The Draft 2022 Scoping Plan should enable the removal of more
carbon dioxide by forests than it does. The carbon removal should
happen NOW.
The preferred NWL alternative 3 calls for more forest thinning
as the only forest related action. Thinning will result in more GHG
emissions. Every tree removed is carbon lost. Thinning removes far
more carbon than if all the thinned areas burned. If there were a
fire, only approximately 3% of the tree carbon burns.
Fuel reduction May or may not reduce fire intensity. Many
studies have shown it doesn't. It is not proven that fuel reduction
will result in more resilient carbon rich forests in the long term
and this possible improvement would take years to happen--too late
for us to address the climate crisis.
Forest management practices should be modified to increase
carbon storage rather than detract from it by 1. Reducing or
eliminating clear cutting, 2. Eliminating salvage logging and
retain dead trees which store carbon for decades, retain moisture,
and provide habitat for more wildlife, 4. Increasing the length of
plantation rotation cycles to decrease young flammable stands of
trees.
Lastly, electric utilities should be required to insulate their
bare wire distribution lines rather than remove millions of trees
that could be sequestering and storing carbon.
California needs to promote forest management practices that
result in more stored and sequestered carbon NOW.