Thankfully, there is a way out of this trap — but it involves striking a subtle balance. Helping forests flourish as valuable “carbon sinks” long into the future may require reducing their capacity to absorb carbon now. California is leading the way, as it does on so many climate efforts, in figuring out the details.
谢天谢地，有一种方法可以摆脱这个困境——但这需要一种微妙的平衡。帮助森林作为有价值的“碳汇”在未来长期繁荣，可能需要降低它们现在吸收碳的能力。加州在解决细节问题上走在了前面，正如它在许多气候变化方面所做的那样。
Forests give us shade, quiet and one of the harder challenges in the fight against climate change. Even as we humans count on forests to soak up a good share of the carbon dioxide we produce, we are threatening their ability to do so. The climate change we are hastening could one day leave us with forests that emit more carbon than they absorb.
森林给了我们阴凉、安静的环境，也是应对气候变化的艰难挑战的一种。即使我们人类指望森林吸收我们生产的大量二氧化碳，我们也在威胁它们这样做的能力。我们造成的加速气候变化可能有一天会给我们留下排放的二氧化碳比森林吸收的还要多。
The state’s proposed Forest Carbon Plan aims to double efforts to thin out young trees and clear brush in parts of the forest. This temporarily lowers carbon-carrying capacity. But the remaining trees draw a greater share of the available moisture, so they grow and thrive, restoring the forest’s capacity to pull carbon from the air. Healthy trees are also better able to fend off insects. The landscape is rendered less easily burnable. Even in the event of a fire, fewer trees are consumed.
该州提出的森林碳排放计划旨在加倍努力，使部分森林的幼树变稀疏并清理灌木丛。这会暂时降低碳承载能力。但是剩余的树木吸收了更多的水分，因此它们生长繁茂，恢复了森林从空气中吸收碳的能力。健康的树木也能更好地抵御昆虫。景观不太容易燃烧。即使发生火灾，也会减少树木的消耗。
The need for such planning is increasingly urgent. Already, since 2010, drought and insects have killed over 100 million trees in California, most of them in 2016 alone, and wildfires have burned hundreds of thousands of acres.
这种规划的必要性日益紧迫。自2010年以来，干旱和昆虫已经在加州杀死了1亿多棵树，其中大部分是在2016年，野火已经烧毁了几十万英亩。
California plans to treat 35,000 acres of forest a year by 2020, and 60,000 by 2030 — financed from the proceeds of the state’s emissions- permit auctions. That’s only a small share of the total acreage that could benefit, about half a million acres in all, so it will be vital to prioritize areas at greatest risk of fire or drought.
加州计划到2020年每年处理35000英亩的森林，到2030年处理60000英亩的森林——资金来自加州排放许可拍卖的收益。这只占可能受益的总面积的一小部分，总共约50万英亩，因此，优先考虑火灾或干旱风险最大的地区至关重要。
The strategy also aims to ensure that carbon in woody material removed from the forests is locked away in the form of solid lumber or burned as biofuel in vehicles that would otherwise run on fossil fuels. New research on transportation biofuels is already under way.
该战略还旨在确保从森林中移除的木质材料中的碳以实木的形式被锁定，或作为生物燃料在其它使用石化燃料的车辆中燃烧。关于交通生物燃料的新研究已经开始。
State governments are well accustomed to managing forests, but traditionally they’ve focused on wildlife, watersheds and opportunities for recreation. Only recently have they come to see the vital part forests will have to play in storing carbon. California’s plan, which is expected to be finalized by the governor next year, should serve as a model.
州政府很习惯于管理森林，但传统上他们关注野生动物、流域和娱乐机会。直到最近他们才意识到森林在吸收碳方面的重要作用。加州的计划有望明年由州长最终敲定，应该成为一个典范。
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