COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho - Some landowners in the Pacific Northwest are planting new forests of trees to consume greenhouse gases and potentially buffer climate change, in a business called carbon forestry.
The Nez Perce Tribe of Idaho recently planted 5,000 acres of new forest along the Clearwater River and is in the process of selling carbon credits from the land. The state of Idaho also is exploring the idea as a way to get more value out of its timber.
The trees can be worth money to energy companies and other businesses under increasing pressure to offset the carbon dioxide they emit, said Ted Dodge, director of the National Carbon Offset Coalition of Butte, Mont.
"We believe this is going to be the largest commodity market in the world," Dodge told a group of foresters and land managers earlier this week, adding: "This is going. The train has left the station."
Through a U.S. Department of Energy grant, Dodge spent the week crossing Idaho to explain the concept, hoping to find an extra 12,500 metric tons of forest-based and crop field-based carbon to sell to traders on the Chicago Climate Exchange.
The concept may be new to a state long dependent on turning trees into lumber. However, an acre of these trees can consume a ton of the gas from the atmosphere each year.
The money in the trees isn't much -- about $4 an acre. At current carbon prices, trees are still worth far more dead than alive, but landowners with no intention of cutting their trees might find an extra source of income through carbon credits, Dodge said.
"It's money they wouldn't have gotten otherwise," he said.
There are a number of conditions. Primarily, the trees must be planted on barren land or places where natural disasters, including wildfire, have killed off the forest. The landowner also must agree to keep the land forested for a set number of years.
Farmers may also tap into the project by agreeing to no-till or low-till practices just like forests, Dodge said.
Landowners are paid a set price for each ton of carbon stored by these newly planted trees or undisturbed fields. The going rate this week on the Chicago Climate Exchange was $3.80 per ton. Businesses and organizations that produce carbon dioxide buy credits on the exchange to help offset their emissions.
In Europe, where carbon dioxide emissions are capped by law, the price of carbon has topped $20 a ton.
The system is voluntary in the United States, but dozens of organizations are now participating, including steel producers, energy companies and even the state of New Mexico.
Several states, including California, are beginning to regulate emissions on their own. A national standard would be easier to follow than dozens of separate state rules, said Neil Sampson, a Virginia-based forestry consultant to the National Carbon Offset Coalition.
When a national system is developed, the price of carbon credits is expected to rise, Sampson said. Forestry will likely play a marginal role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but Sampson believes it could be a way for landowners to make enough money to pay their tax bill while also helping stabilize the climate.
"We can't solve the whole problem but we can nip away at the edges," he said.
The Nez Perce Tribe has one of the biggest projects in the region. The trees were planted on land once forested but long ago converted to agricultural lands on the advice of the federal government.
The land wasn't the best for crops and the tribe prefers to see it reforested, said John DeGroot, forestry director for the Nez Perce. The idea of selling carbon credits from these newly planted forests is appealing, he said, because it offers the chance to make money to manage the land and pay for other reforestation.
But at current prices, DeGroot said the tribe is lukewarm about signing any final agreements on the sale of carbon credits. Although a ton of carbon is worth twice as much now as it was last year, many foresters say the price would need to reach about $12 a ton before it becomes worthwhile to grow carbon forests.
"We're ready to sell if and when the carbon markets come into play," DeGroot said.
