Clearing California’s forests of dense overgrowth is a critical first step for curbing catastrophic wildfire in the state.
Clearing California’s forests of dense overgrowth is a critical first step for curbing catastrophic wildfire in the state. But forest restoration — whether through prescribed burning or thinning — comes at a high price: Not only are these treatments costly, but cutting down or burning vegetation can release stored carbon dioxide, accelerating the impacts of climate change.
A new analysis by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, provides a roadmap for how the state can effectively reduce wildfire risk through forest thinning while continuing to limit its carbon emissions.
By creating a market for small diameter trees and other woody biomass — particularly by encouraging the use of long-lived “innovative wood products,” such as oriented strand board — the state can both create an economic incentive for effective forest management and prevent the carbon stored in this vegetation from entering the atmosphere.
“It’s hard to manage our forests without releasing carbon,” said study first author Bodie Cabiyo, a Ph.D. candidate in UC Berkeley’s Energy and Resources Group. “But if we’re really efficient and careful about how we are using the wood and invest in innovative wood products that can use waste wood, then we can achieve both net carbon benefits and wildfire mitigation benefits in California.”
Read more at: University of California - Berkeley
Thinning treatments reduce the risk of wildfire and provide ecological benefits for California’s forests, but they also generate wood residues that are often burnt or left to decay, releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. A new analysis by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, shows how incentivizing industries that convert wood residues into useful products — including biofuels and construction-quality engineered lumber — could fund forest thinning treatments while preventing the release of carbon. (Photo Credit: UC Berkeley - Bodie Cabiyo)
