Mountain Pine Beetle: The Potential Carbon Emissions of Harvesting Dead Lodgepole Pine

This report accesses the potential carbon emissions of harvesting dead lodgepole pine as a result of an outbreak of mountain pine beetles. The report reviews the potential benefits (pros) and the many concerns (cons) about the harvesting practices and strategies utilized to mitigate the socio-economic and carbon emission impacts of mountain pine beetle outbreak. The goal is to help designers better understand the potential implications of specifying wood products. Could current harvesting practices emit more carbon than is estimated to be released by the dead and decaying trees?