OVER THE PAST several decades, a large body of ecological research has confirmed what, to many, would seem common sense: Forests, especially mature forests, are best able to capture carbon dioxide when they are left standing instead of being cut down to make wood products. Trees naturally lock up carbon in their bodies, and even when they eventually topple, they can continue to sequester carbon for centuries as they slowly decay and eventually turn into soil.

In the State of Washington, however, the law claims something entirely different. In January 2020, major players in Washington’s powerful wood-products sector choreographed legislation that, with little more than the flourish of the legislative pen, wished away the timber industry’s significant carbon dioxide emissions.

The legislation — House Bill 2528 and a companion bill, Senate Bill 6355 — was, in many ways, an empty law. It did nothing to change the daily operations of the industry nor did it establish or modify any state forestry programs or impose any new standards on the state’s loggers or lumber mills. Its primary function was to realign state climate policies with the industry’s financial interests by establishing the forestry sector as a supposed climate savior. Relying on a mix of creative accounting and academic sleight-of-hand, the legislation asserted that the forestry sector “currently operates as a significant net sequesterer of carbon.”

The legislation sailed through the Washington legislature with little debate and overwhelming bipartisan support.

How, exactly, did it happen?

Journalists Paul Koberstein and Jessica Applegate investigate a pro-industry, quasi-academic nonprofit funding dubious science that portrays logging as a carbon-negative activity.

Photo by Chad Baxter

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