Chad Papa Featured in NPR Kansas City Segment on Timber Harvesting Debate

Based at KCUR in Kansas City, Harvest Public Media reports on food, fuel, and field issues. Its network of reporters and partner stations across the Midwest cover diverse agricultural topics.

Cloudy sky with mountains and a pile of harvest timber.
"Small diameter trees removed from forest thinning stacked in a mill yard in Montana awaiting processing into fence posts and poles." USDA photo by Julie Kies.

A recent Harvest Public Media segment showcased Chad Papa, FCCP Research Assistant and PhD Candidate in the Department of Forestry. The article, titled “Should the U.S. retain old trees for carbon storage or cut them down? It's a heated debate,” addresses concerns about logging's impact on carbon storage amid the ongoing climate crisis.

Papa emphasized, “If logging decreases in national forests, more trees may be cut elsewhere… Not harvesting in one place likely shifts the harvest elsewhere, yielding a similar net effect.”

“Papa states the Forest Service and conservationists likely share common ground on forest health, recognizing the crucial role these lands will play in addressing climate change in the coming decades.”

Read the full article here.

Did you find this article useful?