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The Nature Conservancy In PA: Bethlehem Authority Considering New Forest Program
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Clean drinking water, wildlife, recreational access and Pennsylvania's forest products industry all stand to benefit from a proposed agreement between The Nature Conservancy in PA and The Bethlehem Authority.
Earlier this spring, the Authority agreed to consider joining Working Woodlands, a new Nature Conservancy program that provides forest landowners with a rigorous analysis of their property as well as access to forest certification and carbon markets, in exchange for a commitment to practice sustainable forestry as recommended in a long-term forest management plan.
With the Bethlehem City Council and the Bethlehem Authority's support, the Authority's 22,000-plus acres of forested watershed in Monroe and Carbon counties could be the first parcels officially enrolled in the program.
Mayor John Callahan and Bud Cook, Northeast Pennsylvania program director for The Nature Conservancy, spoke Thursday afternoon about the importance of conservation in the area.
"This is one of the ecological hotspots of the state," Cook said.
The barrens landscape that spreads across Bethlehem Authority's property and extends into The Nature Conservancy's nearby Long Pond Preserve is one of Pennsylvania's special places. The barrens, wetlands and Tunkhannock Creek create a globally rare ecological system that harbors several threatened and endangered species.
The area provides habitat for migratory songbirds, including Blackburnian warbler, Canada warbler and Eastern wood-pewee, as well as native wildflowers. Growths of rhodora, a rare pink azalea, provides some of the state's best habitat for moths and butterflies.
In fact, The Nature Conservancy has long hoped to secure protection of the area and negotiated the purchase of 520 nearby acres from Bethlehem Authority in 2008 in partnership with Wildlands Conservancy.
The area has been classified as an Important Bird Area by the Audubon Society, and a Nature Conservancy analysis of Pennsylvania's key woodlands identified this area as critical for maintaining the biodiversity of the state's forests.
In December, the Nature Conservancy began speaking with landowners about Working Woodlands, a model forest conservation program that aims to protect forests and fight climate change, via an agreement with carbon marketer and developer Blue Source to create market-based incentives that reward landowners for exceptional forest management practices.
"Working Woodlands is a new model of conservation that puts the growing market for carbon credits to work as a means to promote forest conservation strategies on private lands," said Dylan Jenkins, the Pennsylvania director of forest conservation for The Nature Conservancy.
Building on the Conservancy and Blue Source's combined experience with land protection, forest certification and carbon finance, Working Woodlands uses an innovative combination of long-term working forest conservation agreements, Forest Stewardship Council forest management certification, and carbon market payments to make conservation a more attractive proposition for landowners.
The program is designed to eliminate landowners' out-of-pocket, up-front costs for forest inventories, management planning, certification and carbon project development. The Conservancy will provide services for FSC certification, and Blue Source will provide financing for carbon credit development.
The resulting offsets will be added to Blue Source's portfolio and subsequently marketed to companies that have an interest in purchasing forest carbon credits as part of an effort to manage their net greenhouse gas emissions.
"This alliance provides a means for landowners in the U.S. to embrace forest conservation at no up-front cost and enables them to receive timber and carbon revenues as a result of their commitment to improved environmental stewardship," Blue Source Vice President, Roger Williams said. "We see this as an evolution in land conservation and have structured this program to make it easy for landowners to participate."
The program was developed in Pennsylvania but is designed to spread to other Appalachian states, and has already attracted interest from all over the country, Jenkins said. "The Conservancy is at the forefront of creating a viable, high-quality and integrated forest carbon program. Our hope is that over the next two to three years we'll demonstrate the kind of success that will make others want to adopt our model in their neck of the woods."
"Working forests are a keystone of The Nature Conservancy's conservation efforts, here in Pennsylvania and around the world," said Bill Kunze, state director of The Nature Conservancy's Pennsylvania Chapter. "Harnessing the power of markets in service to the long-term ecological and economic health of our forests can yield great benefit for both people and nature."
How it Works
-- The Conservancy will offer Working Woodlands to landowners in Pennsylvania who have forests of at least 250 acres in size where FSC certification would significantly advance the conservation goals of long-term forest protection and sustainable forest management.
-- Cooperating with private forest consultants, the Conservancy will develop forest management plans that are certified under the Forest Stewardship Council. These plans will then be coupled with long-term management agreements to protect lands from forest conversion and unsustainable management practices.
-- All forest products produced from Working Woodlands properties will be FSC certified, including conventional solid wood for veneer and timber, as well as low-grade pulp and woody biomass for paper and energy production.
-- Blue Source and the Conservancy will work to ensure that the long-term management agreements are structured such that the resulting increase in forest carbon sequestered on the land can be quantified, verified and sold.
-- Blue Source will work with landowners to finance projects and to market and sell carbon credits generated by long-term forest protection and the improvement in forest conditions that result from FSC management, giving landowners additional financial incentive to manage their forest in a sustainable manner.
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8/2/2010 |
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