First Name | John |
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Last Name | Kramer |
Email Address | jkramer@gmail.com |
Affiliation | Citizen |
Subject | No Cap and Trade Benefits for Clear-cutting, please. |
Comment | Inclusion of forest clear-cutting in the cap and trade program makes no sense because it encourages multi-fronted environmental damage with far more potential climate damage than any sequestration gains from resulting lumber products. Clear-cutting is a systemically destructive process opening the landscape to erosional damage. The resulting even-aged monoculture tree plantations are more vulnerable to population colapse than forrests of diverse age and species. Deforestation is the precursor to worsening climate change, (e.g. Easter Island, Middle East,etc.). Healthy (uneven aged) forests are natural buffers against desertification, modulating humidty, consuming CO2, and stabilizing soil carbon (a huge unmeasured reservoir). It takes many many decades for a tree plantation to reach the three dimensional carbon density of leaf mass in a mature uneven-aged forest. Though lumber companies may claim that sequestration of carbon in lumber products is most efficiently handled by clear cutting, their claims are self serving. Lumber from judicious mature tree harvesting provides enough offseting benefit for lumber harvesters. There is no need to encourage clear cutting with its poorly understood environmental liabilityes. This cap and trade program should not be encourage smokestack industries to pay for raping our landscape. |
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Date and Time Comment Was Submitted | 2010-12-02 18:37:54 |
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