Dartmouth Study Says Cutting Down (Certain) Trees Can Save the Environment

Growing forests is supposed to slow global warming because trees soak up carbon dioxide in photosynthesis. But a new study by Dartmouth College says that sometimes the better play to save the planet is cutting down trees. That would be in high latitudes where there’s a lot of snow. Treeless meadows covered with snow reflect a lot of the sun’s light and heat, reducing global warming.

So, you Finns, Russians, Canadians, and Alaskans, fire up those chainsaws! The study will be presented Dec. 12 at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco. Previous studies had suggested the potential benefits of removing trees to create reflective snow fields. Dartmouth’s researchers quantified the phenomenon using a sophisticated model of the climate and the economy that took into account the timber value of wood. Dartmouth gathered the data near the New Hampshire campus in the White Mountain National Forest, home of the tallest mountains in the Northeast.