New Push To Preserve and Restore Redwood Forests
San Francisco Chronicle, April 30, 2020:
New reason to conserve redwoods — they’re best at storing polluting carbon
A fervid new push is being made to protect and restore previously clear-cut coast redwood forests after studies documented how they store more carbon than any other tree, a characteristic that researchers believe could be used as a bulwark against global warming.
The idea by Save the Redwoods League, a San Francisco nonprofit that has been the state’s most ardent defender of the giant trees since 1918, is to manage the cut-over forests in a way that would augment growth, biodiversity and make the standing groves more economically valuable than they are as lumber.
Save The Redwoods League Press Release, April 30, 2020:
Research from Save the Redwoods League and Humboldt State University Confirms Significant Role of Redwood Forests in California’s Climate Fight
Newly published research from Save the Redwoods League and Humboldt State University (HSU) confirms the exceptionally large role that redwood forests can play in California’s strategy to address climate change. The research demonstrates that old-growth coast redwood forests store more carbon per acre than any other forest type. Forests of giant sequoia, coast redwoods’ closest relative, come in second. The findings cap 11 years of research through the League’s Redwoods and Climate Change Initiative (RCCI), which has also revealed that younger second-growth coast redwood forests grow quickly enough to result in substantial carbon storage in a relatively short period. This makes a strong case for investing in the restoration of previously logged redwood forests.Link to full article here