This looks like a pretty good deal all around.
Two loggers first to meet greenhouse gas standards
By Chris Bowman - cbowman@sacbee.com
Published 12:00 am PST Tuesday, February 12, 2008
A new breed of loggers has scored the first emission reductions under California's anti-global warming mandate, state officials said Monday.
Using sustainable forestry practices, the nonprofit owners of two North Coast redwood forests have met the state's new verification standards for greenhouse gas reductions from timberlands, according to California Climate Action Registry officials.
The two certified projects are on the 24,000-acre Garcia River Forest in Mendocino County, owned and managed by the Conservation Fund, and the 2,100-acre Van Eck Forest in Humboldt County, owned by the Pacific Forest Trust.
The owners are voluntarily reducing emissions of heat-trapping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere by slowing the rate of logging.
The longer the trees stand, the more they absorb carbon dioxide, the main global warming or greenhouse gas emitted by human activities.
"It's like rebuilding the principal in your bank account," said Laurie Wayburn, president of the Pacific Forest Trust in San Francisco.
"Over time, you'll have greater yields of timber and greater stores of carbon."
The practice, called sustained yield, qualifies under the state's new forest carbon-crediting rules so long as the amount of carbon stored in the forest can be independently verified.
