To speak for trees, Snohomish County activists arm themselves with data
EVERETT — Some Snohomish County residents have been carrying a checklist while hiking for miles and bushwacking on steep slopes on state lands slated for logging.
What species of trees are there? Are there stumps? Is there a stream? Unusual plants? Signs of wildlife?
Stretching their arms wide and grasping tape measures, they answer a question that is top of mind for companies that would bid to log those properties: What’s the diameter of these trees? Size matters in the timber business. Size matters, too, for these climate-concerned forest surveyors. Because the bigger the tree, scientists say, the more carbon it stores and keeps out of the atmosphere.
The surveys are part of a campaign to get Snohomish County to do what several other west side counties have done: offer to work with the Department of Natural Resources to protect ecologically complex state forests. More urgently, they want the Snohomish County Council to take advantage of Climate Commitment Act funds to put some land off limits to logging.
https://www.heraldnet.com/news/to-speak-for-trees-snohomish-county-activists-arm-themselves-with-data/