Forest Flash: How Forests can Help Heal the Climate
In Pacific Forest Trust’s e-newsletter, Forest Flash, we send you the most recent PFT news and updates on forests, clean water, climate, and wildlife, no more than once or twice a month. Subscribe here.
Making a Difference with Forest Carbon Offsets
The fate of forests is central to healing our climate, but there are persistent questions about how carbon offset projects—where a ton of carbon pollution emitted is offset by a ton of carbon sequestered by forests—fit as part of that. And as major corporations such as Microsoft and Amazon have made public commitments to carbon neutrality, an array of new voluntary forest carbon offset approaches have proliferated.
In managing our forests for their climate gains, we can work to solve the climate crisis
California’s forest carbon offset program, developed by the Air Resources Board (CARB) is the only compliance forest offset protocol with projects covering over 4 million acres across the U.S. Its standards are used by other compliance regimes such as the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. None of the voluntary protocols have been through the same rigorous scientific and extensive multi-stakeholder public review process as CARBs, nor do they have other state-backed guarantees such as Securities and Exchange type safeguards for carbon trading. This is why PFT strongly supports using compliance grade offsets.
Recently, ProPublica published a piece claiming that CARB was “over-crediting” some approved projects and, by inference, throwing doubt on the overall quality of the CARB program. In a response, PFT co-founder Connie Best illustrated the rigor and reliability of the CARB program. “It’s important to scrutinize offset quality and methodologies,” she said, “but ProPublica misses the mark by focusing on a very small subsection of one aspect of the CARB program, and one that CARB is already seeking to improve. Conserving and managing forests for their climate gains is essential to solving the climate crisis. Offsets of CARB’s quality are a piece of that solution.”
Learn more about PFT’s work on forests and climate.
Mt. Ashland Forest Can Be a Key Piece to Oregon’s 30×30 Contribution
left: PFT Board member Seema Jethani and PFT President discussing management on the Mt. Ashland Forest
Conserving and allowing forests to grow older is key to managing for adaptation and solving our climate crisis. As reported in our February Forest Flash, PFT is working to acquire an additional 1120 acres as a demonstration forest managed for climate resilience. The Mt. Ashland Forest can play a crucial role in Oregon’s contribution to the Biden Administration’s 30×30 goal to conserve at least 30 percent of U.S. lands and waters by 2030. As a demonstration forest, the Mt. Ashland Forest Climate Resilience Project will serve as a model for improving adaptation options for plants and wildlife, restoring more resilient forest structure, and increasing lasting carbon stores while also reducing the threat of catastrophic fire. PFT recently held a tour of the project, with stakeholders from neighbors and foresters to wildlife agencies and elected representatives discussing how this working forest conservation project can contribute to the climate, water, and biodiversity crises we face. Read more about PFT’s work on Mt. Ashland and in the nearby Cascade Siskiyou National Monument, and contribute to our efforts to conserve the Siskiyou Crest.
Setting a Target for Forests in Meeting the Climate Crisis
As more states and countries are adopting target dates for becoming carbon neutral — emitting net-zero carbon emissions — and “carbon negative”, sequestering more carbon than they produce, by 2030 and 2045, it’s critical to establish the role of forests and other lands in meeting those targets. California is seeking to be carbon neutral before mid-century. It recently launched its effort to set that target, as part of the 2022 Scoping Plan Update led by the state Air Resources Board, which is responsible for implementing California’s groundbreaking climate policy AB32.
Forests are the most effective, proven carbon capture technology, the original “green tech” climate solution. While all ecosystems sequester carbon, forests are by far the largest, safest, and most expandable carbon sink globally. In California, forests contain roughly 85% of the state’s carbon stocks, yet these forests often hold but a fraction of the carbon they can store naturally. The health, conservation, and expansion of these forest carbon sinks, and those other lands, are essential to meeting carbon reduction targets. PFT is advocating for a significant expansion in forest conservation and restoration to increase both net carbon stocks and their resiliency, especially in the face of advancing climate change.
The California Air Resources Board is currently taking public comment on its approach to setting the target for carbon reductions through Natural and Working Lands.