Climate change is accelerating.

For the last 15 years, due to the increasingly unhealthy state of our forests, forest greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions have been approximately equal to all other reported GHGs in B.C. In fact, in the last three worst fire seasons, forest GHGs have far exceeded all our other emissions, based on the B.C. government’s own data.

In the past, B.C. forests stored carbon, on balance. Something needs to change and that something is clearcut logging.

Clearcut logging involves the removal of a mature stand of trees, which would otherwise sequester large amounts of carbon every year. Afterward logging, the amount of carbon sequestration is severely reduced for decades. Clearcut logging destroys understory plants and compacts the soil, killing much of the soil bacteria and fungi. That means the forest soil that the new tree growth will depend on will be severely depleted. As a result, tree growth is slower and trees are less healthy.

Clearcut logging also dries out the land. There are no old, decaying logs left. Those logs are not only important food and shelter for many animals, plants and the soil flora, they act like sponges to hold moisture and reduce drying of the land.........

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