Carbon credits could help forests

Wrapping a 75-foot logger’s tape measure around the trunk of a young oak tree, Pat Cleary jotted down its circumference and diameter.

With an instrument called a clinometer, Cleary calculated the height and the size of the crown, or the spread of leafy branches.

He used a topographical map, a compass and a hand-held GPS unit to record the location of the oak. Dry leaves crunched underfoot as he moved on to the next tree. Trotting beside him was Squirrel, a beagle mix who is his constant companion in the woods.

It was a warm day in September, 2008, and Cleary, a self-employed forester, planned to spend most of it in the forest. He would have to — his job was to measure and record every tree, living and dead, of at least an inch and a half diameter on the property.

In addition to size, he recorded the species and calculated how much of the crown area was alive.

When he completed the job he had a detailed inventory of the trees in the forest, an inventory he would use to calculate the amount of carbon dioxide sequestered there.

Storing greenhouse gases

In an age when the threat of global warming hangs over the planet, carbon sequestration has both ecological and commercial potential.

The term refers to the longterm storage of carbon dioxide in the trees. Simply put, plants absorb carbon dioxide when they grow. When that happens, the compound is removed from the atmosphere.

Carbon dioxide is one of the greenhouse gases that accumulates in the atmosphere and hold heat in. The greenhouse effect is widely believed to be the cause of global warming, the increase in atmospheric temperature blamed for climate change.

So removing the gas from the atmosphere can be part of a strategy to halt, or at least slow down, global warming.

Unfortunately, on a global scale forests are being cleared at an alarming rate — 13 million hectares per year, according to the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization. A hectare is 10,000 square meters.

Incentives to manage forests

Cleary’s inventory is part of an effort to preserve Appalachian forests by providing landowners financial incentives to keep their land in timber.

Preserving the forests, it is hoped, will both mitigate global warming and provide other benefits, from wildlife habitat to recreation.

Property owners with significant stands of timber potentially can make money through carbon credits. Landowners can receive credit for the carbon their trees store, and sell the credits through a central marketplace to industries committed to reduction of greenhouse gases.

In Kentucky, the Mountain Association for Community Economic Development works with landowners to sell the credits. To enroll in the program, landowners provide proof of ownership, sign a contract with MACED, set up a plan for sustained management and conduct an inventory — which is where Cleary comes in.

On completion of the inventory, Cleary submits the data to MACED, where computer models project the growth of the forest — and thus the amount of carbon sucked out of the atmosphere – for the next 10 years. Then it can calculate the value of the carbon credits, which it sells on the Chicago Climate Exchange.

The exchange works like a stock exchange, said Scott Shouse, MACED’s forestry program manager. MACED’s role is to bundle the credits of individual property owners and sell them on the exchange.

For property owners, the benefits are more than financial. There is a monetary incentive, to be sure — selling the credits ideally will bring in a tidy sum. But most property owners don’t foresee making a profit.



Not just the money

Larry Workman, for instance, together with his brother owns about 200 acres of forest in Lawrence County. He isn’t interested in cutting and selling the timber.

Rather, Workman wants to keep his woods for wildlife, recreation and aesthetic value. The property has been the family’s homeplace for 100 years.

The annual tax bite is a burden he hopes the credits will alleviate. “I’m getting no value out of the land and this is an opportunity to offset that,” he said.

Currently the market is weak for the credits. From a peak of about $7.40 per ton, the price crashed to about 35 cents per ton, largely because of the global recession, Shouse said. “With less manufacturing, there was less need for offsets,” he said.

The market has a good chance of recovering, however, if Congress passes the Waxman-Markley bill this year, Shouse said.

The bill establishes so-called cap and trade limits, which put a lid on the amount of greenhouse gas emissions allowed, and allow polluting industries to trade the credits.

In the meantime, Shouse said, MACED may soon be in a position to sell some of the credits it has accumulated from participating property owners to a third party, which he declined to identify. The sale would involve credits from the first property owners who enrolled.

Beyond the profit motive, the system is good for forests because it encourages sound forest management, Cleary said. Property owners in the program have to achieve certified forest status for their woodlands and that leads to a healthier and more productive forest and still higher levels of carbon sequestration.

Without the credits, it is hard for an owner to justify the longterm costs, he said. “But with enough credits, it makes it economically viable.”

Better forests in turn lead to more jobs and economic development at the same time they’re helping cleanse the atmosphere, he said.

“As a forester, I don’t see how it could not be a benefit to the planet.”

MIKE JAMES can be reached at mjames@dailyindependent.com or at (606) 326-2652.

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