Sustainable forestry is our natural carbon solution

About the Forest Products Sector Carbon Bill

The Forest Products Sector Carbon Bill – HB 2528 – is landmark legislation that recognizes the critical role the entire forest products sector plays in addressing climate change. The bill, signed into law on March 25th, 2020, distinguishes the private forestry sector as one of the most effective and natural ways to remove greenhouse gases from our atmosphere, sequestering 12% of the state’s carbon emission annually.

Sustainably managed forests provide a renewable timber supply of wood-based goods that retain the stored carbon throughout the life of the wood product. The Forest Products Sector Carbon Bill acknowledges that an intact and synergistic forest products sector is vital for forestland owners to continue the rotational cycle of carbon capture and sequestration in growing trees.

Myths

  • The forestry and wood products industry are unrelated to reducing our state’s carbon footprint.
  • Once a tree is harvested the carbon stored is gone and makes its way back into the atmosphere.
  • Cutting down trees for commercial purposes is not sustainable.
  • It would be better for the environment if the forests were left alone.
  • The majority of harvested trees are burned or decomposed, thus releasing carbon back into the atmosphere.

Facts

  • Growing trees absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and wood products store that carbon. The sustainable forestry industry provides a continuous cycle of wood products by planting 52 million carbon-absorbing trees each year.
  • The carbon remains stored in the wood for the life of the wood product. That means using wood for buildings, furniture, fences and other durable wood products helps keep carbon out of the atmosphere.
  • The trees planted today are planned for a harvest 30–60 years from now. In fact, foresters plant three trees for every one harvested, ensuring the forestry industry continues to meet society’s needs for generations to come.
  • Catastrophic wildfires are caused by unhealthy forest conditions. The forestry industry helps maintain a healthy forest balance by removing dead trees, overcrowded stands and underbrush, reducing the severity of wildfires.
  • Allowing a harvested tree to burn or decompose is a very inefficient use of a high-value commodity. Harvested trees are used to make lumber, landscaping bark, plywood, paper and other valuable forest products.
“The bill recognizes the importance of our forest products sector and the state’s goal to sequester carbon and reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions. We can support rural communities, living wage jobs and climate change actions by managing healthy forests, sustainably harvesting trees and replanting new crops for the next generation.”
Gov. Jay Inslee
“There’s a presumption out there that timber harvesting and environmental protection are mutually exclusive, but we’re learning that the opposite is true. By aligning timber practices and cycles with the state’s carbon reduction goals, we can boost our rural economies and improve our environmental health at the same time.”
State Sen. Kevin Van De Wege (D-Sequim)
“The challenge for many small landowners is keeping their forest land forested in light of development pressure, and this bill helps us by recognizing that harvesting, transportation and manufacturing sectors all work together to help maintain our forestlands…helping ensure that forest land is part of the carbon solution for generations to come.”
Heather Hansen, Washington Farm Forestry Association
“This legislation recognizes the importance of trees, wood and paper products in absorbing and storing carbon. Recognition that the forest and wood products sector, including landowners, mills, bioenergy, pulp and paper, and the related harvesting and transportation infrastructure is part of our state’s natural climate solution, also supports rural communities and jobs.”
Mark Doumit, WFPA Executive Director
“To maintain good long-term harvest and sequestration, we have to have a good forest products industry that’s working throughout. We have to make sure that we don’t lose part of it and then we have maybe trees but no way to get them to market.”
State Rep. Bill Ramos (D-Issaquah)
“When you think about it no other industry in the state of Washington can do what we do. Every day, we get up and go to work and our trees are pulling carbon out of the atmosphere and storing it in solid wood materials.”
Jason Spadaro, SDS Lumber Company
“It’s really clear that without markets you don’t keep forests. That is this true in Washington as it is across the globe. We’ve seen that across the globe that where there are markets, there is an incentive to reforest and maintain high carbon stocks.”
Elaine O’Neil, Washington Farm Forestry Association
“Keeping existing forests as forests and planting new working forests is the most effective way to combat climate change, and this bill does that. It incentivizes forestation and planting over burned-over land. And, it has the ability to provide a market-based approach to carbon trading now.”
Court Stanley, Port Blakely
“We appreciate the overwhelming bipartisan majorities in the Legislature for recognizing our entire industry is essential to state climate solutions. The state understands the enormous potential for sustainable and renewable Washington-grown and manufactured wood products, which not only store carbon for generations, but support thousands of family-wage jobs as well.”
Travis Joseph, AFRC president
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Frequently Asked Questions

Scientists, researchers, environmental organizations and working foresters alike recognize that trees are a natural solution to climate change and working forests are an effective way to sequester greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. In fact, 48 CEOS representing forestry, conservation and environmental organizations recently signed on to a set of principles that recognize the important role sustainably managed forests and forest products can play in mitigating climate change. Included in the group are the Nature Conservancy and the Environmental Defense Fund. 

Foresters work with state agencies, biologists and the community to help safeguard wildlife. Sustainably managed forestlands provide valuable fish and wildlife habitat, recreational opportunities, water quality protection and other natural resource benefits. In fact, private forestland owners in Washington have led the way in fish habitat restoration, opening more than 5,200 miles of fish waterways by removing or replacing 7,900 stream blockages, and are on pace to meet their goal of removing all fish barriers on private lands by the end of 2021.

Selected harvests and thinning are critical to managing forestlands, promoting healthy forests that are more resilient to wildfire, disease and infestations. In addition, sustainably managed forests provide wildlife habitat, recreational space and are integral to maintaining air and water quality.

Virtually every inch of a harvested is used to make lumber, cross-laminated timber and other durable wood products. In addition, wood shavings, branches and other tree residuals are used to make paper, medicine, ingredients in food, cosmetics, renewable fuel and other products that consumers use and rely on every day. 

Washington state has an ambitious goal of reducing 95% of its carbon emissions by 2050. To do that requires a multi-faceted approach because there’s not just one solution to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. The forestry industry plays a critical part of the climate solution. Trees are the most natural way to remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere, and a robust forestry industry ensures a continuous cycle of planting, harvesting and replanting to maintain the carbon cycle.

The manufacturing of concrete and steel is energy-intensive and primarily powered by fossil fuels. The manufacturing of wood-based building materials, on the other hand, is considerably less carbon intensive and results in far fewer carbon emissions. And unlike concrete and steel, wood grows naturally and is a renewable resource.

See What Others Are Saying About Carbon Solutions

The forest industry is part of a carbon-friendly solution.

Managed forests and wood products are a naturally occurring part of the solution to address goals for reducing carbon emissions by storing carbon in the forest and wood products.  Scientific research has demonstrated that forests provide environmental values, including removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere that non-forested landscapes cannot.

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