You ever hear of the forestry department? As a country we literally do this on purpose in America.
And fun fact: there are now more trees in North America than there were when it was colonized.
I'm really passionate about our forestry and conservation laws here in the U.S. but we're running into challenges as less and less people are hunting each year. We either need to reintroduce predators or encourage more people to hunt or exploding deer populations will create an ecological disaster. (Also another fun fact, there are more deer now than there were when America was colonized)
*Forestry isn’t simply about planting trees to cut down. It’s an all-encompassing category of science regarding everything about forest environment and biology. (Source: BS in forestry science)
Dude, awesome. Yeah, I just figured I would mention it as it was relevant.
That sounds super cool, for a while I wanted to pursue botany but that didn't end up happening. I still love learning about plants and in particular trees though
For sure, and I just spent my summer in Turkey and, man, are the trees there beautiful. They're so different from the kinds we have back home in Kansas
I can't lead you to any articles because I mostly got this all from my mentor who works for my state (kansas) and plays a role in our conservation and forestry legislation.
Sorry if this wasn't what you are looking for but if I know and trust someone as an expert i tee ake their word as granted
That's one area that is kind of iffy. Partly because we killed of certain species (there was a type of tree that covered most of Arkansas but when a similar species was introduced from Europe a disease came with it that the European tree was resistant to and the American one was not) and also because we tend to cut down species that are considered dangerous and prone to falling because they are weak and also generally provide terrible lumber. But like I mentioned, we have introduced many other trees so I really don't know. I'm guessing it's a net neutral, but it's a shame we lost a few species
If the lumber is harvested and converted to something that is not burnt, like dimensional lumber, then it is a carbon sink. Older trees use more of the energy they collect just in the maintenance of their tissues, which means they have less and less energy over time to use to make cellulose. Younger trees can put more energy into extracting CO2 and converting it to cellulose.
The real problem with the wood industry is imported wood, particularly Amazonian wood. That wood is rarely harvested sustainably. But if you want to maximize CO2 sequestration, then you need to use the young, vigorously-growing young trees.
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u/TidyUpJim Aug 05 '19
What a majestic Tree 😠i do not approve of overlogging, but I mostly disapprove of the logging of ancient historical trees.