NPR: Scientists Turn Trees Into Carbon Banks

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120849322

Scientists Turn Trees Into Carbon Banks

by Christopher Joyce

November 27, 2009

There's an experiment going on in the redwood forests of northern California: people are trying to turn trees into "carbon banks."

The idea is to manage forests so they absorb more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and slow down global warming. Carbon banking will be a hot topic at next month's big climate conference in Copenhagen, especially if negotiators can't agree on how to get industrialized countries to lower their own emissions. Carbon banking could be a way to cut those emissions by paying poor countries to save their forests and manage them better.

But to do this, climate scientists need to become climate accountants — to put hard numbers on how much carbon trees breathe in and out. That's what the California experiment is all about.

Carbon Banking In The Redwoods

Some of those accountants can be found in the Big River forest, a mountainous swath of oak, Douglas fir and redwood in Mendocino County. The Conservation Fund, an environmental group, has bought 16,000 acres of this forest and put it aside for an experiment.

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http://public.npr.org/anon.npr-mp3/npr/me/2009/11/20091127_me_16.mp3

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[opihimoimoi]

2. Baby Steps in the Right Direction...need much more and would be better

if they can find a way to grow food at the same time...fruit trees, etc.