Logged Forest

I really enjoyed seeing and talking to all classes today. You asked very good questions. In fact my roommate said you asked better questions than her high school students. I told you I would send you a list of the kinds of trees we measured. We measured tulip poplar, red oaks, white oaks, dogwood, ironwood, maple, beech, red bud, sweet gum, hickory, and spice bush. Everyone of them got a metal tag (forest bling).
Today we went to an area that had been logged. The people who owned the land had many trees cut before they sold the land to the Smithsonian. The people that cut the trees only took the biggest most valuable trees and left the others. However, they damaged many of the trees left standing so many of them will die. Trees use carbon dioxide, water, and sunlight to make food and grow (photosynthesis). As long as the tree is living, the carbon dioxide stays in the tree. When the tree is cut down, the carbon dioxide is released as the tree decomposes. (Do you know what that word means?) Until the trees grow back, more carbon dioxide is being released than is being absorbed.
Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas that keeps the Earth warm. However, when the Eath has too much carbon dioxide it warms up too much causing the ice in the Arctic to melt. The scientists at the SERC are studying how long it takes for areas that have been logged to return to absorbing more carbon dioxide than they are making.