Ellen Engstedt - March 12, 2007
Montana Wood Products Association
Climate and Timber
While I am not much of a believer in conspiracy theories, the pieces of a puzzle continue to fall into place that indicates there is underway a nationwide effort to make global warming the issue du jour and the main political point of debate in upcoming elections.
If that statement sounds far fetched to anyone, think how out to lunch most of the rhetoric sounds to those of us who believe there is a change in climate but also believe it is a natural occurrence. Some of the same alleged scientists who are now spouting off about global warming were in the 1970s warning the rest of us about an impending ice age because the earth was cooling. Articles appeared in Time, Newsweek, and Fortune magazines quoting climatologists who implored government officials to take instant actions to ward off the doom of an ice age.
So, what is really at play? Thirty years ago we were going to all freeze to death and now we are told we are going to fry if we don’t change our ways. Rational folks realize that over centuries and millennia, climate variations on earth have set trees and other vegetation into motion across the landscape while attempting to adjust to change of temperature – up and down. Those same changes in temperature raise and lower sea levels and alter the course of waterways. The one thing we should all agree on is that the carbon question is extremely complex.
The timber community is constantly trying to do its part by reducing greenhouse emissions through active forest management. Trees are a major absorber of carbon and when harvested and made into value-added products the carbon is forever sequestered. The use of wood as a building material is very positive because other materials such as concrete and steel require a great deal of energy to produce and thereby release more carbon into the air. Wood products are a vital component of sound architectural design and among the most environmentally friendly of all building materials.
Another positive aspect of the use of wood products is the incentive it provides for forest landowners to keep their land as forests. One of the key elements in getting a grip on carbon in the atmosphere is to ensure that land containing trees is not turned into another use. However, the trees on the forested acres must be of a variety of ages and species. The best sequesters of carbon are vibrant, growing green trees. Once trees become old and begin to decay the carbon sequestered in them is released into the air and they become part of the problem instead of the solution.
One of the worst things to let happen is to allow our forests to become diseased and unhealthy. When that occurs and it has on millions of acres of national forests we face the kind of wildfire season we had last year – ten million acres of trees burned with an estimated 30 million tons of CO2 pumped into the air.
However, instead of promoting active forest management and the use of wood for building, fuzzy sounding legislation here and around the country is being introduced on all aspects of global warming and climate change from tax credits to cap and trade. Those are silly enough for us to deal with, but the most egregious and dangerous are those bills that tinker with building standards and attempt to put into statute the United States Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED, a system that clearly discriminates against wood products milled in Montana.
These pieces of legislation are being introduced to produce a voting record for elected officials as an indicator of where they stand on environmental issues. Perhaps those with the political agenda should reconsider the scare tactics of global warming and LEED certification and figure out ways they can proactively help the environment by encouraging the active management of Montana’s forests.
On behalf of the Montana Wood Products Association based in Helena, I am Ellen Engstedt. Thanks for listening.
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