Protecting the Forests, and Hoping for Payback – Carbon credits spell new future for forests

Driving through the verdant timberlands of Oregon’s Coast Range, Matt Fehrenbacher pointed out a mountainside where every tree had been clearcut.

"That’s business as usual," said Fehrenbacher, a forester with The Pacific Forest Trust, a conservation group that manages private forest both to produce lumber and to store carbon as a hedge against global warming.

"There’s a sweetspot where a landowner can potentially balance your timber value with your carbon values," said Fehrenbacher. "As this market emerges it’s becoming more of a reality. Landowners’ interest is very high right now."

By JEFF BARNARD
The Associated Press

Full Story: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/28/AR2009112801044.html?hpid=sec-business

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Protecting the Forests, and Hoping for Payback

By WILLIAM YARDLEY

A patch of ponderosa pines here in the Deschutes National Forest has been carefully pruned over the last few years to demonstrate the United States Forest Service’s priorities in the changing West: improving forest health and protecting against devastating wildfire while still supporting the timber economy.

Brian Tandy looks at a sign describing the different ways that the forest service is thinning and managing the Metolius Basin.

Yet occasionally, when tour groups come through, someone will ask what role the trees might play as the nation addresses global warming. After all, forests soak up carbon dioxide as they grow.

“We’ve always said that’s outside the scope of this project,” said Michael Keown, the environmental coordinator for the Sisters Ranger District, which includes more than 300,000 acres in the Deschutes forest in central Oregon. “But those days have come and gone.”

Full Story: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/29/science/earth/29trees.html?_r=1&hpw