Carbon crusaders

Carbon crusaders Protecting and restoring Canada’s forests and wetlands may be a great long-term way to mitigate the changing climate

- BRIAN BANKS

SAVE THE TREES

Cutting down fewer trees and improving forest management will enhance growth and reduce wildfire impacts.

LONG-TERM GAINS

Planting trees in non-forested lands (afforestation) and replanting, rewetting and selective tree removal in peatlands (restoration) increases carbon sequestration.

The 485-million-hectare boreal zone, stretching from Yukon to Newfoundland and Labrador, contains 25 per cent of the world’s remaining intact forest. It also holds 25 per cent of the world’s wetlands, mainly in the form of peatlands, a rich “living carpet” of mosses, bushes and saturated organic matter. Together, these biomes store more than 200 billion tonnes of carbon — equal to five or six years’ worth of global fossil fuel emissions.

Farther south, B.C.’s coastal temperate rainforest is Canada’s most productive carbon storehouse, per hectare, followed by the temperate forests of the east. Though they are degraded by development, wetlands in these regions include additional peatlands, freshwater mineral wetlands (such as swamps, marshes and fens) and, along the East and West coasts, salt marshes and seagrass beds with still more carbon-absorbing potential.