Siskiyou Project: Siskiyou Wild Rivers, Community Forestry and Restoration, Wild Rogue Campaign, Illinois River

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The Siskiyou Wild Rivers National Salmon and Botanical Area

THE ROLE OF WILDLANDS IN THE FACE OF CLIMATE CHANGE

The wildlands and temperate rainforests of the Siskiyou Wild Rivers area can help mediate the forces driving climate change and can provide a resilient ecosystem from which species and habitats can respond.

Old-growth forests store huge amounts of carbon, and continue to do so.

For the last 100 years humans have poured millions of tons of carbon into the atmosphere in the form of carbon dioxide generated by deforestation and the burning of fossil fuels. This input has been building up and producing a “greenhouse effect”, also known as global warming, that is driving climate change on Earth at a dangerously accelerated rate.

These changes in climate are impacting ecosystems, species migration and diversity, weather patterns and human communities. Scientists estimate that if the current rate of biodiversity loss continues, we will experience the most extreme extinction event in the past 65 million years.

Many climate experts believe that we have just a few years left to alter our behavior if we are to deter the largest impacts of global warming. There is no shortage of suggestions for the many ways nations and individuals can attempt to reduce the production of greenhouse gasses: using solar energy, switching to hybrid automobiles, driving less, even using compact florescent lights. But what about the role of wildlands in the strategy to moderate the impacts of climate change?

SISKIYOU WILD RIVERS AREA CLIMATE CHANGE FACTS

• Numerous studies have documented that more carbon is stored per acre in the moist “Westside” old-growth forests of the Pacific Northwest – like those found in the Siskiyou Wild Rivers area - than in any other forests in the world.

• For millennia, the Siskiyou Wild Rivers area’s wide variety of micro-climates has provided a critical refuge for species impacted by severe climate change events. In fact, several plant species in the area – including Brewer’s spruce and Kalmiopsis leachiana – are considered paleoendemics and have survived here for more than 10 million years, even after climate change led to their extinction in other areas.

Carbon Sequestration:

Forested wildlands store huge amounts of carbon in trees and soil, and actively remove carbon from the atmosphere. During photosynthesis, trees remove carbon from the air to help them grow. Through their root systems, trees also pump huge amounts of carbon into other living organisms within the soil. Scientists have found that mature and ancient forests are much more effective than previously logged forests for removing atmospheric carbon and storing it long term. The old-growth forests and Late Successional Reserves of the Siskiyou Wild Rivers area can provide invaluable carbon sequestration services to help moderate the forces driving climate change.

FACT OR FABRICATION?

Fabrication: Young forests remove more carbon from the atmosphere because they grow faster.
Fact: Mature forests grow more biomass per year than younger forests and remove vast quantities of carbon from the atmosphere.
Fabrication: Wood products store carbon longer than forests.
Fact: Clear-cutting forests releases over 80% of the stored carbon, and most wood products have a short life when compared to a forest. Healthy forests can store carbon for centuries. Most wood products are sent to the dump within a decade or two.
Fabrication: Deforestation is not a major source of carbon.
Fact: In recent decades CO2 emissions resulting from human-induced changes to forests exceed CO2 emissions from all motor vehicle sources combined – 20% of CO2 emissions worldwide.

Ecosystem Resiliency:

An ecosystem is a complex array of relationships between species and prevailing terrestrial and atmospheric conditions. The ability of an ecosystem’s components to persist during a shift, such as climate change, will largely depend on the health of that ecosystem. A shift in either of these conditions can disrupt species relationships. Species within healthy wildlands, such as the Siskiyou Wild Rivers area, will have a better chance of persisting during climatic shifts. This resiliency will provide a haven as they try to adapt to the changes brought by global warming.

Habitat Connectivity:

Many species will be forced to move in order to survive the impacts of climate change. The wildlands of the Siskiyou Wild Rivers area provide a vitally important corridor linking to both the Cascades and the Coast Ranges.

Siskiyou Project:: 213 SE H. St. :: Grants Pass, OR 97526 :: 541-476-6648 fax: 541-476-7629 :: project@siskiyou.org