California Forest Products Commission Launches Effort to Educate Californians on Unique Role of Forests and Wood in Fighting Climate Change.

Renewable Forests Play Key Role, From Carbon to Green Building

AUBURN, Calif. -- The California Forest Products Commission today launched a campaign to educate state residents about the important role private and public forests have in the ongoing discussion of climate change issues.

Trees naturally absorb gases that contribute to global warming - providing California with a potent weapon to fight climate change.

The contribution of forests goes well beyond absorbing carbon dioxide. They also give us wood products from trees grown with the aid of soil nutrients, water, energy from the sun - and careful stewardship.

"When you examine the entire process leading to the creation of wood, it is a net absorber of carbon - and efficiently stores carbon in everything from furniture to the two-by-four used to construct homes," said Donn Zea, President of the California Forest Products Commission and former Chairman of the California Grown campaign. "Steel and concrete, on the other hand, emit large amounts of carbon when manufactured."

Any analysis of steps the state or private industry should take to combat global warming should include a comprehensive examination of how to maximize the potential of forests: in absorbing carbon, offering truly 'green' building products and renewable energy sources, and protecting watersheds, Zea said.

"With 40 million acres of forestland in California, it is imperative that Californians and our policymakers understand how forests provide benefits and how to best manage them to meet needs - from absorbing carbon to providing locally grown wood products," Zea said.

Forestry companies in California meet the highest standards for sustainable forest management in the world. And the companies collectively plant millions of trees each year, helping to create a net growth in California forests of nearly 7 billion board feet per year.

On Tuesday, the Commission will participate in a scientific forum on forestry's role in fighting climate change co-sponsored by the California State Rural Legislative Caucus and The Forest Foundation. Three scientific experts on forests and green building will comment on the role of forests.

In coming weeks, the Commission will discuss how climate change issues impact the state and federal government's wildfire fighting strategies, tree-planting in areas burned by wildfires and overall forest management in California.

Forestry and Climate Change Facts:

* Forestry companies plant millions of trees every year. For more than 30 years, growth has exceeded harvest in California forests.

* About half the weight of any wood product is made up of absorbed carbon.

* Wood-based building materials are substantially less carbon intensive to produce than substitute materials. The Consortium for Research on Renewable Industrial Materials compared a wood-framed house to steel- and concrete-framed houses and found that steel generates 33 percent more greenhouse gas emissions and concrete 80 percent more.

* Wildfires have devastating consequences on efforts to reduce harmful gas emissions. Alaskan and Canadian wildfires in two months in 2004 sent as much carbon dioxide into the air as all the cars, factories and human-caused activities in the continental U.S. during the same period.

For more information, please visit www.calforests.org