Landowners and foresters may want to know how much carbon their forest is storing and sequestering – whether they plan to explore forest carbon markets or they simply want to know as part of their management decision making. The following no-cost tools provide some options for determining forest carbon storage and sequestration. Please read the disclaimer below before exploring the tools.
Disclaimer:
There are many credible and publicly available models, tools, and calculators for estimating forest carbon in trees or the other forest carbon pools. However, they vary considerably in their ease of use, necessary data inputs, assumptions, and accuracy. For example, some tools will provide an estimate of stored carbon in a parcel of forest that is simply the regional average, while others require detailed field inventory data that can be used to provide a parcel-specific estimate. For field inventory data, different tools require difference amounts of data: some use only tree species and diameter to estimate tree carbon, while others use additional fields like height, decay class, and defects. Those methods that require more detailed field measurements will typically provide more accurate carbon estimates, but the data can be expensive and time-consuming to collect. Before you collect data, it is important to first consider why you want to calculate forest carbon and how you will use the estimates. Then compare your needs to the list of carbon tools and models. When you generate a forest carbon estimate, no matter what tool or calculator you use, there is likely a different method available that will yield a different forest carbon estimate. It is therefore important to know how forest carbon estimates are produced in order to compare forest carbon estimates from one property to another.
Forest Carbon and Durable Wood Products
Calculate Carbon from basal area or wood products
Online Forest Carbon Calculation Tools
Manual calculation forest carbon calculation methods
Forest Carbon Accounting and Modeling Framework Alternatives, 2022
Forest Carbon Accounting and Modeling Framework Alternatives
This report summarizes information to help states build their ability to measure, track, and model forest carbon for planning climate‑focused forest management. It provides:
- An overview of forest carbon models—how they work, how different types compare, and their strengths and limitations across different scales and uses.
- A decision guide to help states choose the most appropriate model based on their needs and available resources, whether using in‑house staff or outside support.
Standard Estimates of Forest Ecosystem Carbon for Forest Types of the United States, 2021
Standard Estimates of Forest Ecosystem Carbon for Forest Types of the United States
Difficulty of use: Easy
Accuracy: High accuracy for a regional scale; low accuracy for stand-level estimates
Methods and Equations for Estimating Aboveground Volume, Biomass, and Carbon for Trees in the U.S. Forest Inventory, 2010
Difficulty: High
Accuracy: High, may underestimate biomass
Comprehensive Database of Diameter-based Biomass Regressions for North American Tree Species, 2004
Comprehensive Database of Diameter-based Biomass Regressions for North American Tree Species
Difficulty of use: Medium
Accuracy: Medium-high