A recent government proposal encourages fertilization with nitrogen to speed up tree growth, which may work in the short term but eventually fails and is leached into waterways, altering ecosystems and being released back into the atmosphere as greenhouse gases. “If a country with some of the world’s largest intact boreal forests chooses to double down on short-term extraction, it will not only undermine the EU’s climate goals — it will send a dangerous signal to other forest nations, from Canada to Brazil, that soil and biodiversity can be sacrificed in the name of so-called green growth,” a new op-ed argues.
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The deep, dark forests of northern Europe supplied people with wood, timber and food for millennia. They gave rise to myths, legends and fairy tales, and offered refuge to the persecuted. Over time, though, the forests themselves became subjugated, forced to submit to the will of humankind as forestry turned into a mighty machinery.
Sweden is one of the world’s largest exporters of forest-based products: paper, timber, cardboard and biofuels travel across the globe, ending up in your packaging, your books, in your homes. Decisions made in Sweden about how forests are managed ripple outward far beyond the kingdom’s borders. That is why the Swedish government’s recent forestry inquiry should matter not just to those living in Sweden, but to anyone concerned about the global climate crisis.
The inquiry’s central message is clear: increase forest growth, harvest more biomass, and thereby contribute to the green transition. This might sound promising. More trees mean more carbon absorbed, more wood products to replace unsustainable products. But the plan overlooks the most important part of the forest: the soil. Most of the carbon in a forest is not in the trees we see, but locked into the ground, in roots, humus, fungi, microbes, and the intricate networks of life below. When forestry is intensified — through shorter rotation times, clear-cutting, heavy machines compacting the earth, and the removal of branches and stumps — this underground storehouse of carbon is steadily eroded. The soil becomes poorer, biodiversity thins, and the forest’s long-term ability to absorb carbon declines. The government’s proposal even encourages fertilization with nitrogen to speed up tree growth. This can work in the short term, but after a decade, the effect largely disappears. The nitrogen has by then leached into waterways, altering ecosystems, and been released back into the atmosphere as greenhouse gases. Meanwhile, the delicate underground webs of fungi and microbes that sustain the soil are disrupted. The quick gains vanish, but the damage remains.
This matters not only to scientists and foresters. A forest that loses its soil health is like a society eroding its institutions: collapse may be delayed, but it is inevitable. Even the Greek philosopher Plato described how the hills of Attica had once been rich in soil and forest, able to absorb the rains. “The land reaped the benefit of the annual rainfall, not as now losing the water which flows off the bare earth into the sea.” And history — from the decline of Mesopotamia to America’s Dust Bowl — shows again and again that when we exhaust the natural systems that sustain us, a crisis ensues. Civilizations crumble, desperate refugees try to find new homes.There are better choices. Forests can be managed with longer growth cycles, leaving more organic material in place to feed the soil. Mixed forests with trees of different ages and species can create resilience against storms and pests. Sensitive soils — peatlands, wetlands, steep slopes — should be protected outright. And we must measure forest health not only by how much wood is standing, but by how alive the soil beneath remains.......read on https://news.mongabay.com/