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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (June 26, 2018)
6A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, JUNE 26, 2018 editor@dailyastorian.com KARI BORGEN Publisher JIM VAN NOSTRAND Editor Founded in 1873 JEREMY FELDMAN Circulation Manager DEBRA BLOOM Business Manager JOHN D. BRUIJN Production Manager CARL EARL Systems Manager GUEST COLUMN Working forests help fight climate change I ’m lucky to be able to spend most days in the woods, helping to look after the sustainability and health of 33,000 acres of Hampton Lumber’s forestland here in Clatsop County. As a family-owned wood products com- pany, our outlook is inherently multi-genera- tional. Our foresters plant trees they have no expectation of seeing harvested before they are retired. The Hampton family is committed to ensuring the next generation inherits a business that is healthy and sustainable, both economically and ecologically. The work we do every day is focused on ensuring our forests are as healthy in 50 years as they are today. We recognize how climate change could affect forest and community health. I hope it is under- standable, then, just how JED frustrating it is for those of ARNOLD us in Oregon’s forest sector to see a new line of attack by groups opposed to commercial forestry: the claim that forestry operations are the primary source of carbon emissions in the state. There are some eye-popping numbers being put forward by groups whose main goal appears to be to reduce or eliminate timber harvests in our state. However, closer examination of the source material for these claims reveals they are less scientific analysis and more creative interpretations of carbon accounting and policy language. Like so much of the science relating to cli- mate change and its effects, proper forest car- bon accounting is complex and the subject of ongoing research and debate. It is worth not- ing, however, that the UN’s International Panel on Climate Change specifically identified sus- tainable forest management for “timber, fibre or energy” as a key tool in mitigating carbon emissions. In fact, several Northern European nations — often seen as leaders in the green movement by environmentalists in the U.S. — are actually increasing the actively managed forests in their countries as a component of their strategy to combat climate change. Sustainable timber harvest as a strategy to fight climate change makes a lot of sense when one looks at modern forest management and Hampton Family Forests A Hampton logging operation in Clatsop County. ‘It should be the responsibility of all Oregonians ... to make the necessary changes in our lifestyle to reduce our carbon emissions.’ timber production in the proper context — through a long-term life cycle analysis. A good portion of a tree’s carbon remains stored in the wood products that are created from it, locking that carbon away for the life of the product, while atmospheric carbon is taken up by the tree planted in its place. This is particularly important when those products are lumber used in housing and other construction. It’s also worth noting that every building material, piece of furniture and even kitchen utensil made from wood means one less product made from iron, aluminum, concrete or plastic, all of which emit significantly more greenhouse gases during their production. While it does take some years for a newly planted tree to reach the carbon capture poten- tial of a mature one, trees grow faster here on the North Coast than almost anywhere else in the world and that difference is quickly made up for. When consideration is given to carbon uptake over the entire lifespan of the tree and the life cycle of wood products, Oregon’s working forests are shown to be a net carbon sink. Said another way, commercial forests in Oregon are already absorbing and locking away more carbon than is emitted to manage them. Carbon release through deforestation is a very real threat — just not in Oregon. Deforestation is defined as the conversion of forestland to a non-forest use (e.g. agriculture or development). There is virtually no defor- estation taking place in the state and what little is occurring is due to conversion of forestland into housing. In fact, the Oregon Department of Forestry estimates that 92 percent of the land that was forested in 1850 remains forested today. A good portion of forest loss outside of the U.S. is due to logging to meet the world’s ever-growing appetite for agricultural and wood products. If one is truly concerned about climate change, it is important to remember we live in a global economy and every tree we do not cut here, in a place with strict environmen- tal protections and replanting laws, is a tree that will be cut somewhere else in the world, likely from a forest that will be lost — along with its carbon storage capacity — for many lifetimes. There is something deeply cynical about proposals that suggest Oregon could meet the majority of its goals for net carbon output by halting harvests in our forests. It should be the responsibility of all Oregonians, indeed all res- idents of more developed countries, to make the necessary changes in our lifestyle to reduce our carbon emissions. To demand that the res- idents of rural counties sacrifice their way of life and renewable natural resources economy — our rare comparative advantage — so that urban residents can continue their consump- tion without further inconvenience strikes me as unfair. Further, to suggest that the handful of jobs created through forest restoration projects would come anywhere close to replacing the thousands of high-skill, living-wage forest and sawmill jobs that would be lost in a coastal carbon storage scheme reveals a lack of under- standing about the modern forest economy in our county. These forests are our livelihoods, our schools, our public services, and our privilege and responsibility to sustain for a variety of uses and benefits. Reducing the amount of timber we sustainably harvest in Oregon will do more to harm efforts to reach a global reduction in CO2 levels than help them. But even if we choose to ignore this and focus on Oregon’s carbon reduction goals as though we were in a bubble, why would we ask rural Oregonians to give up more working-class jobs and more school funding dollars when our working forests are already part of the solution to climate change? I invite you to learn more about working forests and talk to those who make their living in the renewable wood products sector. There are a lot of us here on the North Coast. Rural or urban, we’re all in this together. Let’s work together so our forests can continue to sustain- ably provide for a multitude of benefits. Jed Arnold is community outreach and stew- ardship coordinator for Hampton Family For- ests on the North Coast. