How the forestry industry can help with climate change

Nadgee State Forest, near Eden NSW

The amount of carbon the forestry industry removes from the atmosphere is more than the industry emits. By removing carbon from the atmosphere through natural growth of vegetation, trees absorb and store carbon.

When trees are removed for harvesting, a part of each tree (like its branches and bark) is left behind; this is called 'slash'. The slash will decay or be burned, releasing the carbon into the atmosphere. Also, when soils are disturbed during clearing, underground biomass or organic matter in the soils decomposes to release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. The sequestration ability of forests, that is, their ability to absorb carbon from the atmosphere, more than offsets these harvest emissions.

A wood product, which might be a house frame, a power pole or a floorboard, will store carbon for the duration of its life in service and usually well beyond. Only when that product is burned, or broken down by natural processes (decay), will its carbon be released to the atmosphere.

Consider this:

A crop of trees is established in a bare paddock, grown for 30 years, then cut down to make wood products. The paddock is replanted with new trees which are grown for another 30 years and then cut down and converted into more wood products. This process is repeated many times and the forest is always regrown. After 200 years, a stocktake of the carbon reveals that significantly more net carbon has been captured and stored by the series of tree crops than if the single crop of trees had been established and grown in the paddock. By allowing carbon to exist in both trees and in long-lived wood products, more carbon in total can be stored.

From left: Young pine plantation; mature pine plantation; milled timber. All are storing carbon.

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