‘Strategic Forest Reserves’ the Wrong Strategy for Climate Change

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by Nick Smith, Healthy Forests, Healthy Communities “S trategic Forest Reserves” is the latest idea based on the notion we can fix climate change by walking away from forests and not removing any trees.

There’s no question forests have an important role to play in addressing climate change. Healthy forests can sequester and store enormous amounts of carbon. But setting aside forests, particularly those managed by federal agencies, as “strategic” reserves for carbon storage is the wrong strategy.

That’s because many of our forests are not healthy. Unhealthy forests tend to lose carbon due to high levels of tree mortality and wildfire. About 80 million acres of National Forest System lands are at risk of catastrophic wildfires or abnormal levels of insect and disease impacts and need forest management treatments.

Like congressionally designated Wilderness areas, “Strategic Forest Reserves” would restrict the use of active forest management tools - such as logging - under the premise these areas would “store the most carbon and help the most species.” The reserves would ultimately span millions of acres across 11 western states. As a proponent claimed:

“The key to this is that it needs to be permanent. That means you’re going to keep the carbon there. You’re not going to cut the forest. The high carbon density forests are mature and older forests.”

This argument suggests forested ecosystems are static, meaning if these forests are left alone, old trees will live and store carbon forever. But as we’ve witnessed in recent years, this is simply not the case as climate-driven drought, insect infestations and disease have killed millions upon millions of trees.

Dead trees do not store carbon, they only emit carbon, and dead trees serve as fuel for severe wildfires that are emitting tons of carbon into the atmosphere.

Wilderness-style “protections” do not save older forests. For example, wildfires in California this year killed nearly a fifth of the planet’s giant sequoia trees, including