Who Maintains Your Sink? LOGGERS!
Posted: October 10, 2016Source: Linkedin By: Wendy Farrand
No! I am not talking about your kitchen or bathroom sink, I am talking about your carbon sink. Two of the largest carbon sinks on the planet are the oceans and the forest. They suck up carbon out of the air to help fight pollution and mitigate climate change. Who is helping to maintain your forest carbon sink? In other words, who is caring for the health of your forests?
We’ve all seen the graphic of a factory spouting trails of pollution to the left, and a lush green forest sucking up all the carbon to the right. Remember what Einstein said, “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.” Well, simply put, that is what the forests do, and hear this, it does it even better when it’s well managed. The verdict seems to be out, a well-managed, young forest sucks up more carbon than old growth.
I am not a forester or a carbon sequestration guru, but that doesn’t mean that I can’t understand a simple chain of events when it comes to forest management. Loggers risk their lives every day to keep our homes stocked with the products we enjoy or need on a daily basis. We should treasure them even more knowing that by purchasing these products from sustainably managed forests, we are not only supporting a very important industry that employs close to a million people, but we are also helping to fight climate change. http://www.afandpa.org/our-industry/economic-impact
Imagine this, you own 500 acres and you need to pay the taxes in order to keep that beautiful land. If it’s working timberland, you can manage it in order to pay your taxes and enjoy the woods that you own. Now, all of a sudden, from out of nowhere logging is banned, and now you cannot manage your forest for the future. What is a landowner to do? You were counting on that sustainable income to pay the taxes and keep your own slice of heaven for enjoyment in your golden years. Taxes are mounting, pressure is building, and the possibility of liens looms in the distance. Who will buy timberland that cannot be managed? There is really only one possibility, and that is to hopefully sell it to a developer. Yikes, in order to develop and build, the forest needs to be cleared. The last time I looked, trees cannot grow up through the basement of a building. The top two causes of deforestation worldwide is development and agriculture. So unless you convert your land for agriculture, there is no other way to reap a return on your investment. The next thing you know, a realtor is hanging a for-sale sign under your favorite maple tree.
There is this unspoken and sometimes spoken misconception that loggers cause deforestation. Nothing could be further from the truth, loggers are the number one cause of sustaining a healthy forest. With very effective third-party certification programs, logging maintains the forest and that renewable resource for years to come. Loggers are not bad, bad loggers are bad.
It is very sad that in places where loggers were basically put out of business and run out of town, there are now rampant wildfires and people turning towards the government to fund cutting dead trees. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_zm3CjZqys Really? what is wrong with this picture? Einstein was right, explaining it in simple terms means you understand what is going on. As I see it, loggers and their knowledge and respect for the forest were discounted and now millions in tax dollars are needed to help mitigate the wildfires that have caused such pain and heartache to homeowners and landowners alike.
So, as you look around your home, at rooms filled with products from the forest, know that you are aiding in the fight against climate change. Sustainably harvested wood products help keep forests working so they can continue to renew themselves, stay green and suck up that nasty carbon that is spouting from the factory smokestack. There is a balance, that balance teeters between a keyword and practice. That word is not ban, or stop, it’s sustain. Loggers are environmentalists who love and respect the forests as much as you or I do.
So by maintaining one of our two largest carbon sinks, loggers are in essence fighting climate change. While they are risking their lives to bring you the products you find in your home every day, they truly are the heroes that might just save the planet.