County Forestry considers Carbon Project

With increased regulation and voluntary reductions of carbon emissions due to concerns for climate change, a value for forestry carbon has emerged as a way for actively storing carbon vs. emitting carbon in the atmosphere. The Hood River County Forestry Department is currently exploring a Forestry Carbon Project proposed by The Climate Trust.

The Climate Trust manages carbon offset acquisition programs and projects for organizations seeking to reduce carbon footprints. Hood River County’s Board of Commissioners is preparing for a public hearing on the Forestry Carbon Project at its October 16th meeting scheduled for 6 p.m.

The County would receive payment for a portion of the carbon that the forest stores and sequesters beyond what it can legally harvest, is financially incentivized to harvest, and is seen on similar forests in the region. Credits issued from the project would be discounted to account for changes in harvest pressure elsewhere and would be conservatively calculated. Credits also account for the life cycle of wood products that would have been created in the absence of a project, indicating the conservative nature of the methodology.

The sale of carbon credits could provide new revenue that the County would use for acquisition of additional forestland. Acquiring forestland is a Board of Commissioner strategic goal because these additional lands would result in added long-term revenue to fund County services and provide other public benefits without more aggressive harvest rates or increasing carbon emissions on current County Forestlands.

Such a project in Hood River County would affect how the County Forest is managed in the future. The project includes an Improved Forest Management (IFM) Project with the American Carbon Registry, managed by The Climate Trust. The IFM Project would ensure County Forest management aligns with the conservation values and climate concerns of the community while continuing to meet general fund budget needs. The terms of the Improved Forest Management Project would contractually obligate the County to maintain or increase carbon stocks over the next 40 years.

Hood River County depends on timber sale revenue for its general fund budget. As the costs of operating County services increase, so does pressure to harvest higher volumes of timber at shorter intervals. Increasing harvests would result in lower age and size of trees in the forest.

Conversion to smaller trees across the County Forest would increase carbon emissions and decrease carbon storage and sequestration. There is no regulation that would prohibit the County from increasing harvest levels to those more commonly seen in the region and thus emit more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

A forest carbon inventory would be installed and audited every five years to measure and model actual carbon stored and carbon sequestered. After inventory, analysis, third-party audit, and review, carbon credits would be issued onto the American Carbon Registry and marketed and sold by The Climate Trust. Credits would also be contributed to an ACR common insurance buffer pool to account for unforeseen carbon emissions such as wildfire.

Timber thinning harvest