Hearing of the Joint Committee on Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture (ENRA) Dec. 7 2021
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“Logging on public land is unnecessary, ill advised, and costly in terms of money, ecological integrity, and the public good.”
“The most intensive logging on state land is conducted by DCR on lands that provide drinking water for some 3 million residents. Although watershed foresters claim their logging enhances resistance and resilience to natural disturbances, scientists at the Harvard Forest have shown that such logging delivers neither resistance nor resilience and that simply leaving forests alone both speeds their recovery and better protects ecosystem services.”
From Bill Stubblefield’s testimony in support of House bills 912, 1002, and 1003
“We know that even if the world stopped all carbon emissions tomorrow, the problem of global warming would not be solved because of the CO2 still in the atmosphere. Therefore, we must do everything possible to maximize carbon sequestration now.
“And happily for us, our forests do just that, efficiently drawing down and storing carbon in trees and soil as they have done for millenia. Current biological and climate science says that 30% of the globe’s forests must be preserved as intact ecosystems — that is, allowed to grow naturally without human interventions — to maximize carbon sequestration and preserve biodiversity”
From CAN’s testimony in support of House bills 912 and 1002
Comments by Darcy Sweeney, Lynne Man, and Carole Horowitz