as carbon (i.e., carbon stocks) in trunks, branches, leaves, and roots, which are often referred to as “carbon pools.”  When forests are disturbed through events like deforestation (e.g., development), harvest or fire, carbon is released back into the atmosphere as emissions of CO2.  On a global level, forests are the second largest source of human-caused CO2 emissions, contributing roughly 25% of the world’s total CO2emissions – largely due to forest loss.
Reprinted with permission—The Pacific Forest Trust.

If you look at the sources of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, there are two: One is fossil fuels and the other is forests,” said Laurie Wayburn, president of the Pacific Forest Trust, a San Francisco nonprofit that has led California’s efforts to put a dollar value on the ability of forests to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store it. . . . . The keys are preserving existing forests through conservation easements; storing more carbon by increasing the average age of the trees and selecting for more hardwoods than softwoods – which also increases the wood’s market value; and making sure such measures produce an economic return for landowners. “Climate is a forest product,” she said.  “We can leverage that to increase the net stocks of carbon that these forests are taking up and holding…in a way that puts a higher-value forest industry back on the landscape.”
http://www.chiefengineer.org/content/content_display.cfm/seqnumber_content/2922.htm, Accessed May 1, 2007.

Under the offset concept, forestland owners receive payments for the amount of carbon they store that (1) cancels out other emissions, (2) are recorded in a registry, and (3) work as if the emission had not occurred.

The potential emitters pay the entity making the promise to store a particular amount of carbon for a certain period of time.

Stavins and Richards (2005) document that forests can play a significant and economically valuable role in future climate policy.
Forests, Carbon and Climate Change: A Synthesis of Science Findings. A project of The Oregon Forest Resources Institute/ Oregon State University College of Forestry/Oregon Department of Forestry, p.14

In addition, the registry has set out models to establish carbon storage baselines and requires that carbon credit-producing projects are truly “additional”—that is, they create and preserve carbon stocks above and beyond what would happen if projects continued with traditional practices.
California’s Forest Owners Think Ahead. Cameron Walker. The Katoomba Group’s Ecosystem Marketplace.  September 5, 2006.

Forest management can contribute significantly to reducing and perhaps even ending the ongoing rise of carbon concentration in the atmosphere, providing a cumulative sequestration of 25 billion metric tons of carbon globally over 50 years.
Forests, Carbon and Climate Change: A Synthesis of Science Findings. A project of The Oregon Forest Resources Institute/ Oregon State University College of Forestry/Oregon Department of Forestry, p.28.

Forest management can contribute significantly to reducing and perhaps even ending the ongoing rise of carbon concentration in the atmosphere, providing a cumulative sequestration of 25 billion metric tons of carbon globally over 50 years.
Forests, Carbon and Climate Change: A Synthesis of Science Findings. A project of The Oregon Forest Resources Institute/ Oregon State University College of Forestry/Oregon Department of Forestry, p.28.

Forests of all ages store carbon, but older forests store more net carbon annually than younger forests.  Although younger forests can grow and store more carbon at a faster rate than older forests, the total amount of carbon—the carbon stocks—grown annually in older forests is greater.

It is helpful to think of storing carbon in a forest like earning interest in a bank account.  The carbon stock in the forest is equal to the amount of money in your bank account.  The interest rate of the account is equal to the growth rate of the forest.  Young forests are small accounts with higher interest rates, while older forests are bigger bank accounts with slightly lower interest rates.  Both are useful and grow over time, but the older forests store more annually—just like the bigger bank accounts do.
Reprinted with permission—The Pacific Forest Trust.

…establishing a forest plantation on agricultural land will increase carbon stores, but converting a productive old-growth Douglas-fir forest into a plantation with management for timber production can decrease carbon stores by as much as 45%.
Forests, Carbon and Climate Change: A Synthesis of Science Findings. A project of The Oregon Forest Resources Institute/ Oregon State University College of Forestry ODF, p.27.

TOP OF PAGE

Masthead photo credits: Rolf Sklar, Curtis J. Carley FWS, NOAA