Forests and Climate Truths

The global momentum behind the vision to plant a trillion trees is fueling expanded interest in forests as a climate change solution. This increased interest has brought increased scrutiny and numerous questions. Can forests capture enough carbon to make a meaningful contribution? Will we lose this stored carbon to wildfires? Does harvesting timber and forest management help or hurt our forest carbon sink? This article written by Jad Daley, president and CEO of the American Forest Foundation, presents five truths, grounded in science, that provide a common foundation for the public and decision-makers to shape America's policies on forests and climate change.

5 Truths about U.S. Forests for Climate

By Jad Daley, President & CEO of American Forests

The global momentum behind the vision to plant a trillion trees is fueling unprecedented interest in forests as a climate change solution. But this increased interest has brought increased scrutiny. Can forests capture enough carbon to make a meaningful contribution? Will we lose this stored carbon to wildfires? Does harvesting timber help or hurt our forest carbon sink?

These five truths, grounded in science, can provide a common foundation for the public and decision-makers to shape America’s efforts on forests and climate change.

1. America’s forests are already providing a climate solution.
2. Step one is to keep our existing forests as forests.
3. Planting trees = more forests to capture carbon.
4. Sometimes active forest management = more carbon gains.
5. Wood products store carbon and reduce emissions from manufacturing.

To read the full story click here: American Forests

 

The Woods in Your Backyard

Penn State Extension webinar series will help landowners care for their woods

Do you have woods in your backyard? Penn State research estimates that nearly half a million Pennsylvanians own a small patch of woodland — something fewer than 10 acres in size. In fact, the majority of Pennsylvania landowners have fewer than 10 acres. These small patches add up to about a million acres, or about 10 percent of our state’s privately-held woodlands.

The “Woods in Your Backyard” webinar series teaches land stewardship through nine live, one-hour, online evening lectures that can be viewed on your home computer. Sessions run from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. on Wednesday nights for nine weeks beginning Jan. 27. All lectures are recorded and can be viewed later if a live session is missed.

Sponsored by Penn State Extension and the Center for Private Forests, the University of Maryland Extension, the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources Bureau of Forestry, and the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay: Forests for the Bay Program, the webinar series is designed specifically, but not exclusively, for small-acreage owners.

These small lots, whether wooded or not, can provide numerous benefits. By enhancing existing woodland or creating new natural areas on your property, you can enjoy wildlife, recreation, aesthetics, improved water quality and reduced energy costs. Owners of even the smallest landscapes can make a positive difference in their environment through planning and implementing simple stewardship practices.

The workshop series introduces the manual, “The Woods in Your Backyard: Learning to Create and Enhance Natural Areas Around Your Home.” All registrants will receive the full-color, 108-page publication, a $29 value. This self-directed book will guide you through the process of developing and implementing projects to enhance your land’s natural resources.

Topics covered in the webinars include the following:

·         “Why Backyard Woods are Important”

·         “Importance of Woods to Healthy Watersheds”

·         “Trees and Shrubs for Different Sites and Objectives”

·         “Providing and Enhancing Wildlife Habitat”

·         “Forest Ecology and Woodlot Management Techniques”

·         “Invasive Plant Identification and Control”

·         “Converting Open Land to Meadows and Woods”

·         “Healthy Woods: Common Insects and Diseases”

For more information and to register, visit the Penn State Extension website at https://extension.psu.edu/woods-in-your-backyard-webinar-series or call 877-345-0691. The registration deadline is Jan. 20, 2021.

Storing and Sequestering Carbon: Pennsylvania’s Forest Resource

Imagine the Opportunity of a Smaller Carbon Footprint

At the 2020 Pennsylvania Farm Show the Hardwoods Development Council (HDC) hosted the Pennsylvania Hardwoods exhibit. The exhibit’s theme was Imagine the Opportunities of a Smaller Carbon Footprint. The exhibit was made possible by a collaboration between the HDC and the three Pennsylvania Hardwood Utilization Groups (HUGs): Allegheny Hardwood Utilization Group, Keystone Wood Products Association, and the Northern Tier Hardwood Association.

The Hardwoods exhibit featured educational displays, all pertaining to how implementing sustainable forestry practices and the use of hardwood products can help reduce one’s carbon footprint. These articles will provide information pertaining to each of the themes that were displayed. This is the sixth, and final, in the series of articles.

