Forests, forest management and climate change – understanding the existing forest offset market and its connection to practical forest management in the United States

Lilli Kaarakka, Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Science, California Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo, CA; Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Colorado-Boulder, Boulder, CO, Julia Rothey, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO and Laura Dee, University of Colorado-Boulder, Boulder, CO

Background/Question/Methods
Land management interventions such as forest management have gained significant traction in the last few years as instruments in increasing carbon (C) sequestration in working lands in the United States. While the importance of forest management in maintaining and potentially enhancing the terrestrial C sinks has been well established, C as a management objective in the practical context of silviculture and forest management is a relatively new concept. Yet a new emissions trading market, the Voluntary C Offset Market, has been dominated by offsets originating from managed forests, particularly on the West Coast. Almost two hundred million forest C offsets have been issued through in the California Cap-and-Trade-Program and Voluntary Offset Market yet little information is available on the practical forest management applied in these projects.

Results/Conclusions
In response, we have compiled a database of all the existing forest C offset projects that have received credits in the Voluntary Market, and assessed the management applied at each project site. Some of the preliminary findings of this study indicate that most forest offset projects by acres and offsets issued are based in California, but large acreages of projects can be found in Alaska and Washington. Private companies are the largest ownership group followed by Tribal Communities and non-governmental organizations. Uneven-aged forest management is the most common management practices applied (33% of offsets issued); however, some projects list several management actions (or lack thereof) for different stands within the project area. We anticipate that this project will provide a vital input into the discourse on how and where we manage our forests and the C within.