When Europeans began settling the New World, a little under half of America’s landscape was forested. Today, after centuries of land conversion, about one third of the U.S. remains forested. Though timber harvesting continues, reforestation efforts generally keep pace, maintaining a steady supply of trees.
But trees alone do not make a forest. When natural forests get converted to plantations for pulp wood or saw logs, valuable forest attributes are sacrificed. True forests provide services plantations can’t match: they retain and purify water, harbor wildlife, nurture species diversity, and afford opportunities for outdoor recreation.
With growing concern over global warming, attention has turned to the service forests perform in storing carbon that would otherwise lead to climate change. Older forests — including those re-grown in areas last logged more than a century ago — do the best job of sequestering carbon.
By contrast, tree plantations release large amounts of carbon dioxide for decades before becoming significant carbon sinks.
While the Eastern U.S. is more forested today than it was in 1850, older forests are scarce and fragmented. The challenge today is to provide landowners with incentives to preserve their forests for the long-term.
The tools are at hand: mitigation and conservation banks; sales of carbon offsets; conservation easements; and payments for hunting and wildlife viewing fees all are part of the mix. If older forests are allowed to grow, they will perform a greater service to us and the planet.
References
National Commission on Science for Sustainable Forestry, “Beyond Old Growth: Older Forests in a Changing World,” The National Council for Science and the Environment, 2008.
Harmon, Ferrell, and Franklin, “Effects on Carbon Storage of Conversion of Old-Growth Forests to Young Forests,” Science, Feb. 9, 1990.
Luyssaert, Detlef Schulze, Börner et. al, “Old-growth forests as global carbon sinks,” Nature, Sept. 11, 2008.
Masek, Cohen, Leckie et. al., “Recent rates of forest harvest and conversion in North America,” Journal Of Geophysical Research, Vol. 116, April 15, 2011.
USDA Forest Service, “U.S. Forest Resource Facts and Historical Trends,” Sept. 2009.
USDA Forest Service, “The National Report on Sustainable Forests–2010,” June 2011.
Photo, taken on August 16, 2005, courtesy of Axel via Flickr.