Article 6: Storing and Sequestering Carbon: Pennsylvania’s Forest Resource 

By Jonathan Geyer and Dave Jackson

Let us start by taking a closer look at Pennsylvania’s forest resource. Based on the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Forest Inventory & Analysis (FIA) program, 2019 data, Pennsylvania has more than 16.6 million acres of forest land and is 58% forested. From this data we also know that Pennsylvania has the largest hardwood forest volume of any state. The Commonwealth has historically provided about 10% of the nation’s supply of hardwood lumber and leads the U.S. in lumber exports.

In addition, the Commonwealth’s has 121.6 billion board feet of standing sawtimber volume. It has increased 7% since 2013, with an estimated 7,600 board feet per acre. Despite the increased mortality brought about by pest outbreaks, net growth has remained relatively stable, between 3.0 and 3.1 billion board feet per year. Timber harvests in Pennsylvania account for the removal of roughly 1-1.3 billion board feet in wood products annually. Considering growth, mortality, and harvesting (removals) Pennsylvania’s sawtimber volume is increasing by approximately 2 billion board feet annually!

To put into perspective what one billion board feet of wood looks like – one board foot is a piece of lumber 12 inches wide by 12 inches long and 1-inch thick – one billion board feet is a stack of lumber 2½-feet high by 5-feet wide, spanning from Harrisburg to Houston, Texas (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Pennsylvania’s forest products industry harvests between 1 and 1.3 billion board feet of wood volume annually.

Using FIA data, we can also research the history of Pennsylvania’s standing wood volume (Figure 2). This graph illustrates the standing sawtimber volume of Pennsylvania’s forests from 1955-2019. In just 64 years the Commonwealth wood volume has increased over 5 times! This is due to a variety of reasons, sustainable forest management practices, farmland conversion to forest, and our forest rebounding from the previous centuries’ land clearing and unsustainable harvesting practices. 

Figure 2: Since 1955, the sawtimber volume in Pennsylvania has increased more than five times all while harvests continued to remove approximately 1 billion board feet of lumber annually.

What does all this mean for carbon storage and sequestration in Pennsylvania’s forests? Forests both store carbon, in carbon pools, and sequester carbon from the atmosphere. Carbon storage is the amount of carbon retained within the forest. Typically, carbon storage levels increase with forest age and peak in NE forests when they are greater than 200 years old.

 

Carbon sequestration on the other hand, is the process of removing carbon from the atmosphere. Trees do this through photosynthesis. The rate at which forests sequester carbon changes over time. In NE forests carbon sequestration typically peaks when forests are around 30-70 years old. Forest-level sequestration rates generally decline with age, regardless of tree species or soil conditions.

 

Figure 3: In NE forests, carbon sequestration typically peaks when forests are around 30-70 years old.

The age of the forest not only influences the rate at which they sequester carbon but also the amount of carbon they store. A forest’s maximum rate of carbon sequestration happens when trees range in size from sapling, approximately 4 inches in diameter, through medium sawtimber, trees up to 16 inches in diameter. The maximum amount of carbon storage happens when trees are large sawtimber in size, greater than 18 inches in diameter. A forest composed of both young trees and old trees will have high rates of sequestration from the younger trees while maintaining the storage capacity and sequestration rates of the surviving older trees.

Maximizing carbon storage and sequestration is only part of the global carbon picture. To understand the full role forests play in the carbon cycle, one must consider both the amount of carbon stored in forest products and the amount of carbon saved when wood is used in place of more carbon-intensive materials, such as aluminum, plastic, steel and concrete. All carbon removed from the forest during a timber harvest is not immediately returned to the atmosphere. Approximately one-third of the forest products harvested in the NE United States are made into products with long life spans, such as furniture, flooring, and cabinets (Figure 4).

Figure 4: Approximately one-third of the forest products harvested in the NE United States are made into products with long life spans such as this red oak floor.

If we decide to continue using wood because it is the most environmentally friendly choice, but do not use wood harvested in Pennsylvania, then it must be imported from somewhere. If it comes from outside the state, it takes energy and carbon emissions to bring those wood products to our region. Using locally sourced wood not only increases the overall carbon sequestered, but also adds to the local economy.

It is important to understand the whole forest carbon story. This necessitates looking beyond the local level to both the regional and global scale and includes considering the role forest products play. The land-use decisions of Pennsylvania’s landowners will have a profound impact on our forests’ ability to sequester and store carbon and therefore the role they play in mitigating climate change. The greatest impact forest owners can have on carbon is to ensure their land remains a forest, i.e., keep forests as forests.

Reference: Forest Carbon:An Essential Natural Solution for Climate Change, By Paul Catanzaro, University of Massachusetts and Anthony D’Amato, The University of Vermont

Timber Industry Update

I saw this in the Morning Ag Clips and thought I would share with my readers.  It was written by Andrew Muhammad, Professor of Agriculture and Resource Economics at the University of Tennessee.

