Press Statement by the Federal Forest Resource Coalition on “Climate Forests” Campaign “Report” on Timber Projects:
July 12, 2022: The groups behind the “Climate Forests Campaign” –Sierra Club, Center for Biological Diversity, Natural Resources Defense Council, and the League of Conservation voters – have total annual budgets exceed $450 million. With all that money, you’d think they’d be able to afford a carbon calculator.
“Wildfires are the major threat to old growth, as Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack noted recently,” said Bill Imbergamo, FRRC Executive Director. “If we are going to ‘save’ old growth, we have to manage it, removing less fire tolerant trees to reduce fire intensity.”
Wildfires on National Forest lands in California in 2020 released the C02 equivalent of emissions from about11 million cars. Wildfires in 2018 emitted enough carbon to charge over 17 trillion cell phones.
The Climate Forests Campaign claim that standing trees on the National Forests account for “more than 95 percent of forest carbon,” with less than 4 percent of carbon stored in products (like lumber or panels).
“The National Forests have supplied over half a trillion board feet of timber to meet the needs of the American people since 1940. Yet miraculously, these forests, by these groups own account, still store massive amounts of carbon. Seems like a good idea to keep managing them to me,” said Imbergamo.
“Species like the Red Cockaded Woodpecker strongly prefer mature Longleaf or Shortleaf pine forests, and the Forest Service’s timber sale program creates
millions of acres of those forests through active management, including the sale of sawtimber. Red Cockaded Woodpecker nesting clusters are thriving on the South’s National Forests.
The “green” groups clearly aren’t concerned about protecting old or big trees, as these trees have been going up in flames on the National Forests in droves since these groups jawboned the Clinton Administration into crashing the National Forest timber sale program in the early 1990’s.
“The objective here is to muddy the waters and throw up one more roadblock to management. Half the National Forest System is off limits to management – either roadless, wilderness, or wild and scenic rivers. Harvest on the rest is strictly limited, and groups like this have ample opportunities to sue if they have site specific concerns,” Imbergamo said. “There’s no accident that they rolled out this strategy just a few weeks after Chief Moore announced an effort to step up management on our fire prone forests.”
“Adopting a ‘mature tree’ conservation policy isn’t meant to conserve big trees. It’s an effort to distract from what everyone knows needs to happen. The Biden Administration would be wise to listen to their own forest scientists and managers, and to keep managing the unreserved National Forests to provide benefits to all Americans.”
About the FFRC: FFRC is a national coalition of wood products companies, local governments, conservation groups united by concern for the National Forests. FFRC supports improving the management of the federal lands to support healthy forests and vibrant rural communities.
Federal Forest Resource Coalition|
1901 Pennsylvania Ave., NW Suite 303
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