KGAL 1580 AM
April 5, 2007 "Valley Talk" Radio Interview
Global Warming & Oregon's Forests: Strategies for using public forestlands to capture and conserve statewide carbon-dioxide production
The following four recordings were made from a radio interview by Josh Meredith with Dr. Bob Zybach on KGAL 1580 AM, Thursday, April 5, 2007, during the regularly scheduled 11:00 AM to noon "Valley Talk" program in Albany, Oregon.
The focus of the interview was based on a portion of Zybach's 1993 paper on Global Warming (see link below), that proposed uses of conifer forestlands and forest products to reduce dependency on fossil fuels, and to help mitigate the possible negative effects of carbon-dioxide-based climate change. The paper was originally presented in a 1991 international workshop of scientists from Russia, China, Germany, Canada, Mexico, and the US, that were concerned with potential global warming effects on temperate forests of the northern hemisphere.
The workshop and publication of the paper took place in the early 1990s; several years before 100,000s of acres of Oregon public forestlands were changed to miles of unharvested snags via pine beetles, windstorms, and a series of catastrophic wildfires, from 1998 to 2006. The opportunity provided by dead trees to produce energy to replace fossil fuel use, and to produce solid wood products and other carbon stores, did not exist to nearly such a degree in the 1991 or 1993. In addition to managing snags for carbon storage purposes, as proposed, such actions would also likely reduce risk and severity of future wildfires (major sources of carbon-dioxide), enhance wildlife populations and habitat, improve aesthetics and recreational opportunities, rejuvenate rural timber-dependent counties and communities, and better allow for new forests to begin storing additional carbon almost immediately.
Part |
Title and Description | Format | Mb. | Min. |
| Introduction. Global Warming science and politics: unstated assumptions and other reasons for skepticism. | MP3 |
2.54 | 11:06 | |
| Background. Personal history regarding Global Warming research, proxy measures interpretation, and rationale for forest-based strategies. | MP3 |
3.18 | 13:55 | |
| Strategies. How Oregon's forests can be strategically used to quickly and efficiently address statewide carbon storage goals, and to simultaneously meet other important management objectives. | MP3 |
4.77 | 20:52 | |
| Conclusions. Summary of key interview points, with a stress on proposed forest management strategies, and a plug for www.ORWW.org | MP3 |
0.57 | 2:25 |
Friday, September 13, 1991 Corvallis, Oregon Gazette-Times front page article on the international workshop on Global Warming and boreal forests that was being held in Corvallis at that time, as referenced in the interview. Provides good insights into public and scientific concerns regarding carbon-dioxide and climate change in the early 1990s.
1993 EPA International Global Warming Workshop Proceedings, including a listing of workshop papers and participating scientists, and the complete text of the 1991 Zybach paper: "Selecting a Model to Estimate the Effects of Climate Change and Management Activities on Carbon Cycling in Temperate Forest Regions."
