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Fighting Fire with Low-Carbon Buildings
Mass timber made from Colorado wildfire thinnings is a win for local forests, communities, and the global climate.
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Colorado’s forests are vital to the state’s identity. Indigenous peoples used wildfire to manage these forests for millennia, a practice still relevant today. However, climate change, fire suppression, and urban expansion have made severe wildfires more common and more destructive. Forest thinning, the selective removal of small diameter trees, improves resilience to these wildfires, protects drinking water, and conserves wildlife, but is costly. Furthermore, small-diameter trees from thinning have historically had little market value.
Mass timber, which combines wood from small trees into high performance structural elements, offers a solution by offsetting treatment costs and reducing embodied carbon in buildings compared to steel or concrete. Local production of mass timber also creates jobs in rural communities. This report highlights how using trees from wildfire thinnings in Colorado to produce mass timber supports forests, communities, and the climate. Download the full report to learn more.
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