To the editor: The Times reports that ranchers and federal land managers across the American Southwest have come to view piñon-juniper forests as an invasive and highly flammable scourge. In Nevada there is a proposal to use the wood from these trees as a source of “renewable” energy.
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management, which is working on the proposal, is known colloquially as the “Bureau of Livestock and Mining.” Therefore, it is not surprising that the agency favors this project to convert wood into methanol.
However, calling piñon-juniper forests an invasive species is false.
As the climate changes, the distribution of all affected species tends to change. The piñon and juniper forests could no longer withstand the summer temperatures in the lower areas. As the climate warms, they have settled at higher elevations.
This is not the classic definition of an invasive species, which humans often bring into non-native habitats. Piñon-juniper forests are simply trying to survive like any other species would.
Jim Rueff, Fountain Valley
..
To the editor: As the article points out, piñon-juniper forests have stored carbon for thousands of years. This intricate ecosystem, which also supports much wildlife, is already vulnerable to the climate crisis, and using these trees as biofuel would only make it more vulnerable.
Moving forward with this project will have detrimental impacts on our fight against climate change. We should protect these healthy forests instead of clearing them for energy, which in doing so will release carbon into the atmosphere.
This project, and the scale at which it will be developed, will directly damage the environment and its biodiversity. Instead, we should protect these trees not only for current climate change mitigation, but also for the benefit of future generations.
Heather Fergus, San Francisco
..
To the editor: Converting trees that sequester carbon and provide habitat to methanol is anything but green.
While burning methanol produces less secondary pollution than burning fossil fuels, it still produces carbon dioxide. The fact that the combustion of “green” methanol produces greenhouse gases was not mentioned anywhere in this article.
Laura Willbanks, Long Beach
