This study has interesting implications for the BC ministry of forests' policies around salvage logging of burned forests. An explanatory article at phys.org included an interview with Mark Harmon, the lead author:
"We suggest that researchers and policy makers avoid using combustion rates not based on field study as they appear to overstate the wildfire emissions used incarbon emissionsreporting; this can potentially misdirect climate mitigation policy," he said.
Dead trees decompose slowly as new vegetation grows and absorbs atmospheric carbon, the scientists point out. If fire-killed trees are allowed to remain in place, the natural decomposition process might take decades to hundreds of years to release the trees' carbon.
On the other hand, if those trees are logged to serve as energy-producing biomass, that same carbon could potentially enter the atmosphere much faster. More study is needed, the researchers note, to determine the degree to which post-fire forest management influences the carbon release time frame, including how biomass energy might offset the burning of fossil fuels and how wood products release carbon as they are used and disposed.
"The effects of salvaging and putting some of that wood into durablewood productsneed to be fully investigated," Harmon said. "More fires need to be examined using our type of approach to determine how variable the combustion rates are at different levels for different forest types and ages."
(2022) Combustion of Aboveground Wood from Live Trees in Megafires, CA, USA
in Library: Ecologically damaging practices
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This study has interesting implications for the BC ministry of forests' policies around salvage logging of burned forests. An explanatory article at phys.org included an interview with Mark Harmon, the lead author:
"We suggest that researchers and policy makers avoid using combustion rates not based on field study as they appear to overstate the wildfire emissions used in carbon emissions reporting; this can potentially misdirect climate mitigation policy," he said.
Dead trees decompose slowly as new vegetation grows and absorbs atmospheric carbon, the scientists point out. If fire-killed trees are allowed to remain in place, the natural decomposition process might take decades to hundreds of years to release the trees' carbon.
On the other hand, if those trees are logged to serve as energy-producing biomass, that same carbon could potentially enter the atmosphere much faster. More study is needed, the researchers note, to determine the degree to which post-fire forest management influences the carbon release time frame, including how biomass energy might offset the burning of fossil fuels and how wood products release carbon as they are used and disposed.
"The effects of salvaging and putting some of that wood into durable wood products need to be fully investigated," Harmon said. "More fires need to be examined using our type of approach to determine how variable the combustion rates are at different levels for different forest types and ages."