Prompted Post 10/17: Contemplating Controversy

I found an interesting article on a current controversial topic, in forestry, where planting trees is starting to be used as a method to offset the increasing carbon emissions in the atmosphere. A newspaper reporter writes the article and presents a fair amount of bias from the opposing group of tree planting. The two groups are those for tree planting and those against. After reading the article, the context she uses to describe the European Conservation group, against tree planting, sounds very negative. The group doesn’t provide any evidence to use against the tree planting and the conservation group sounds very ignorant on the issue using the quote, “Tree-planting is a ‘phony climate fix’” (Houlder). The European Conservation group, Fern, is negative on the idea of tree planting in general and don’t back up their opinion with any information. Fern goes on to say that tree planting does, "nothing to combat climate change while exacerbating local environmental problems and the social inequalities, local tensions and access to land problems". They appear more concerned about issues on a local level. Hesitant to accept tree planting because of some of the negative consequences it will have on the community level.

I think that the facts are the most important thing to consider on this issue. It’s a simple as understanding that planting trees speeds up the amount of carbon taken out of the air. “The UK-based Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Management estimates that 458 tonnes of carbon dioxide are stored within one hectare of mature oak woodland” (Houlder). It’s as simple as that, trees store a large amount of carbon and reduces the heat produced from the appearance of this greenhouse gas in the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide traps heat in the atmosphere and most of the controversy on this subject is from the ignorant companies like Fern that won’t accept the facts and are too concerned with other minor issues associated with change. Change is always difficult but a big part of forestry right now is towards the management of ecosystems and requires change in the current system. Forests aren’t being treated well enough and will have irreversible consequences if this goes unchanged. Major scaled planting of trees is a great idea but will take time, especially if people remain skeptical and remain unaware of the impact that carbon emissions have on the atmosphere.

Works Cited

Houlder, Vanessa. "Trees Won't Cure the Greenhouse Effect: CLIMATE CHANGE: As Environmentalists Meet in Milan, Vanessa Houlder Looks at the Controversy Surrounding the use of Forestry to Offset Carbon Emissions:" Financial Times: 13. Dec 05 2003. ProQuest. Web. 17 Oct. 2013 .

Free Post Week 6

For this week’s free post, I decided to do some article readings related to the government shutdown’s impact on forestry. “Federal budget troubles spilled into the woods this week, with logging contractors receiving notices to stop harvesting timber on national forests” (Kramer). The governmental struggle in Washington D.C. has affected a logging company and disrupted the jobs of foresters that work with specific logging companies like this one. This logging company, Vaagen Brothers Lumber Co, has a specified time period on their timber sales that may have irreversible consequences attached to the, now 14 day, partial government shutdown. Seasonal changes can restrict the amount of logging that the company is able to preform and further damage the pay of everyone involved in the timber sales or entire operation.

The article goes on to describe the unexpectedness of the government shutdown. Timber companies were able to continue logging during the government shutdown of 1995. Tom Partin, president of the American Forest Resource Council in Portland, had this to say, "Now the Forest Service has issued a blanket policy that they want to have all projects cleaned up and put to bed within seven days," Partin said. "It came very quickly. It's a very short timeline that could and will impact a lot of companies." A very short notice on something so drastic is unfair to the workers in this operation and when pay becomes restricted lives can become changed. Partin plans to approach the government with lawsuits if the shutdown continues. Hopefully, too much time won’t have elapsed to terminally damage the operation.

Works Cited

Kramer, Becky. "National Forest Logging Suspended by Shutdown." McClatchy - Tribune Business NewsOct 12 2013. ProQuest. Web. 15 Oct. 2013 .

Prompted Post 10/10: Evaluating Sources

I found an article that wants to implement a plan to reduce the threat of invasive species into forests and to improve sustainability of those forests. They are effectively arguing the problem, which isn’t know by most Americans, that invasive species have a large impact on affected forests health. The way they relay information is effective and appointed to a general audience. “This is an outcome-based science plan rather than a conventional research agenda; it focuses on research, development, and applications to enable effective actions.” (Chornesky). So in a way, the author of this article is hoping to inform an audience that action needs to be taken to protect forests; hopefully, quick and effective action needs to be taken to fix the problem before it becomes a major issue.

By addressing the problems like the decrease of forest biodiversity and the decrease of forest productivity the author is arguing the significance of forests to everyone and a calling for preventative action. Again, there is that idea of preventative measures rather than fixing forests after they’ve been affected by invasive species. This addresses the idea of kairos that we’ve been discussing in class and calls for preventative forestry action now. People need to become informed on the importance of forests in water cycles and food yield that we depend on, as human beings, every day of our lives. Learning this sooner rather than later will benefit everyone and keep our forests healthy. Ideas like increased trade monitoring and better pest suppression seem like the basis of this plan. Preventative action makes the most sense to me because stopping the problem before it even starts is most effective. The purpose was clear and informative that forests are hurt from invasive species and plan action needs to be taken to stop them. Knowledge is key about forest management so I’m certain that this plan would be, at very least, a great start in the overall improvement of forest health on a global scale.

Works cited:

Chornesky, Elizabeth A., et al. "Science Priorities for Reducing the Threat of Invasive Species to Sustainable Forestry." Bioscience 55.4 (2005): 335-48. ProQuest. Web. 10 Oct. 2013.

Free Post Week 5

Controlled or Prescribed Burn

This weekend I found a very interesting and unique type of forest management called controlled burning. It’s amazing to think that burning a part of forest can actually promote that forest’s health and growth. The amount of debris and leaf litter on a forest floor can become very dry in times of drought and serve as a large risk factor in causing forest fires. Teams of foresters that use prescribed or controlled burning can move into these high risk forest areas and introduce fire into the ecosystem at ideal times. Preferable conditions allow for a very safe burn of the forest’s excess debris.

Controlled burning, to clean up after logging, can be done in two ways: broadcast burning or pile burning. Broadcast burning applies fire over a larger area of the forest and the waste materials burn at a lower temperature. With broadcast burning, the excess forest waste gives off less heat and this can contrast pile burning quite nicely. Pile burning is similar to a large bonfire and the concentration of burning waste produces a lot of heat that can damage the surrounding soil by sterilizing it. Pile burning also requires the gathering of all the forest debris and can be time consuming. Broadcast burning is the ideal and forest friendly type of burning.

The thing I found most interesting about this form of forest management is that controlled burns can combat tree disease. Healthy forest trees are naturally fire resistant and can handle the temperatures produced by broadcast burns but the invasive diseases cannot. So while cleaning up excess and unwanted competing forest vegetation, broadcast burns are also killing off invasive tree diseases.

Works Cited:

“Controlled burn.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia, n.d. Web. 8 Oct. 2013.

‪Santa Fe Water Fund, prod. The Nature Conservancy. YouTube. Youtube, 24 Nov. 2010. Web. 8 Oct. 2013.