The role of wood products in forest carbon accounting

By Suzanne Hearn, Forest2Market

tTt"" oNGorNG coNTRovERSy over forest carbon account- I ing reminds me of the H.L. Mencken cuote. ..For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple and wrong." The clear and simple answers for complex questions, such as when to start the carbon accountins clock, for example, are oftentimes fraught with error.

How should we go about accounting for the many ways a tree continues to sequester carbon after a harvest? We know forest carbon accounting systems must account for:

Forest inputs such as fertilizer and herbicides

Moisture and material loss

Electricity used to transform raw wood material to wood pellets

. Fuel (diesel) used to harvest trees and transport materials from the forest to the boiler

Methods to interpret other variables that considerably affect forest carbon-forest composition, geography and past land use, for instance-are less clear. Environmental stressors such as hurricanes or pest outbreaks and economic Pressures like conversion to croP land and urbanization contribute to imbalanced carbon accounting ledgers. Add to this the difficulties of applying the same set of measurement criteria to different wood markets, and we have a complex problem indeed.

Garbon Sequestration in Long-Lived-Wood Products

One particular question that deserves an answer is how forest carbon accounting schemes account for the carbon sequestered in end-use products. Changes in forest carbon stocks occur whenever forests are harvested, yet these changes do not mean all of the carbon sequestered by the harvested trees is immediatelY released into the atmosphere. In fact, it is quite the opposite.

Hundreds of products made from trees- lumber, OSB, PlYwood, PaPer, packaging and furniture, to name a few-continue to sequester carbon for decades. Table 1 (on previous page) displays the percentage of primary wood products that remain in an end use product after a specified number of years following harvest and production.

For example, column two indicates 5':. .97o of softwood lumber remains in an end-use product like lumber or furniture 25 years after the initial harvest. This means that as of todaY

57.9Vo of the softwood lumber manufactured 25 years ago remains "in service," sequestering carbon in the studs, joists and floors of our homes. After 100 years, nearlY a quarter (23.4Vo) of softwood lumber harvested a century earlier remains in products that sequester carbon.

When considered in terms of a tYPical 25-year sawtimber rotation, the ongoing sequestration benefits of a harvest are staggering. Forests in the U.S. South produced 47 million tons of southern yellow Pine lumber in 2072. Converting this to tonnes and taking moisture content and carbon percentage into account translates into carbon sequestration, expressed as its CO2 equivalent, of 59,190,390 tonnes. By 2038, when 57.9Vo of lumber from the original harvest remains in service in products, 34,27 1,236 tonnes remain sequestered (Table 2).

Now let us consider the CO2 emissions from wood pellets Produced from the same harvest (Table 3).lf we estimate 6,000,000 tonnes of pellets were produced from sawtimber harvest byproducts, we find 9,122,511 tonnes of CO, are released to the atmosphere from those pellets. When we subtract the 9.122.5'71 tonnes of CO2 emitted from those pel- lets from the 59,190,390 tonnes of CO2 sequestered in the lumber, we have a net gain of 50067,819 ronnes

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CO2 sequestered (column 2 , Table I ).

To consider these benefits across time, the amount of lumber taken in an initial harvest is multiplied by the percentage of lumber that remains in an end-use product in the years following that harvest. Immediately after a harvest, l00%o of the lumber Produced sequesters carbon. Within one year,3Vo of that lumber is no longer in use. As a result, orly 97Vo of the lumber produced in the initial harvest remains in use to sequester carbon in year two.

Table 4 (previous page) shows these cumulative affects at the time of harvest and one, five, 10, 15, 20 and 25 years into the future. KeeP in mind, this sequestration benefit is from the softwood lumber Produced from just one harvest. These numbers do not account for the carbon that remains sequestered in other wood products, such as OSB or PaPer.

Carbon Accounting for Wood Pellets

Just as it is illogical to believe l00Vo of the carbon sequestered by a harvested tree is immediately released to the atmosphere, it is irrational to include the carbon from a whole tree when accounting for carbon in the wood pellets used to generate electricity. Pellets are produced from harvest byproducts such as the unmerchantable tops and limbs of whole trees. A good portion of the carbon stored by those trees remains sequestered in lumber and other forest products.

Likewise, carbon accounting for wood pellets sourced from whole pulpwood trees (the come-along products of a sawtimber harvest) must count only the carbon sequestered by those small trees that go into the pellet, not the large sawtimber-sized trees used for lumber and other longlived products.

An accurate forest carbon accounting system must consider both forest carbon and carbon that remains in harvested wood products (Table 5). A failure to account for carbon stores in long-lived wood products considerably inflates emissions estimates in the harvest year. We simPlY cannot declare wood-to-energy is a problem until we account for and explore the many challenges inherent in complex systems of carbon accounting.

- Suzanne Hearn is vP.-sales & marketing for Forest2Market. Reach her at suzanne,he arn@for e st2marke t.c om.

Calculations in this piece are based on logic presented in Dovetail Partners Carbon in Wood Products - The Basics.

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Dean Roland Bramon, 97, former operator of Carl Diebold Lumber, Troutdale, Or., died March 17.

He served in the 95th and 99th infantry divisions during World War II, fighting in the Battle of the Bulge and the invasion of Nazi Germany.

After his discharge, he joined his father-in-law's wholesale lumber business, running the new stud mill it opened in 1946.ln 1952, he partnered with Diebold to buy a redwood mill in Smith River, Ca. In 1959, they added a distribution yard in Wood Village, Or. He retired and turned the business over to his son-in-law, Jim Patrick, after building a new reman plant in Troutdale in 1989.

Dave A. Heitzman.8l. retired commodities buyer for BMC West, Bellevue, Wa., died April l5 at his new home in Montana.

He served with the Army during the Korean War, earning a Bronze Star with valor and a Purple Heart.

He managed retail yards in Hanah, Zillah, Prosser, Wenatchee and Quincy, Wa., before retiring from BMC in 1989.

Howard H. Hofmann. 80. owner of Howard Hofmann & Associates, Albuquerque, N.M., died April 19 of lung cancer.

Before forming his own lumber and panel consulting service, he was a field rep for Western Wood Products Association in San Jose. Ca.. and American Plywood Association in Denver, Co. He also worked for Weyerhaeuser Building Systems, Hillsboro, Or.

Gilbert Carpenter, 86, longtime manager for A.C. Houston Lumber Co., died April4 in Santa Fe, N.M.

After seving in the U.S. Navy from 1946 to 1948, he began his lumber career as a salesman with Independent Lumber in Colorado, before joining A.C. Houston, eventually serving as general manager and overseeing the design, construction and opening of new yards in Colorado, Idaho, New Mexico, California and Nevada.

Francis "Franc" H. Rice, 82, former partner and co-manager of Linder-Kind Lumber Co., Helena, Mt., died March 18.

He served in the U.S. Armv durinp the Korean War.

Thomas Elza Lucas. 91. owner of Lucas Builders Supply and Lucas Lumber, Ogden, Ut., died April 13 in Coalville, Ut.

A U.S. Navy veteran of World War II, he continued workins at Lucas Lumber until age 90.

David Schoech,70, retired manager of Hylton Lumber Co., Salida, Co., died March 25 in Aurora, Co. He served in the U.S. Navy during the Vietnam War. In l97O,he became a home builder and, after I I years.

Ruby Evelyn Hollifield ,97, former co-owner and bookkeeper of Hollifield Lumber Co., Philo, Ca., died March 23.

She and her husband. Buster. opened the lumber mill in the I 940s.

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