American west's forests face troubling carbon trend (becoming carbon source instead of sink)

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5j4O5By8poz1nsWlvPo5-1YG_v_zQ?docId=CNG.2a8de8a8d715bbf5472f2a7f29d9a3be.131

American west's forests face troubling carbon trend

By Kerry Sheridan (AFP)

WASHINGTON — Crippled by drought, scorched by wildfires and dying from beetle infestations, forests in the American west are struggling and in some states they now exude more carbon than they absorb, experts say.

In an attempt to uncover what the future holds for these ancient pine forests, scientists are studying how trees recover and regrow, and what forest managers can do to help them respond to the modern stresses of climate change.

"These systems are changing, kind of underneath us. It is slower than the nightly news cycle, that is for sure, but it is changing. And so we have to keep changing our management approach," said David Cleaves, the top climate change adviser at the US Forest Service.

America's forests, the fourth largest in the world, have served as an important net carbon sink for much of the past century, absorbing more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through photosynthesis than they exude through decomposition and timber harvesting.

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[Scruffy1]

1. I recently found some slides I took in the Rockies

They were from the early 70's . Comparing them to photos taken in the last two years is just plain scary. The glaciers have receded and there is a marked decrease in forestation.