Friday, December 1, 2006

Climate change Here's a report on the ability of old growth forests to store carbon, from the Rocky Mountain News. From the article, "Researchers have found that soils in an old- growth forest in southern China are storing carbon at a rapid rate. If common to the soils of other old-growth forests, the finding could add combating global warming to the reasons for preserving them from logging, some scientists say. The finding from soils in China goes against the generally accepted idea that old-growth forests are in balance, giving up as much carbon through decomposition as they take in from falling leaves and dying roots. Why the soils act as a carbon sink remains unknown, but the study in the journal Science gives a new way to think about how carbon works in old-growth forests, said Xuli Tang, a scientist with the South China Botanical Garden in Guangzhou, China, and co-author of the study." "2008 pres" 6:39:15 AM

Land conservation increasing Conservation acreage is increasing at a good clip, according to the Denver Post. From the article, "A new report released today by the Land Trust Alliance finds that state and local land trusts have almost doubled their conservation acres from 6 million to 11.9 million acres in the past five years - an area twice the size of the state of New Hampshire. Including the work of national conservation groups, a total of 37 million acres have been conserved by private means - an area 16 1/2 times the size of Yellowstone National Park... "The report stated that the states with the highest total acres conserved are California, Maine, Colorado, Montana, Virginia, New York, Vermont, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts. Colorado and Virginia offer state tax incentives for conservation. The West is the fastest-growing region in both the number of acres saved and the number of land trusts, followed by the Southeast, according to the report. The Northeast gained the most acreage under conservation easements, nearly tripling the acres held five years ago. Local and state land trusts increased the acres protected by conservation easements by 148%. These private, voluntary agreements saved 6,245,969 acres in 2005, versus 2,514,566 just five years ago. The types of land targeted by land trust efforts are natural areas and wildlife habitat (39%), followed by open space (38%) and water resources (26%), especially wetlands. A new federal tax incentive for donations of conservation easements, enacted in August 2006 and providing special adjustments to help farmers and ranchers, is expected to prompt more large-scale conservation throughout the West." "2008 pres" 6:17:01 AM

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