A new study by The Nature Conservancy shows forest thinning and prescribed burns cause a short-term loss of carbon to the atmosphere, but save carbon in the long run. KNAU’s Melissa Sevigny reports, that’s because healthy forests have bigger trees and experience fewer catastrophic wildfires.
The study used computer simulations to look at the Four Forest Restoration Initiative in Northern Arizona. It found the project’s current pace of restoration (12-15 thousand acres a year) had little effect on carbon storage. But accelerating the pace to 60 thousand acres a year would have carbon savings equivalent to taking more than one hundred thousand cars off the road annually.
