Treaty changing forest protocols

EDMONTON, Alberta – Global climate change is spurring some timber companies to become tree huggers.

Millions of dollars are pouring into projects to create “carbon belts” of new forests on farmland and prairie in Canada, Australia and South America.

Scientists hope the new forests might help suck up excess carbon dioxide and slow global warming. Energy companies and polluting nations are buying “carbon credits” through international markets that assign value to living forests and reward nations that cut greenhouse-effect gas emissions.

This brave new world of forestry, where living forests are more valuable than logs and pulp, created considerable buzz during a meeting this week of 1,500 foresters from Canada and the United States. Global warming has emerged as a major theme of the once-in-a-decade joint conference of the Canadian Institute of Forestry and the Society of American Foresters.

“How many of you have been asked to price a ton of carbon off your land recently?” Kristen Nelson, of the University of Minnesota, asked during a speech to the general assembly of foresters Sunday.

The Kyoto Protocol on global climate change allows countries to plant new forests to offset their own emissions or to sell credits from the forest to nations unable to meet their greenhouse-effect gas-reduction targets.

The Bush administration rejected the treaty in 2001, concerned that it could stymie economic growth and that more research was needed. Passage of the pact was essentially blocked until last week when Russia announced it would consider adoption of the treaty. The pact is expected to become binding early next year for the 122 signing nations.

News of Russia’s decision caused the price of carbon credits to jump 20 percent on international markets. But the price for a ton of carbon dioxide remains just above $1, which is still well-below the $8 per ton needed to make trees more valuable living than dead, according to a study conducted by Jeffrey Briggs, with the University of Toronto.

Even though the United States is not a signatory to the treaty, private companies can still participate in the global trading of carbon credits and the creation of carbon belts.

Some environmental groups worry that the so-called “Kyoto Forests” would be monoculture plantations with no ecological value. Most foresters, including Briggs, said the notion of carbon sink forests is filled with huge uncertainties.

“What if the tree burns down? Or with an insect infestation? What happens to the credit I sold?” Briggs said.

Nonetheless, the Canadian government this year planted about 5,000 acres of new forest – much of it hybrid poplar – in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba to help fulfill its Kyoto obligations. Massive new plantations have already been planted in Australia and other nations. And private investors and energy companies are busy buying up forest land around the world, including, in some cases, in the U.S.

Even as new trees are planted, however, vast swaths of North America’s native forests are already being destroyed by the climate changes, according to a variety of scientific reports presented at the conference. There’s widespread international consensus that global warming is causing massive changes, said Dave Spittlehouse, a researcher with the British Columbia Ministry of Forests.

“There’s no debate,” Spittlehouse said. “It’s happening.”

Increasingly mild winters are a major factor behind the epidemic spread of bark beetles throughout the province, Spittlehouse said. The bugs have chewed through provincial forest nearly the size of Sweden, destroying an estimated $15 billion in timber since the outbreak began a decade ago. An estimated 25,000 families in British Columbia have experienced job or wage loss because of the infestation, according to statistics from the B.C. Ministry of Forests.

A growing beetle infestation also is occurring in Idaho and Montana. The dying, orange-colored forests are easily spotted along parts of Interstate 90, including along Idaho’s Lookout Pass.

The increasing pace and spread of the beetle epidemic has Spittlehouse wondering if forests could be on the verge of a major crash because of global warming. He compared the theory with melting snow – rising temperatures cause little change to snow until the 32-degree threshold is met, then everything melts quickly.

Forests in Alberta also are experiencing outbreaks of beetles, spruce bud worms and aspen defoliators, said Hideji Ono, with the province’s Department of Sustainable Resource Development. Long-term climate data show the province is no longer experiencing the cold winters needed to crush forest insect pests. Successful fire suppression also has allowed a disproportionate share of the province’s forest to become too old and overly susceptible to disease and fire, Ono said.

“It’s the same with people, health care cost is going to be higher with an aging (forest) population,” Ono said, adding, “We are expecting ever-increasing outbreaks.”

The rising temperatures are expected to cause the most dramatic changes to the far north, said Tricia Wurtz, a scientist with the U.S. Forest Service in Fairbanks, Alaska.

The evidence appears to be piling, she said. Nearly 5 percent of the state’s landmass burned this summer during a record fire season. A recent study analyzing aerial photographs from the 1950s has shown “dramatic” decreases in the size of 33,000 Alaskan lakes, Wurtz said.

Spruce tree growth rates also have plummeted, following a 30-year trend of dryer, warmer conditions across Alaska, Wurtz said. Within 80 to 100 years, the growth of spruce in interior Alaska’s vast boreal forest is expected to “virtually come to a halt,” she added.

Boreal forests, along with oceanic plankton, are important consumers of carbon dioxide. The death of the northern forests could have large consequences for the planet, Wurtz said.