Open Knowledge (FSC OK)

Each year, roughly 201,000 acres of forestland in North Carolina are clearcut to feed global markets for wood pellets, lumber, and other industrial forest products. Roughly 2.5 billion board feet of softwood and hardwood sawtimber are extracted annually, an amount equivalent to over 500,000 log truckloads. The climate impacts of this intensive activity are often ignored in climate policy discussions because of flawed greenhouse gas accounting and the misconception that the timber industry is carbon neutral. The reality, however, is that industrial logging and wood product manufacturing emit enormous quantities of greenhouse gases and have significantly depleted the amount of carbon sequestered and stored on the land. In addition, industrial tree plantations pose a serious threat to North Carolina�s climate change resiliency because they make the effects of floods, droughts, heat waves, storms, and disease more severe. This two-part report synthesizes and analyzes the best available climate science on the impacts of industrial forest practices in North Carolina. It aims to serve as an evolving source of technical information and inform policies to encourage climate smart forest practices. As more and better data become available, they will be incorporated in subsequent versions.