Forests of Carbon
Mountain pine beetle devastation in BC has resulted in 400-plus million cubic metres of dead wood, enough to rebuild the three cities of Toronto, Montreal and New York. This one ecological disaster, the largest in North America, means that BC’s 60 million hectares of forests are now a net emitter of greenhouse gases, and the province will be unable to reach its goal of reducing its GHG emissions 30% by 2020.
Study, “Managing BC’s Forests For A Cooler Planet,” by Ben Parfitt, a collaborative work of environmentalists, labour unions and academics, proposes a revolutionary change in BC’s forestry practices. The emphasis would shift from the maximum amount of cut that forests can sustain to the maximum amount of carbon that can be sequestered in trees and wood products – from an Annual Allowable Cut to a Carbon Cut Calculation (CCC).
