Recent critiques of forest carbon offset protocols point to certain fundamental problems that can significantly compromise their effectiveness in combating climate change, which are generally related to additionality, leakage and permanence. However, there may be a large opportunity for Maine’s forest to play a meaningful and scientifically legitimate role in mitigating climate change. To realize this opportunity, Maine needs a robust understanding of whether and, if so, under what conditions forests can be managed profitably by landowners to accelerate carbon sequestration and storage, while supplying additional carbon that does not leak and is sufficiently permanent. In this analysis, a primary goal was the identification of a set of silvicultural systems that, if implemented, would lead to an increase over time of carbon stored in the forest and in harvested wood products relative to the continuation of current practices in Maine. The analysis focused on projected operational changes in practices for commercial operations in order to maximize the likelihood that the carbon is truly additional.

The results suggest significant potential to increase carbon through changes in silviculture in Maine. Applying optimal practices across the landscape has the potential to increase average annual carbon sequestration and storage in HWP over the 50-year time frame of our study by at least 23%, even while holding harvests constant. However, these carbon gains come at a real cost. For landowners to change their behavior and adopt the mix of carbon-smart silvicultural practices, they would likely need to be properly compensated. To realize financial returns equivalent to what they earned in the baseline, they would need to be paid approximately $10/ton CO2e on average. Overall, this study highlights potential issues with current forest carbon offset programs and the need for balanced yet active forest management to achieve the state’s carbon neutrality objectives, but proper compensation or additional incentives might be required for most effective implementation. 

To register visit https://www.canr.msu.edu/events/learning-exchange-series-assessing-landscape-scale-climate-smart-forest-management-strategies-is-it-possible.

Speakers

Aaron R. Weiskittel has been a Professor of Forest Biometrics and Modeling at the University of Maine since 2008 following a two-year stint at Weyerhaeuser. He teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on forest measurements and biometrics, has been a PI/Co-PI on over $21 million in research grants from USDA, USFS, NSF, and NASA. Weiskittel has authored nearly 155 peer-reviewed publications and was lead author on a widely used textbook on forest growth and yield modeling. He has worked closely with forest industry throughout North America in a variety of endeavors.    

Erin Simons-Legaard