by Guy Page
Vermont’s forests and wood products consume and store 45% of all of Vermont’s carbon emissions – both manmade and natural, Vermont Forest, Parks & Recreation Commissioner Michael Snyder said on Common Sense Radio show on WDEV.
“Forests are the lungs of the planet,” Snyder told host Bill Sayre.
Vermont’s 4.5 million acres of forestland are a net carbon sink, meaning that each year they take in more CO2 from the atmosphere than they emit, according to the Vermont Dept. of Forest, Parks and Recreation. Vermont’s forests store over 1.7 billion metric tons (Mt) of CO2 equivalent (CO2e) – about 200 years’ worth of emissions, Snyder said.
Every year, forests sequester (take in) more than 5 million Mt CO2e each year. To put this in context, each year Vermonters emit about 8 million Mt CO2e. The rest of the total emissions are naturally-produced (decomposing wood, for example.)
“Forests are our unsung hero in the social goal to reduce carbon dioxide,” Sayre noted.
Sayre noted that percentage has slipped from estimates 20 years ago, when Vermont forests were estimated to consume and store almost all emissions. He asked Snyder to explain. Snyder said changes in methodology and a decrease in total forest acreage account for the difference.
Snyder also said that Vermont now has a Climate Forester: Alexandra Kosiba, works out of the Montpelier office. Ali to her friends and colleagues, she started working with the department in 2020. She has a Ph.D. in Natural Resources and an M.S. in Forest Science from UVM. She is interested in understanding how trees and forests respond to environmental change.
Snyder added that forests are also the kidneys of the planet in the role they play cleaning streams and groundwater.
Categories: Environment
ANOTHER UN ELECTED Beaurocrat to deal with!!!!!
Considering the claimed 45% of CO2 consumption by vegetation what happens to VT’s forests and crops when the Greenies cut CO2 emissions? Do the forests wither does erosion of soil increase due to lower vegetation?
Why hasn’t someone looked at the full picture?
I question the stated decrease in total forest acres in the last 20 years? I have seen a lot of old pastures that are now overgrown with trees in central Vermont. 100 years ago about 80% of Vermont was open fields and pasture. Now that percentage has flipped to about 80% forested. Too many new comers to Vermont and millennials don’t know Vermont history.
Kinda shoots a hole in the religion of climate change.
How?
As I have pointed out previously, this is the way to drive a stake thru the heart of the Socialist Vampires demand for a carbon tax forever. Turn it on them! Promote the Carbon Tax based on amount of carbon emitted per square foot area of impervious surface area. Since they govern all the large urban/metropolitan areas the tax would fall almost entirely on them. Then the amount of tax collected could be distributed as a tax credit to taxpayers in more rural carbon cleaning/oxygen producing forested areas as a fee for service. They would drop the whole Carbon Tax scam like a hot potato!
When my friend rented a spot at a State campground last year, people were relieving themselves everywhere around the camp site – afraid to use the facilities due to COVID fear mongering. Also, the State allows toxic chemicals be sprayed on the roadside, around power poles, railroad beds to kill the grass and weeds. This week, witnessed on the side of our scenic by-ways, a road crew shoveling up sand and dirt side from the side of the highway and throwing it into the river. The entire State government is not only corrupt, but as ignorant as the day is long!