Fires will get them if we don’t

Let’s clear the smoke on the claim that fire is as damaging as logging.

Carbon is stored both above and below ground. Forest parts above ground lose roughly 800 tonnes per ha when logged and burnt. Using figures both Federal and State governments have been quoting in parliament, the recent fires sent less than 40 tonne/ha into the sky.

Forests store about 670 tonnes of carbon per ha under the soil as roots, fungi, mulch, invertebrates and so on (it’s a jungle down there!). A fire burns only 16 tonnes per hectare of stored underground carbon, but logging reduces this by a massive 573 tonnes/ha.

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