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Pulling back the curtains on wage-theft enforcement in MN; Trump's latest attack is on RFK, Jr; NM LGBTQ+ equality group endorses 2024 'Rock Star' candidates; Michigan's youth justice reforms: Expanded diversion, no fees.

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Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says rebuilding Baltimore's Key Bridge will be challenging and expensive. An Alabama Democrat flips a state legislature seat and former Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman dies at 82.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Our Trees are Tops!

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Thursday, March 4, 2010   

PORTLAND, Ore. - On a new list of "Top Ten" national forests, ranked for their storage of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, six are in Oregon, with three in Washington and one in Alaska. The analysis of U.S. Forest Service data indicates the Western Oregon forests are using and storing twice as much carbon dioxide per acre as forests in other parts of the country.

Study author Mike Anderson, senior resource analyst with The Wilderness Society, says the reason is that the forests here are bigger and the trees are older.

"Oregon has some of the best tree-growing environment and habitat in the nation, especially on the West slope of the Cascades. That's where we're seeing these exceptionally high levels of forest carbon being stored."

Oregon's Willamette National Forest holds the Number One spot on the list, storing just over 600 metric tons of carbon dioxide per acre. The Umpqua came in third, with the Siuslaw, Mount Hood, Siskiyou and Rogue River National Forests all in the top ten. Some people describe forests as the "lungs of the planet," a role Anderson believes should be part of their management plans.

"There are about a million acres of these national forests in the Northwest that are currently open for logging, for instance. We think it would make sense for those forests to be protected, to serve this important carbon-storing function they're doing so well."

The study will be shared with federal forest managers to underscore the importance of keeping the Northwest forest ecosystem healthy and intact, he adds. The analysis, Top Ten Carbon Storing National Forests in America, is available at www.wilderness.org.




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