Protecting the Forests, and Hoping for Payback

Quarter 2

Article 4

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/29/science/earth/29trees.html?_r=1

Ny Times

Miller chapter 13

The area covered is national.

Over the next 50 years or so, experts say, some forests could be cultivated to grow bigger, more resilient trees, potentially increasing their carbon storage by 50 percent and providing an important “bridge” to a time when the nation will theoretically have shifted away from greenhouse-gas producing fossil fuels. Many drier forests, including here east of the Cascades, have grown unnaturally dense after logging and efforts to save them from wildfires. Measures taken to stop fires can end up causing more devastating ones by allowing the growth of small trees and underbrush, “ladder fuels” that ignite bigger trees.

It is important that we try to prevent forest fires the right way. Logging can be more harmful because it allows for small trees that are more likely to catch fire and then ignite the bigger trees, causing a potentially more dangerous forrest fire.

Vocabulary:

logging- when certain trees are cut down for forrest management and timber.