Comment Log Display

The ARB plan permits timber companies to clearcut California’s
forests, while allowing the companies to sell “credits” in the
process. Since trees take at least 80 to 100 years to recoup their
carbon emissions after clearcutting, there is no credible
justification for permitting this type of trading. 
The carbon emissions from clearcutting—which includes all the
impacts from soil disturbance—are not offset for 80 to 100 years or
more. We do not have time to wait that long, in the battle to save
the planet from global warming. Under this plan, polluters will be
able to trade their emissions for credits from forestry “offsets”
that are not offsets at all, and will only serve to hasten the
demise of the planet and California’s rich biological heritage.
California’s Sierra Nevada and Klamath-Siskiyou forests are
designated global biodiversity hotspots. Clearcutting – as
practiced by the majority of timber companies in the state and
sanctioned by our state regulators—permanently eliminates habitat
for entire suites of plants and wipes out the entire home ranges
for dozens of animals. Even though trees are replanted, the
resulting tree farm bears nothing in common with a natural forest
(except for the presence of one or two species of conifers). This
doesn't even consider the amount of poisonous herbicides reaching
our streams from this practice.
Please strip (clearcut)this provision from the protocol and
disallow clearcutting.