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR This is not greatness O ne terrifying moment scarred me far more than the many others in my abu- sive childhood. My giant of a stepfather had shoved my mother out the door, causing her to hit her head on a concrete step. When he car- ried her back in the house, her arms flailed, her eyes rolled in her head, and she babbled incoherently. All the beatings, all the whippings, all the times I endured a raging man hurl insults and profanities at me (a small child) and cringed in his presence were nothing compared to that moment — when I thought my mother was going to die, when I thought I’d lost her. Now U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are causing similar harm to some children; taking them from their island of love and security, their whole world. How many of them will have post-traumatic stress disorder from such a malicious act? For how many will it be years, or decades, before their minds know any real peace again, or per- haps never to recover? This is not greatness. Greatness would shove the giants down, badged or not, and protect children and families from harm. Make America great again. MICHAEL A. “SASHA” MILLER Astoria Johnson out of touch with constituents I am writing to take issue with The Daily Astorian’s description of Betsy Johnson as a “moderate Democrat” in the June 21 article, “Johnson, Witt dinged by fellow Democrats.” Betsy Johnson is not a Democrat, let alone a moderate one. She consistently votes against Democratic positions on guns, unions and the environment, to name a few. The fact that she “was dumbstruck that anybody cares” that she supported Republican Dennis Richardson for Secretary of State proves she is out of touch with a large portion of her constituents. She does not represent me, and should consider resigning from the Democratic party. JOANN WILTRAKIS Astoria Cruelty should not be policy I ’m grateful that journalists are revealing the damage inflicted by the Trump admin- istration’s inhumane immigration policy. The U.S. government has forcibly separated about 3,000 children — even babies and toddlers — from their parents, who are legally and peace- fully seeking asylum from danger and threats of death in their home countries. These children were placed in child intern- ment camps and are being treated like crimi- nals. Worse, government recordkeeping is so careless that nonprofit groups struggle to iden- tify which children belong to which adults. President Donald Trump’s family separa- tion actions have created thousands of future enemies of our country. These are the peo- ple fleeing danger in their own countries, who believe in the American dream, and who are now being brutalized by the very country they thought would provide safe harbor. The short-term consequences are appall- ing for these children, their families and our economy. The long-term consequences will be disastrous. We, as a country, will be paying for this sin for generations. Many, if not most, Republican voters approve of ripping apart immigrant families and traumatizing their children. They are will- ing to ignore the rule of law, forget due pro- cess and reject compassion and kindness. This leads me to think they’re far more of a danger to the U.S. than the immigrants on our south- ern border. It’s up to each of us to demand an end to cruelty as public policy. We must defend democracy and human decency. LAURIE CAPLAN Astoria Donald Trump and the truth L et’s face it, some of us have been delu- sional for too long. With the advent of President Donald Trump on the political scene, many of us were disabused of previous notions of truth. Mr. Trump tried gallantly to save the U.S. from a person who wasn’t even eligible to become our president, but the Democrats on the Supreme Court denied the truth. The Mueller investigation is a grandstand- ing hoax, because our president has told us repeatedly that it is nothing but lies manufac- tured by the Democrats. The current debate excoriates those who favor removing children from parents who enter the U.S. illegally. Obstructionists liken Trump’s “zero tolerance” to the internment of the Japanese, and Hitler’s concentration camps. But they are as wrong as the Demo- crats who created that policy in the first place. According to the Washington Post, Trump told lies more than 3,000 times in the last 466 days. It is not impossible that our president will reveal soon that it was he who commis- sioned Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. ERHARD GROSS Astoria Move little kids out of tsunami zone first I n regard to the article “Warrenton schools eye several master campus sites” (The Daily Astorian, June 15), I totally agree we need to move our schools out of the tsu- nami zone. What I do not understand at all, is why would we move the most vulnerable age last. The article mentions the decision to float a bond in November to buy a master campus and build a middle school, a bond in 2022 to move the high school, and finally a bond in 2032 to move the elementary school. Do we need to rethink this, and move the little kids first? In their tsunami drills, the elementary school walks little kids as young as 3 west on Ninth Street, toward the ocean, to the rise on Juniper Street. I have no idea what the high school does, but they do have access to all those cars in the parking lot, and kids old enough to drive. Let’s move the little, most vulnerable, ones first, please. ALICE CHALOUX Warrenton
