A new, first of its kind carbon project that will preserve 10,000 acres of state lands in Washington was announced Wednesday morning by Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz. The program launched Wednesday and will be rolled out in two phases. The first phase will place 3,750 acres into a protected status, starting with areas in Whatcom, Thurston, King and Grays Harbor counties. Areas not protected from harvesting are included in the first phase and were considered priority areas. Harvests were already planned for 2,500 of those acres, which will now be used for carbon credits instead.
The second phase will be rolled out within the year after DNR identifies other areas that need to be conserved. This will be the first time a state agency has used a carbon market to preserve forests planned for logging, according to the Department of Natural Resources. Stipulations for carbon storage and generating revenue will be included in “leases” that will cover the protected areas.
Speaking at the McClane trailhead in Olympia, Franz said the forests are part of the history in Washington, especially for Indigenous people. “Our forests are the most renewable resources we have,” Franz said. “It is incumbent on us to manage and steward this resource, not just today, but for future generations.”
In the first 10 years the project will yield more than 900,000 carbon offset credits, the commissioner said. “The carbon credits generated from these leased lands will support local budgets for education and essential services to the tune of tens of millions of dollars,” said Franz. “The trees that are cleaning the air and the water in our community will now also help fund its schools and libraries.”
Franz was joined by other leaders for the project including Squaxin Island Tribal Council Chairman Kristopher Peters, Director of Forest Carbon Origination for Finite Carbon Caitlin Guthrie and Washington State Nature Conservancy Director Mike Stevens. Other environmental groups in Washington were grateful for the project. Rachel Baker, Forest Program director at the Washington Environmental Council, told McClatchy Tuesday that the program is an important step forward in how state lands are managed. Because this is the first time DNR has implemented a carbon offset project on state lands, Baker said she sees it as an “invitation to think creatively about managing state lands for multiple benefits and thinking about strategies beyond timber harvest.”
“It seems to demonstrate a willingness from DNR to explore what it means to manage our public resources in a time of climate crisis,” she said. Baker said the program may also be responsive to the public’s concerns about old-growth forests, also known as “legacy forests” to some. Those forests, whether for carbon or biodiversity concerns, should be and will be protected, she said.
Carbon offsets work by demonstrating how many tons of carbon are being sequestered by a particular piece of land, in this case forests, she explained. Those generated carbon credits can then be sold to a buyer to offset their own carbon emissions. Instead of harvesting the 10,000 acres of forest set aside by DNR, they will protect the areas in the long-term to sequester more carbon, Baker said. DNR currently manages 840,000 acres for conservation. Work done by a carbon sequestration advisory group culminated in the project that was announced Wednesday. The group was convened by Franz in 2019.
