Carbon flux patterns on U.S. public timberlands under alternative timber harvest policies

Abstract

This study considers trade-offs between timber harvest and carbon sequestration on National Forest and other public lands by contemporaneously linking a model of public harvest and inventory to a carbon accounting system. The public harvest model treats three harvest scenarios. The first minimizes the cost of meeting harvest requests that approximate current harvest policy. The second and third models represent two extremes of harvest policy: maximum strict even-flow scheme and noharvest. The current harvest scenario results in a maximum average net carbon sequestration of approximately 35 Teragrams per decade. The maximum strict evenflow scenario results in a maximum of 19 Teragrams of net carbon sequestration on an average decadal basis, because of losses to forest product decay and reduced understory growth. The no harvest scenario results in the highest total carbon holdings, 164 Pentagrams at the end of the 100 year planning horizon, and has an average net sequestration rate of 65 Teragrams each decade.