Forest Carbon and Carbon Cycling – November 4

Dr. Mark Harmon

Many Griffin area residents, being as we are within a few short minutes of the Thurston-Mason county line, are probably aware of the questions raised regarding the environmental credibility of the biomass incinerators proposed for the Shelton area. Promoters are working to sell political leaders on the idea that burning locally-harvested wood, to generate electricity, is an environmentally friendly, renewable energy source. Opponents describe pollution worse than burning coal and argue burning biomass has a huge carbon footprint. What is the truth about biomass and the environment?

From one of our neighborhood association partners, the Olympia Coalition of Neighborhood Associations, we have received notice that Dr. Mark Harmon, professor and Richardson Chair of Forest Science at Oregon State University, will be speaking at the Evergreen State College on November 4.

November 4
6 to 8 PM
The Evergreen State College
Lecture Hall 1

The presentation is free and open to the public.

Dr. Harmon is a professor and chair of the forest science department at Oregon State University. His research has been referenced to both credit and discredit the idea of achieving carbon neutrality by using waste wood of forest management for energy. This is a community presentation on forest carbon and carbon cycling. Dr. Harmon is offering a one-hour lecture, with an hour for questions and discussion.

Click here for the Oregon State University biography on Mark Harmon.

Some of his commonly referenced papers include:
Mark Harmon’s 2009 Congressional Testimony on Forest Carbon Sequestration –
http://resourcescommittee.house.gov/images/Documents/20090303/npfpl/oversight/testimony_harmon.pdf

Potential Upper Bounds of Carbon Stores in Forests of the Pacific Northwest –
http://www.biol.wwu.edu/hooper/Smithwicketal2002EcolAppl_UpperBoundsofCstoresinPNWforests.pdf

Successional changes in live and dead wood carbon stores: implications for net ecosystem productivity –
http://treephys.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/22/2-3/77.pdf

There is a $2 parking fee at the college. Directions and a campus map can be found here:
http://www.evergreen.edu/tour/gethere.htm

For more information opposing construction of the Shelton biomass facility, click this link
 
Click here for King5 coverage of the opposition to the Shelton biomass facility.
 
Click here for Northwest Renewable News coverage, “Plan for Shelton, WA biomass plant is great news for region”
 
Click here to read “The Stranger’s” coverage of the Shelton biomass plant.
 
And click here to read a brief article that appeared in the “Kitsap Sun.”
 
 

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