This week, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Forest Service announced a $50 billion plan to fight wildfires. The goal is, in fact, to reduce wildfires. But one of the side effects may be a huge infusion of ecologically harvested wood into the supply chain for building materials. For architects, this firefighting tool could also be a new source of carbon-sequestering wood for sustainable building projects. — Fast Company
The timber industry is currently under tremendous strain to meet demands as suppliers face labor shortages that have triggered high prices for their clients, who are increasingly looking to build bigger and taller buildings using what is considered to be a more sustainable material.
The recent supply chain issues are making the rehabilitation program a windfall for the increasing number of firms in desperate need of timber that is at the same time ethically sourced and environmentally friendly. The Forest Service says it will treat about 75 million acres under the ten-year plan, which should produce about $150 billion worth of timber stock, according to pricing data taken from forest2market.com. Some have said they are optimistic for the changes it might entail for the industry’s overall decarbonization goals, valuing it for its potential to force architects to think more critically about incorporating the material into their designs.
“Oftentimes we’re trying to fit the forest and what it produces into our buildings versus the other way around,” ZGF’s Jacob Dunn told Fast Company. “This represents an opportunity for us to really embrace what’s coming out of this ecologically sound practice and modify our behavior to accept that.”
2 Comments
The capitalist approach to ecology:
Wildfires are not part of the natural ecology and must be eliminated. The best way to do that is to get rid of forests.
This is sort of wrong on it's assumed facts.
The problem isn't that forests burn, the problem is that a combination of nearly a century of wrongheaded fire management policy combined with the growing effects of climate change have produced a massive imbalance in the natural cycle of fire in forests. It's not about getting rid of forests, it's about working to undo the imbalance that our society spent the last several generations creating.
The science is still inconclusive on whether thinning actually helps, but in a world where we still build stuff out of wood, it's probably the least bad option. Prescribed burns are the best option, but those don't make money and so are being combined with other strategies to try to balance ecology and society. I don't agree with all of this but it's not as wrongheaded as your comment suggests.
I don't mean to condescend, but people living east of the plans don't really comprehend wildifre ecology as it exists in the west. I say this as someone who didn't comprehend it until I lived in the west for a few years.
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