Public and private lands alike are key to the future of wild forests
The article “In battle over logging in N.H. national forest, climate change at center” (Page A1, Oct. 28) focuses on the environmental trade-offs of logging on public lands. But holistic and sustainable land management in New England hinges on privately held forest land (80 percent of the region’s forests are privately owned), which acts as the connective tissue between public lands. This dynamic presents a terrific opportunity for stakeholders to work together to protect and add to the less than 1 percent of old growth that remains in the Northeast. As Erin Douglas’s article points out, old forests sequester more carbon than their young and middle-aged counterparts and can halt biodiversity loss.
Old forests are an important part of a diverse land-use regime, the kind endorsed by the Wildlands, Woodlands, Farmlands, and Communities collective. Our organization, Northeast Wilderness Trust, works with other conservation groups to ensure that “wildlands,” preserves where forests are free to evolve and grow old, constitute at least 10 percent of that mix, up from today’s 3.3 percent.
With the right level of commitment, we can secure a future of resilient, climate-stabilizing wild forests within the broader landscape of economic needs and uses.
Jon Leibowitz
President and CEO
Northeast Wilderness Trust
Montpelier, Vt.
Forests can be managed to support ecology and produce climate-smart wood
We can’t afford to choose between locally sourced wood products and increasing forest carbon storage. About 7 million people live in Massachusetts. We use nearly 360 million cubic feet of wood each year. We need to find climate-smart ways of managing our forests to produce biomaterials like wood, or we’ll just end up using more carbon-intensive steel and concrete and contributing to the cooking of the planet (or asking others to provide our wood while ignoring where it comes from).
There are ways to manage our forests to support ecological health, store carbon, and produce climate-smart wood products. The New England Forestry Foundation’s Exemplary Forestry management standards achieve these goals while recognizing that wildlands are an essential part of the landscape.
The foundation’s research shows that climate-smart forestry across New England, combined with the positive impacts of this approach that would accrue to the building industry, could keep more than 646 million metric tons of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere over the next 30 years, equal to about 30 percent of the emissions reductions needed for New England to reach net-zero emissions by 2050.
The right approaches can store more carbon in our forests while providing renewable wood to build our local bioeconomy and grow more of what we need where we live.
Andrea Colnes
Deputy director and climate fellow
New England Forestry Foundation
Littleton
End logging now, starting with public lands
I find it hard to believe that in this day and age the Globe would use a headline on its website such as “Can logging in New Hampshire help fight climate change?” Erin Douglas’s article even quotes logging advocates’ various equivocations on the subject.
Perhaps the most salient critique of logging comes from Jonathan Thompson, the research director at Harvard Forest, who, as paraphrased by Douglas, said that “when it comes to old trees, the math isn’t complicated: If it took 100 years to grow the tree, for example, then it’ll generally take another hundred to replace that stored carbon.”
Those of us working to end mindless logging on public land have been making that point for decades.
Do we really have to keep reminding people that we are in the midst of a climate crisis? We do not have 100 years to wait for destroyed forests to grow back and store the carbon that is being released. The logging must end now, and beginning with public lands is a good start.
Don Ogden
Florence
The writer is the cofounder and cohost of “The Enviro Show” on Valley Free Radio (WXOJ-LP).