Massachusetts bill would block logging, let state forests keep their carbon

Enlarge / A gravel path cuts through a forest in Mount Everett State Reservation in Massachusetts. (credit: Mass.gov)

We're going to have to do more than just reduce greenhouse gas emissions to combat climate change, according to an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report issued last year. Given our current emissions trajectory, we'll also have to remove excess carbon from the atmosphere. Unfortunately, there is not a proven industrial technique that can accomplish carbon removal on the scale required.

But the IPCC authors do point out a rather banal way to draw CO₂ out of the atmosphere: trees.

This year, Massachusetts lawmakers proposed novel legislation that would enlist all state forest lands in the fight against climate change by protecting them from commercial logging. The law would affect roughly 600,000 acres. If it passes, "Massachusetts would become a model for wildland protection and for using its public lands to maximize carbon storage and address the climate crisis," said Edward Faison, senior ecologist at Highstead, a New England-based ecological research organization.

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