Assumptions that forest thinning treatments help sequester carbon are not grounded in science — instead, recent research shows that thinning actually releases more carbon to the atmosphere than any amount saved by successful fire prevention.
The study acknowledges that there are many valid reasons to thin forests, but increased carbon sequestration is not one of them, according to scientists from Oregon State University.
The data on pre-commercial thinning is the highest recorded in over a year. According to the Swedish Forest Agency’s annual surveys conducted on silviculture measures the soil scarification was carried out on 157,500 hectares and 157,200 hectares were planted with seedlings in 2010. There is a decrease of 8 respective 12 percent from the previous year. The number of planting used for beeting amounted to 31.9 million seedlings.Increased forest fertilization
A case involving what the provincial government called “unacceptable” treatment of 58 silvicultural workers will be examined by BC Forest Safety Ombudsman Roger Harris as part of a review of silviculture camp systems.
Prices for timber are good right now and it makes sense to sell when market conditions are in our favour. But it's not always that easy, especially if the area to be thinned contains mixed species or is under 10ha in size -- or both.
LOWELL, Ore. — Booming timber towns with three-shift lumber mills are a distant memory in the densely forested Northwest. Now, with the housing market and the economy in crisis, some rural areas have never been more raw. Mills keep closing. People keep leaving. Unemployment in some counties is near 20 percent.
Negotiators at the COP15 conference in Copenhagen didn't see eye to eye on much last month, but almost everyone agreed on one thing: To protect the planet we need to save its forests.
From Denmark to Japan, where The Japan Times' Nature page columnist C.W. Nicol and others have submitted a new forestry proposal to the government, there is clear consensus that forests must be conserved while they are still intact.
