Forest Foundation Study Finds Four Wildfires Send 38 Million Tons of Harmful Gases...

Forest Foundation Study Finds Four Wildfires Send 38 Million Tons of Harmful Gases into Air, Equivalent of 7 Million Cars on the Road for One Year in California

AUBURN, Calif.--(Business Wire)--
When a wildfire strikes California, the state's efforts to stop
global warming go up in smoke.

A study released today of four large California wildfires shows
they collectively will put an estimated 38 million tons of greenhouse
gases into the atmosphere through fire and subsequent decay of dead
trees.

Together emissions from fire and decay undo much of the progress
California is making to fight global warming.

Consider that the estimated 38 million tons of greenhouse gases is
the equivalent of emissions from 7 million cars - for one year.

Nearly 10 million tons of harmful greenhouse gases were emitted
from the fires themselves, with an estimated 28 million additional
tons of carbon dioxide emitted from decay, mostly in the next 50
years.

"Reducing the number and severity of wildfires may be the single
most important action we can take in the short-term to lower
greenhouse gas emissions and fight global warming," said the study's
author, Dr. Thomas Bonnicksen, a professor emeritus of forestry at
Texas A&M University and author of America's Ancient Forests: from the
Ice Age to the Age of Discovery (John Wiley, 2000). Dr. Bonnicksen,
who holds a Ph.D. in forestry from the University of California,
Berkeley, has studied California forests for more than 30 years.

The study was conducted for the Forest Foundation, a non-profit
organization that promotes education about the state's forests. The
study is based on a ground-breaking analytical tool developed for the
Forest Foundation that allows scientists to estimate greenhouse gases
emitted by wildfire and subsequent forest decay.

The tool, called the Forest Carbon and Emissions Model, analyzes
the impact of wildfires on global warming by considering a number of
factors, including vegetation density, tree species, mortality caused
by a fire, and the removal of dead trees and replanting new trees.

The study included extensive analysis of four fires:

-- The Angora Fire, which burned more than 3,100 acres near South
Lake Tahoe in June and July of 2007.

-- The Fountain Fire, which destroyed nearly 60,000 acres east of
Redding in August 1992.

-- The Star Fire, which burned more than 16,000 acres in
September 2001 in the Tahoe and Eldorado National Forests.

-- The Moonlight Fire, which burned more than 65,000 acres in
September 2007 in and around the Plumas National Forest in the
northern Sierra Nevada.

"California as a state is committed to reducing greenhouse gases,"
Dr. Bonnicksen said. "But these fires demonstrate that much of the
effort is wasted when wildfires spew huge amounts of harmful gases
into the air and then continue emitting gases for decades as trees
decay."

Even today, fires that ended months and years ago are still
releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere as dead trees left in the
forest continue to decay.

"While everyone sees - and smells - the harm wildfires cause to
the environment, the damage is needlessly made worse by our failure to
remove dead trees and replant new forests," Dr. Bonnicksen said.

"Removing fire-killed trees does two important things to fight
global warming: it reduces the amount of harmful gases released after
a fire by reducing wood available for decay and it stores the carbon
that would have been lost in long-lasting wood products," Dr.
Bonnicksen said.

Dr. Bonnicksen added that, "removing dead trees and replanting to
restore the forest can reverse the impact of wildfires on global
warming by recovering most -- if not all -- the carbon dioxide lost to
the atmosphere from fire and decay." In addition, he said, "it would
also help protect surrounding forests and communities from a second
wildfire or re-burn, which often occurs in un-restored forests that
become brush fields filled with dead trees."

Unfortunately, Dr. Bonnicksen noted, the federal government
doesn't move quickly to remove fire-killed trees and replant. For the
Angora and Moonlight fires of 2007, no removal of dead trees has
occurred on federally owned lands and there is no plan to replant
those areas.

In contrast, private forest landowners swiftly remove dead trees,
turning them into wood products used by consumers rather than allowing
them to decay and send carbon dioxide into the air, and then they
replant a new forest.

"These wood products continue to store carbon and a young,
replanted and well-managed forest absorbs carbon at a fast rate," Dr.
Bonnicksen said. He added, "If we care about our forests and fighting
global warming then we must reduce the threat of wildfire and remove
dead trees and replant if a wildfire occurs."

For a copy of the full report, please visit
www.calforestfoundation.org. To view a video on YouTube on the affects
of wildfire on wildlife, please visit
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vrTRg3WnDI

About The Forest Foundation

The Forest Foundation is a non-profit organization that strives to
conserve our forests and keep them sustainable and healthy by sharing
the knowledge of forestry experts with the public. Based in Auburn,
Calif., its programs include scientific research, community outreach,
education programs, and forestry exhibits. For more information, visit
www.calforestfoundation.org.

Forest Foundation
Cheryl Rubin, 1-866-241-8733
cr@calforestfoundation.org

Copyright Business Wire 2008