Carbon Issues


Articles and Publications

Managing forests because carbon matters: Integrating energy, products, and land management policy.
Robert W. Malmsheimer et al.
Journal of Forestry 109(7 Suppl):S7-S50. 2011.
     Summarizes and assesses the most recent science regarding forests and carbon accounting, biomass use, and forest carbon offsets.  It was compiled by the Society of American Foresters' Task Force on Forest Climate Change Offsets and Use of Forest Biomass for Energy.

Subsurface carbon contents: some case studies in forest soils.  
Dale W. Johnson, James D. Murphy, Benjamin M. Rau, and Watkins W. Miller
Forest Science 57(1):3-10. 2011.
     Evaluates the importance of deeper soil horizons for soil C inventories in forest ecosystems.

The economic value of selling carbon credits from restored forests: a case study from the Navajo Nation's tribal forests.
Ching-Hsun Huang and Christopher Sorensen
Western Journal of Applied Forestry 26(1):37-45. 2011.
     The goals of this study were to promote restoration of forest ecosystems through fire hazard reduction treatments and to evaluate potential economic benefits of carbon credits to the Navajo Nation.

Urban forests and carbon markets: buyers' perspectives.
Neelam C. Poudyal, Jacek Siry, and J.M. Bowker.
Journal of Forestry 109(7):378-385.  2011.
     This study surveyed carbon credit buyers participating in the Chicago Climate Exchange to assess their preferences for credits from various offset projects.

Carbon offsets keep forests profitable.
Capital Press, October 7, 2011.
     Woodlands Carbon, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Oregon Small Woodlands Association, provides private forest owners in Oregon access to the carbon offset market.

Life cycle impacts of forest management and wood utilization on carbon mitigation: knowns and unknowns.
Bruce Lippke, Elaine Oneil, Rob Harrison, Kenneth Skog, Leif Gustavsson & Roger Sathre.
Carbon Management 2(3):303-333. 2011.  
This review on research on life cycle carbon accounting examines the complexities in accounting for carbon emissions given the many different ways that wood is used.

American Carbon Registry
     As the first private voluntary GHG registry in the U.S., ACR has set the bar for transparency and integrity that is the market standard today and continues to lead carbon market innovation. 

Managed forest carbon estimates for the US greenhouse gas inventory, 1990-2008.  By Linda S. Heath et al.  Journal of Forestry, April/May 2011.
     Describes the National Greenhouse Gas Inventory.  Forests and forest products sequestered more than 790 million metric tn of CO2 equivalent in 2008 on 253 million ha of forestland.  Both area and carbon density of these forestlands have increased since 1990.  Currently, 89% of net annual sequestration is in the forest ecosystem, and the balance is net carbon addition to harvested wood products.

Carbon credit market forms
Capital Press, March 25, 2011
     Because the U.S. has not joined the Kyoto Protocol, there is no national market for carbon credits in America.  However, in December 2010, the California Air Resources Board enacted carbon standards, and now the Climate Action Registry has led to the creation of a carbon market focused on that state.  In essence, the Climate Action Registry links companies that need carbon credits with forest owners who are the custodians of carbon.

2010 Carbon market ups and downs
Matt Smith, The Forestry Source, February 2011
     Democrats and Republicans alike have climate change legislation on their short list of agenda items, albeit for entirely different reasons.

In July of 2010 Chicago Climate Exchange, together with its global affiliates, was acquired by IntercontinentalExchange (NYSE: ICE) bringing together leading global energy and environmental markets. 

Carbon Management Guidance Supplement:  A new tool is available to help landowners plan to manage for increased carbon storage.  The Management Guidance Supplement for Carbon Sequestration will help foresters and landowners in the planning process for managing for increased carbon storage on their land. 
 
U.S. forests and carbon: some important facts.  USDA Forest Service, Forest Carbon Briefing Paper.  October 12, 2010.

New data highlights role of forests in fight against climate change.
USDA News Release No. 0532.10.  October 15, 2010.

Carbon storage in U.S. Forests, by state, sub-region, and ownership group.  Data published by USDA Forest Service as of October 5, 2010.

Recognition of carbon storage in harvested wood products: a post-Copenhagen update.
Dr. Jim Bowyer, Dr. Steve Bratkovich, Dr. Jeff Howe, Kathryn Fernholz.  February 25, 2010, Dovetail Partners, Inc.
     Efforts to recognize carbon storage in wood products within international protocols have been ongoing for over 13 years.  Despite these actions there is still no agreement on language regarding Harvested Wood Products (HWP) and this continued uncertainty is hindering the possibilities for wood to be a more significant part of a carbon solution.

A synthesis of the science on forests and carbon for U.S. Forests.  by M.G. Ryan, M.E. Harmon, R.A. Birdsey, C.P. Giardina et al.  Issues in Ecology, Report No. 13.  Spring 2010
     Explains the cycle of forest growth, death, and regeneration and forest carbon pools and flows.  Examines the science behind the mechanisms proposed for increasing the amount of carbon stored in forests and using wood to offset fossil fuel use.   Examines tradeoffs, costs, and benefits associated with each mechanism and explains how forest carbon is measured.

Carbon neutrality of energy from forest biomass.  Published by National Alliance of Forest Owners. 2010.
     The carbon neutrality of forest biomass used to produce electricity is a long-established convention in greenhouse gas accounting.  However some are questioning this presumption.

We're all in this together: decisionmaking to address climate change in a complex world.  Ralph Alig.  USDA Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station, Science Findings Issue 116, September 2009.  
     Research at the PNW Station has shown that there is substantial room for increased carbon storage on public and private forest land.  Because climate change is such a far-reaching topic, policy alternatives must be evaluated in terms of land-use changes, forest management strategies, and connections to other sectors of the economy.

Measurement guidelines for the sequestration of forest carbon.  T.R.H. Pearson, S.L. Brown, R.A. Birdsey.  USDA Forest Service, Northern Research Station, General Technical Report NRS-18. 2007. 42 p.
     Provides guidance on defining boundaries; measuring, monitoring, and estimating changes in carbon stocks; implementing plans to measure and monitor carbon; and developing quality assurance and quality control plans to ensure credible and reproducible estimates of the carbon credits.

CVal: A Spreadsheet Tool to Evaluate the Direct Benefits and Costs fo Carbon Sequestration Contracts for Managed Forests.
USDA Forest Service, Forest Products Laboratory, General Technical Report FPL-GTR-180. 2009.
     This free Microsoft Excel spreadsheet is fairly complex and intimidating, but the 30 page user guide that you can download will thoroughly explain the data, terms, and formulas in the worksheet.  CVal has been specifically written to make the carbon offset market feasible for family forest landowners.

Maximizing forest contributions to carbon mitigation: the science of life cycle analysis
CORRIM Fact Sheet 5.  March 2009.
     The Consortium for Research on Renewable Industrial Materials (CORRIM) has developed a database that makes it possible to track carbon from the forest to post harvest uses, following the carbon from one pool to the next, measuring the interaction between them.  Carbon tracking charts display the impacts on all carbon pools making it possible to understand the impact of management and policies on the total carbon across all pools.



Updated: October 22, 2011
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