Green Options

If all goes as planned, conservation groups such as the Sierra Club will be buying 3,000 acres of land that was previously set for a clearcut. The parcels, located in Washington’s Skykomish Valley, include ecologically sensitive old growth forests and provide the scenic view that the neighboring areas are known for having.

Charlies Raines of the Sierra Club, who is spearheading the project, insists that the trees in these parcels are “not even high-value” for logging companies. On top of being valuable for the environment, they might bring in more money as trees than they would as lumber and paper.

All timber harvest plans (THP) in California must comply with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA); however, logging companies and the state have largely ignored the enormous increase in global warming emissions caused by clear-cut logging practices.

CEQA requires greenhouse gas emissions resulting from a project to be quantified, as well as, THPs must identify ways to avoid or mitigate the emissions. According to theClick to Continue Reading