Burying Wood Debris: A Low-Cost Carbon Removal Strategy Hidden in Managed Forests

Redacción HC
11/09/2025

As the climate crisis intensifies, scientists continue to search for scalable and affordable strategies to capture and store carbon dioxide (CO₂). While high-tech solutions like direct air capture and geological storage dominate headlines, new research published in Nature Geoscience suggests that one of the most promising approaches may be surprisingly simple: burying wood debris in managed forests.

The study, led by researchers at Cornell University and collaborators worldwide, reveals that preserving woody residues—branches, sawmill scraps, and discarded timber—by burying them deep in soils could lock away gigatonnes of CO₂ for centuries or even millennia. This natural method could complement existing climate strategies and help nations progress toward their net-zero targets.

Why Look Underground for Climate Solutions?

Forests play a central role in climate mitigation, but most forest residues decompose within decades, releasing their stored carbon back into the atmosphere. By burying woody debris under low-oxygen conditions, decomposition slows dramatically, effectively turning forest waste into a carbon vault.

In an interview, the study authors highlighted that “we are exploring a natural, scalable, and low-cost solution that could be implemented immediately in forest management programs” (Nature, 2025). Unlike costly industrial technologies, this approach leverages existing forest practices with minimal technological barriers.

How Researchers Modeled the Potential

The international research team developed new Earth system model simulations by introducing an additional “wood debris pool.” This pool tracks how much carbon remains stable when residues are buried compared to when they decompose at the surface.

Their methodology considered:

• Annual production of forest residues from logging, sawmills, and discarded wood products.
• Decomposition rates in surface conditions versus buried conditions at ~2 meters depth.
• Logistics of collection, transport, and burial.
• Different management scenarios (fraction of debris preserved, burial depths, and land-use interactions).

By projecting these scenarios, the models estimated how much CO₂ removal could be achieved on national and global scales, while also noting uncertainties such as soil differences, costs, and community acceptance.

Key Findings: Gigatonne-Scale Carbon Removal

The results were striking. Preserving and burying woody debris could remove gigatonnes of CO₂ from the atmosphere. In optimal conditions, carbon storage could extend for centuries, making this one of the most durable natural solutions to date.

For instance, the models suggest that if the United States were to preserve up to two-thirds of its annual wood residues, this single measure could bring the country significantly closer to its 2050 net-zero goals. While that figure represents an ambitious scenario, it illustrates the scale of potential impact.

At the same time, the study emphasizes caution. Large-scale burial of woody debris could affect local soil nutrient cycles, biodiversity, and even water flow patterns. There are also questions about long-term monitoring, costs, and the risk of methane production if burial sites are not properly managed.

“Field experiments are urgently needed to validate decomposition rates under different climates and soil types,” the researchers wrote. They also recommend conducting life cycle assessments (LCA) to account for emissions generated during collection, transportation, and burial operations.

Opportunities and Risks for Policy and Practice

For policymakers and forest managers, this approach offers a rare opportunity: a fast, low-cost, and nature-based method that can be implemented alongside existing forestry operations. Incentives could be designed to:

1. Collect and separate woody residues.
2. Establish designated burial sites or “carbon vaults.”
3. Certify and monitor carbon permanence through soil sampling and satellite-based verification.

However, the strategy is not without risks. Communities in tropical regions often rely on forest residues for fuel or artisanal use, so diverting this material to burial must be carefully balanced. Additionally, ecological impacts—such as reduced habitat for decomposer species—require evaluation.

The authors stress that this approach is not a substitute for emissions reductions but could act as a complementary measure within broader carbon dioxide removal (CDR) portfolios.

Conclusion: An Overlooked Natural Solution

The findings published in Nature Geoscience underscore the potential of turning forest waste into a long-term carbon sink. By burying wood debris, humanity could tap into a low-cost, scalable method for carbon removal, one that complements technological solutions while buying valuable time in the race against climate change.

The next step lies in translating these models into real-world pilot projects, especially in regions rich in forest resources like North America, Europe, and Latin America. If proven effective, burying wood could shift from an overlooked byproduct of forest management to a vital climate solution.

As the study authors put it, the strategy is “not a silver bullet, but an important piece of the climate mitigation puzzle.”

Topics of interest

Climate