DEAR News Of The Area,

IN her letter “More fantasy than facts on forestry”, (NOTA 10/1/25) Judith Kirkwood writes, “Storing carbon in forests is critical to slowing climate change. Science shows that larger, older trees store the most carbon, not regrowth after logging.”

This is a clear misrepresentation of the facts.

While it is true that large older trees store more carbon than young trees, they absorb less carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere.

As a tree ages its growth rate slows and therefore, its need for carbon reduces and it absorbs less carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

A young tree’s growth is more rapid and requires more carbon, so it absorbs more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than an old tree.

Timber produced from old trees still stores the carbon it absorbed through its lifetime.

Such a glaring misrepresentation makes me wonder what other distortion of facts her letter may contain.

I find resorting to such devious tactics to support an argument very disconcerting.

Regards,
Wayne DUESBURY,
Boambee.