By John Hoover, Bald Eagle Tree Farm, Centre County

The Family Forest Carbon Program was created by the American Forest Foundation and The Nature Conservancy to let family forest landowners take advantage of carbon credits that pay them to implement sustainable forest practices.  Here’s one experience from the PA Forestry Association newsletter--

I signed up for a 20-year lease with the Family Forest Carbon Program (FFCP) enrolling about half of my Bald Eagle Tree Farm in December. I believe my experiences and results with this might be useful to other Pennsylvania Forest Landowners considering a Carbon Credit program.

Landowners interested in the FFCP can work with their consulting forester to plan a carbon project. I chose to work with Kevin Yoder, who I have worked with in the past and now works for The Nature Conservancy.

He installed 15 inventory plots across what appeared to be suitable project areas to measure the existing forest density and timber volume.

Much of my property is young forest habitat currently monitored for cerulean and golden-winged warblers and was not eligible because it did not meet the eligibility conditions.

I chose to enroll forest management parcels that have many large trees but would require significant road building to harvest.

While this portion of my property provides valuable mature forest habitat for wildlife, from a financial point they would never provide enough income to cover their annual property tax payments.

The carbon credit payments over the next 20 years take care of this problem and will provide funds for other forestry management projects on the property.

The program requires a current forest management plan and will pay $800 towards its cost every 10 years.

It doesn’t require a harvest on the land enrolled but does encourage a limited thinning within specified limits.

Since my forest land is a certified Pennsylvania American Tree Farm with a current active management plan in place it was very easy to meet all of the other requirements.

The Family Forest Carbon Program is not currently available in every Pennsylvania county but is planning to expand statewide by the end of 2021. You can learn more and sign up for updates at the Family Forest Carbon Program website. 

The two forest carbon practices currently available through this program include letting mature forests grow, which I enrolled in, and treating invasive or competing plants when conducting a regeneration timber harvest.

As a retired engineer, the actual metrics of Carbon Sequestered on my forest were of interest.

The section enrolled averaged 8,832 board feet per acre which easily qualified for the maximum $400/acre paid in increments over the next 20-years.

According to the inventory, the amount of carbon stored above (tree bole and branches) and below ground (i.e. roots) is 58 metric tonnes of carbon or 215 MtCO2e (metric tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent) per acre.

Growth rate of my enrolled area is estimated at 2 percent which means my forest is continuously sequestering approximately 4.3 tonnes of carbon dioxide per acre per year.

Kevin told me that most of the properties he audits range from 150-175 MtCo2 /acre.

Kevin told me my site results were considered very good!

It’s encouraging to know that this part of my forested tree farm, left untouched for decades, is now recognized in fulfilling another useful purpose in sequestering and storing Carbon.

For more information on programs, initiatives, upcoming and more, visit the PA Forestry Association website.  Click Here to sign up for regular updates.

(Reprinted from the latest PA Forestry Association newsletter.   Click Here to sign up for your own copy.)

Related Article:

-- PA Forestry Assn: Upcoming Webinars: Annual Forest Health & Disease Update; Women In Forestry; Natural Area Management And More

-- PA Forestry Assn. Exploring Climate Change Impacts On Penn’s Woods Symposium Presentations Now Available

-- PA Forestry Assn: How Non-Native Plants Are Contributing To A Global Insect Decline

[Posted: February 9, 2021]

2/15/2021