American timber industry crippled by double whammy

Trade war, COVID-19 pandemic, natural disasters all take their toll on the timber industry

PUBLISHED ON November 17, 2020

WASHINGTON — The forestry sector – landowners, logging companies and sawmills – have lost an estimated US$1.1 billion in 2020. Devastating wildfires and Hurricane Laura have played a part, but the COVID-19 pandemic has also contributed to significant losses. If workers are required to stay home, then no trees will be felled or logs sawed into lumber.

These losses have been exacerbated and amplified because of a longstanding trade war that has severely curbed the sale of U.S. forestry products to foreign markets, particularly China.

I am a professor of economics with a specialty in international agricultural trade, trade policy and global food demand. My work at the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture is informed by my nearly 10 years as a senior economist with USDA researching international trade issues affecting agriculture and forestry.

The US-China connection

Forest product exports in the U.S., including logs and lumber, were valued at $9.6 billion in 2018, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Forest products are the third leading U.S. agricultural export sector after soybeans and corn. In 2018, China accounted for nearly $3 billion of U.S. forest product exports.

The forest products relationship between China and the U.S. is complex. The U.S. sells logs and lumber to China; China uses the logs and lumber to produce finished wood products, such as furniture and hardwood flooring; and China exports these finished wood products to the world. Interestingly, the U.S. market is the leading destination for these exports. In 2018, U.S. imports of wooden furniture and other wood products from China exceeded $9 billion, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

This raises an obvious question: Why doesn’t the U.S. simply make furniture and flooring? The answer is wages. The wage differential between U.S. and Chinese workers makes it more profitable to sell logs and lumber to China and then buy back finished wood products.

Since the demand for products like logs and lumber is directly linked to the demand for finished wood products like furniture and flooring, any decline in the latter negatively affects U.S. forest product exports. To say that what happens in China does not necessarily stay in China is an understatement.

A vulnerable industry takes the hit

COVID-19 has caused a major disruption on U.S. forest exports and hindered production because of lockdowns, business closures and production stoppages. Many of these supply disruptions started in China, where lumber was being turned into furniture, chairs and other goods where the pandemic began.

However, another major factor has been the interruption of demand because of decreased incomes and delayed purchases by consumers. In the U.S., furniture sales decreased as much as 66% in April 2020 when stay-at-home orders went into effect. As of August of this year, U.S. imports of wood furniture and other wood products from China were down by nearly $2 billion, or 40%.

Consequently, U.S. forest product exports as of August 2020 had dropped by more than $670 million overall, with exports to China down by more than $100 million. Geographically, most of these losses are in the South, a loss of $246 million, followed by the West, with losses of $183 million, and the Northeast, with losses of $143 million. In addition, these substantial losses are compounded by a multiplier effect that go beyond the raw export numbers.

In my state of Tennessee, for instance, the forestry sector provided nearly 100,000 jobs and had an annual economic impact of more than $24 billion in 2017, accounting for nearly 3% of Tennessee’s economy. This, of course, was before the COVID-19 pandemic and the U.S. trade war, which has devastated the forestry sector. When considering the related activities associated with the forestry sector, such as trucking or equipment, total income and job losses are likely double the direct losses from export sales.

The economic fallout of the trade war

Prior to the pandemic, the U.S.-China trade war had already made the forestry sector vulnerable because of the tariffs that the Chinese government imposed on U.S. timber and the resulting loss in exports. The industry was in a crisis when COVID-19 hit.

In 2018, President Trump ordered that tariffs be imposed on Chinese imports, including a 10% tariff on furniture and related goods from China. In retaliation, the Chinese government imposed tariffs on many U.S. agricultural goods, including 25% tariffs on U.S. logs and lumber. This double taxation resulted in nearly halving the export to China – from $3 billion in 2018 to $1.6 billion in 2019. The trade war, compounded by COVID-19, has had a major negative effect on forest products export sales – from timber harvest and lumber production to timber exports – which hurts working people including loggers and mill workers. Sawmills, in particular, have taken a serious hit.

How is this related to the current pandemic? In January 2020, the U.S. and China signed the Phase One Trade Agreement. Based on the details of the agreement, timber and other forest product exports to China were expected to reach more than $4 billion in 2020. The fact that current export sales to China, as of August of 2020, were only $1 billion suggests that COVID-19 is having an even larger impact than the numbers reveal.

–Andrew Muhammad

Professor of Agriculture and Resource Economics

University of Tennessee