Great Mountain Forest September 2020
In this issue: Carbon credits are another way that a working forest works
Vocabulary of Carbon

Carbon Credits: Landowners receive credits with a financial value for trees--and carbon--left in the ground.

Cap and Trade: organizations are assigned a maximum of CO2 units they are legally allowed to emit. That's the cap. If another organization produces less than its cap, it can sell spare credits to another entity. This allows an offset to carbon over-production. That's the trade.

Greenhouse Gas (GCG): a gas that absorbs and radiates heat back to the earth, causing the greenhouse effect. Carbon dioxide (CO2) is a greenhouse gas.

Carbon Sequestration: storing atmospheric carbon dioxide and other forms of carbon in trees, plants and grasses in the form of biomass in trunks, branches, roots and leaves. This is done through photosynthesis.

Carbon Footprint: How much CO2 an individual or entity emits into the atmosphere just by living or operating. It's measured in tons.

Carbon Neutrality: On a personal, organizational, or country level, this is a status where you remove as much carbon from the atmosphere as you add to it. It can be achieved by reducing emissions and/or purchasing carbon offset credits to bring your net carbon output to zero.


Photos courtesy of Tom Blagden
The Nature of Work is Changing--Even for GMF
 
The nature of work in our society is changing.

It’s no different for a working forest. The World Resources Institute defines a working forest as forests that are actively managed to generate revenue from multiple sources, including sustainably produced timber and other ecosystem services, and thus are not converted to other land uses such as residential development.

For over 100 years GMF has been sustainably working and managing the forest mainly through timber and maple syrup production and sales.

More recently, Great Mountain Forest reconsidered how it stewards its precious natural resources, helps the planet move to carbon neutrality, and ensures the financial future of GMF. This working forest found a new way to work--carbon credits.  
 
Trees perform a valuable ecosystem service. They are remarkably effective at sequestering carbon in their roots, trunks, and leaves. This ability keeps carbon safely in the ground and not attaching to oxygen in the atmosphere to form carbon dioxide, a notable greenhouse gas.

According to Yale Environment 360, ecologist Thomas Crowther estimates that 3 trillion trees currently populate the planet. Collectively, they store 400 gigatons of carbon in the ground.  

Carbon credits for forests have their roots in the Kyoto Protocol in the late 1990's. While that agreement didn’t gain the international consensus about climate change that it sought, it did call for greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions. That call has been answered over time by both governments and organizations around the world. 

Fast forward, and a new currency in carbon has been established, known as carbon credits, which involve voluntary and compliance agreements to reduce the spewing of carbon in the atmosphere by industries, business entities, and countries.  
 
Organizations and countries set limit on how much carbon they are permitted to produce in a given time frame. 

These limits gave rise to cap and trade relationships between those whose carbon exceeded their limit (cap) and those who generated or released less carbon, the remainder of which they can sell (trade).

Those who buy offsets in the form of carbon credits are to use them as a transitional tool as they develop capacity to reduce their own carbon footprint over time and stay within their cap.
Great Mountain Forest Stewards the Future
Selling carbon credits furthers GMF’s work in stewarding the trees and allows it to contribute to comprehensive efforts to reduce GHGs.

As in nature, diversity creates strength. Diversifying our forest products contributes to the longevity of GMF as a critical natural resource that engages in cutting-edge environmental research and informative and stimulating educational programming. It also serves as a site for visitors to intimately and respectfully engage with GMF's diverse forest ecosystem.

The carbon offset credit program is one piece of our working forest's strategy that encompasses income from our more traditional forest products of timber and maple syrup, grants, and the ever-important donations from a supportive public--YOU. 
 
Working with reputable environmental partner Bluesource, the GMF board and staff have ensured the forest meets all criteria to participate in a carbon credit program and ensure active sustainable maintenance of the forest.

GMF's collaboration with the State of California (a state has compliance carbon caps for businesses and industries) and The Climate Trust is estimated to generate 360,000 carbon offset credits over the next decade.  
 
Stewarding GMF into the future requires protecting and sustainably managing our forest into the future. It also answers a larger call to use our natural capital to reduce the planet’s carbon footprint.  
Are You Big Foot?
Calculate your own carbon footprint! Visit Nature Conservancy Carbon Footprint Calculator

According to the Nature Conservancy, the average carbon footprint for the U.S. per person is 16 tons. Globally, the average is closer to four tons.
Do you know your carbon footprint?
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Stand with the Trees!
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GMF is critical to the environmental and economic sustainability of the region as well as an important contributor to research and education about climate change and environmental health. Help us support the forest as a vital natural resource.
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