UNTOUCHED OLD GROWTH FORESTS - THEIR BENEFIT TO PLANET HEALTH AND CLIMATE CHANGE

Ruth Sandra Sperling
RSS Designs In Fiber - Internet Shop of Handmade Items In Fibers


There has been quite a bit of discussion about Climate Change or Global Warming for some years now.

I have always been concerned about the Forests on the Planet - and the Forest Canopy - and the Forest Biodiversity -- and have been very worried for years about the land being hotter and drier because the Forests and their canopies, which keep the land cooler, have been reduced so much by logging.

Here are two articles from Ecological Internet covering the issue of untouched Old Growth Forests storing more carbon dioxide than logged forests.

1. August 4, 2008 http://forests.org/blog/2008/08/untouched-natural-forests-stor.asp

2. March 11, 2009 http://www.rainforestportal.org/issues/2009/03/keeping_old_forests_intact_and.asp

The information in both Internet articles are based on scientific research.

I recommend reading them.

Of course, I remember reading the essay by Aldo Leopold, "The Last Stand" which discusses also that "slashed" (another word for clearcut) forests do not grow trees as healthy as un-slashed forests -- and he is basing this on data from a forested area in Europe, where part of it was slashed several hundred years ago and part of it wasn't -- and comparing the tree growth in both areas.

Aldo Leopold points out that it is the biotic province of the soil, which is a source of nutrients for growing trees, that is negatively impacted by the logging/slashing/clearcutting.

(You can contact the Aldo Leopold Fundation, http://www.aldoleopold.org/, for a copy of this essay.)

The whole situation worries me no end.

You can restore wild forests, but scientists repeatedly say that they never grow the same as the original Old Growth did -- at least not in our lifetimes as we know it -- even with restoration.

And now the research data about how important untouched Old Growth forests are in terms of carbon sequestration.

It all comes down to overall planet health.

We all need to be aware of what is occurring on our planet and do what we can to contribute to changing how things are handled.

As I have covered in previous posts on Forests here on my blog, http://rssdesignsinfiber.blogspot.com/search/label/forests , we need to totally stop the logging of any Old Growth.

Keeping these untouched Old Growth forests around the world in their natural state and unfragmented may be one of the best things we can do overall, planet-wise.

I know there are those concerned with Fire Hazard, especially because of the situation with the increasing Human population which tends to spread to forested areas. But cleaning up the underbrush and understory by hand, and not with mechanical equipment, like native peoples and aborigines have for centuries, is the solution to Fire Hazard in these untouched Old Growth forests -- much Old Growth trees are naturally fire-resistant and can withstand low intensity, natural fires - or the low-intensity prescribed fires done to mimic the natural fires.

No more logging of Old Growth.


Ruth

Logged/Slashed Rainforests Are Regrowing, but Still Have Issues

Ruth Sandra Sperling
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I read 2 articles today concerning the conference/symposium at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington D.C. about the rainforests.

I don't really have all the data that was discussed or presented, but the 2 articles have slightly different perspectives.

Article from "Times Online": Apocalypse delayed: tropical forests fight back as farmers flee

Article from "globeandmail.com/science": Regrowing rain forests still have issues

Also interesting that both are from non-U.S. sources on the Internet, but the Smithsonian is in the United States. The "Times Online" is from London; the "globeandmail.com" is from Canada.

In the first article about "Apocalypse delayed", a Professor Laurance is quoted: “We are still having a devastating loss of forests. It’s just that there’s some suggestion now that it is partly offset by the regeneration of secondary forest.”

In the second article, other statements by the same Professor are given:

"But these young forests cannot support what the old-growth forests did, said William Laurence, also of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Center." - and

“There's just no way that secondary forests are going to capture a lot of the biodiversity and critical ecosystem,” he said. “They're also much more vulnerable to fire.”

I find this discussion all very interesting. It made me think almost immediately of a chapter in Aldo Leopold's book, A Sand County Almanac, Part IV The Upshot, "Wilderness for Science" - where he discusses the value of wilderness for science. Here are 3 of my favorite quotes from this section on this subject in the order they are in this section of his book.

1. "Many forest plantations are producing one-log or two-log trees on soil which originally grew three-log or four-log trees. Why? Thinking foresters know that the cause probably lies not in the tree, but in the micro-flora of the soil, and that it may take more years to restore the flora than it took to destroy it."

....

2. "Palentology offers abundant evidence that wilderness maintained itself for immensely long periods; that its component species were rarely lost, neither did they get out of hand; that weather and water built soil as fast or faster than it was carried away. Wilderness, then, assumes unexpected importance as a laboratory for the study of land-health."

