What’s a tree worth?

It’s pretty hard to make two-by-fours out of a standing tree, after all.

Recently a land trust on the Olympic Peninsula “sold” the carbon stored in its trees, and in exchange agreed not to cut those trees.

A non-profit financial institution bought the carbon to offset its carbon dioxide emissions for the next three years.

The basic concept here is valid. Trees do absorb carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas.

What’s fallacious is the notion that only untouched forests sequester carbon.

After logging, new trees are either planted or grow naturally, and those young trees begin pulling carbon from the air.

Neglected forests, by contrast, are more likely to burn. And forest fires are notorious polluters, belching thousands of tons of carbon into the atmosphere every year.

Buying and selling carbon credits from forests is a laudable idea, and potentially a new source of revenue for private forest owners.

But we see no benefit for the environment, and a potential disaster for the economy, if forests are valued only for their carbon.