....

3. "One cannot study the physiology of Montana in the Amazon; each biotic province needs its own wilderness for comparative studies of used and unused land."

Also, it should be pointed out that they are discussing the first logging/slashing of the rainforest and the regrowth is secondary forest and seems to be natural regeneration, which is relatively good.

Referring to what Aldo Leopold stated about forest plantations with smaller trees (one-log is smaller than three-log or four-log) - quote #1 above - and what this Professor Laurance is quoted as saying, it is fairly obvious that the deforestation affected the micro-flora of the rainforest soil and that even though there is regrowth, the regrowth is not as strong as the original old growth that was in the rainforest.

But hopefully there is some native original rainforest in the same biotic province that can be studied for restoring more fully the regrowth, if some scientists will follow through with it!

I find it very interesting to apply what I have read in books to what is going on today in the world!!

Restoration can be done - and it is significant in the high biodiversity rainforests, even if the restored areas are not quite as good as the original forests.

If you are interested in the land health of this planet, I strongly encourage you to read Aldo Leopold's books, which you can find listed here: http://www.aldoleopold.org.

And if you are interested, you might want to take a look at my other posts under the Label "forest" here on my blog!

By the way, Aldo Leopold restored forest!!


Ruth

Combating Global Warming - Forests/Trees/Plants/Soils

Ruth Sandra Sperling
RSS Designs In Fiber

One of my most favorite things in the world is trees and forests of them!!

I guess I was lucky - since I was a little girl growing up, I got to go to forests.

And part of curbing Global Warming - or climate change - is by protecting forests. I want them protected anyway because I love them, but there are many reasons for planet health to protect them. In my own opinion (I am just a public lay-person after all - not a scientist!!), way too much forest has been cut down on this planet over the centuries - and we need to plant them.

One of my favorite environmental groups - Conservation International - has an article about how forests help to curb Global Warming on their website : The Road After Bali (Jan. 2008) - you can click on this link to get to it and read it yourself.

Here is a quote from it:

"Forests are one of the best hopes to curb climate change, and Conservation
International (CI) has been protecting them for decades. The new Bali roadmap
shows the world is catching on.

"At last month’s United Nations convention
in Indonesia, countries agreed to consider a greater role for forests in a
climate treaty that will replace the Kyoto Protocol. Forest mitigation
activities have been sorely underused, and were met with opposition in past
negotiations despite having clear benefits.

"Healthy forests remove massive amounts of CO2 from the air, but when
burnt down or cleared, they spew harmful gases into the air. Tropical
deforestation accounts for 20 percent of global emissions.

" 'The forest component of climate is a great opportunity to
prevent greenhouse gas emissions,' says CI President Russell A. Mittermeier.
'But it’s also a tool for biodiversity conservation at a scale never before
imagined.' "

So -- now we can combine our love of forests just for the love of them with biodiversity conservation (which is of course very logical) and curbing Global Warming - good all around!!

But I just read an article today on the Internet about another project going on in the UK about researching how to manage and design soils which may also help to remove carbon from the atmosphere permanently and cost effectively: "Specially-designed Soils Could Help Combat Climate Change" from the Science Daily dated April 2, 2008 -- http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080331110057.htm. (read it!!)

This sounds like a great idea to me - I hope the research projects show that it works!!

And I would like to add one more thing from my favorite philosopher on the environment, Aldo Leopold from the book, "A Sand County Almanac":

"Many forest plantations are producing one-log or two-log trees on soil which
originally grew three-log and four-log trees. Why? Thinking
foresters know that the cause probably lies not in the tree, but in the
micro-flora of the soil and that it may take more years to restore the soil
flora than it took to destroy it."

Yes, folks, if you think our forests look smaller, you are probably observing correctly - partially because of logging and partially because the micro-flora of the soil is not what it used to be, so trees that are growing are growing in smaller -- especially in areas where there has been logging or tree-removal as that negatively impacts the micro-flora of the soil -- so I am a big advocate of soil restoration and planting trees!!!!

And if you would like to know more about Aldo Leopold, who actually did forest restoration in his life, check out his family's foundation website: The Aldo Leopold Foundation - http://www.aldoleopold.org/. There is a lot of information about what Aldo Leopold did, wrote and advocated - and what this family foundation does - I just went there and on the first page is a letter from his daughter, Nina Leopold Bradley, to our presidential candidates. Again - I totally agree with a member of the Leopold family!!

And, oh, by the way - when you visit the Conservation International website, calculate your ecological footprint - I took their test and got a score of 64 - according to them that makes me an "Eco-Ally" which I strive to be every day I live!!

Ruth