Northeast Forest Carbon and Climate Partnership: Forest Carbon for Foresters and Managers

Management for forest carbon needs to include considerations for forest resilience and adaptation to climate change. Needs to ensure that carbon can be sequestered by the forest in the future.

Forest conversion is biggest lost of forest carbon benefit. Results in substantial emissions and lose potential future sequestration (foregone sequestration) plus loss of other forest services.

• Benefits
  • Keeps carbon in the forest (avoid emissions)
  • Maintains future sequestration
  • Many other benefits of keeping forests as forests
• Considerations
  • Costs
  • Land use trade-offs
  • Permanence of protection

Passive management, non-extractive management can occur across many scales: property, portion of property, stand, or groups. May or may not be permanently conserved.

• Benefits
  • Seeks to maximize on site carbon storage (avoids emissions from timber harvests)
  • Can promote many other ecological benefits - biodiversity, develop old forests, build soils, protect unique sites and climate refugia
  • Best on rich, protected sites, low risk for disturbance
• Considerations
  • Without natural disturbances, carbon sequestration will naturally decline with stand age
  • If there are disturbances, some stored carbon will be emitted
  • May not be best for forests in need of restoration or fire, or with forest health issues or significant climate vulnerabilities
  • May cause leakage

Increase the time between harvests to grow larger trees. Recommendations typically suggest an additional 5-15 years.

• Benefits
  • Avoids emission and stores more carbon in the short term
  • May emit less at harvest depending on harvest volume
  • Potential for more carbon to go into long-lived products that also may be used as substitutes (additional avoided emissions)
  • Should also increase lumber value
  • If paired with other actions, can increase stand structure
• Considerations
  • Not suitable for all stands; won’t always result in more storage
  • Consider forest health and regeneration status
  • Gains may be lost if there is disturbance
  • May not advance resilience, does not necessarily provide species and structural benefits
  • Opportunity costs (delaying harvests can alter economic returns)
  • May cause leakage if done at a large scale  

Reduce competition for light and other resources through single tree selection, group selection, crop tree release, timber stand improvement, variable density thinning. Sources recommend removals of <25% BA over 20 years (between A and B line for fully stocked stand).

• Benefits
  • Increases sequestration of remaining trees
  • Can flux carbon to other forest pools (deadwood)
  • Greater tree vigor can flux more carbon to soil pool (via root exudation)
  • Promotes forest resilience -- can increase age/species diversity and stand complexity, reduce competition for light and resources (may help with drought) and to disturbances (wind firmness, insects)
  • May result in higher proportion of wood for durable wood products
• Considerations
  • Will reduce carbon stocks in the short term
  • Pre-commercial thinning vs commercial thinning
  • Costs, markets (pulp, fuel wood)

Promote regeneration with group selection, patch cuts, regular and irregular shelterwood systems. Capitalize on fast growth of young trees. Recommendations are for 5-15% of stand, <20% over 20-year period. Uneven-aged management generally results in higher carbon stocks than even-aged.

• Benefits
  • In time, will increase stand-level sequestration
  • Can advance forest resilience thorough higher diversity in age classes, species
  • Benefits some wildlife species
• Considerations
  • Will result in a temporary loss of carbon (emissions) until young trees have occupied new space
  • Need to protect regeneration from browse and competition if issues on site
  • Gap size
  • With areas of retention or crop tree release, can maximize storage and sequestration potential

Increase size/age class diversity across stands, include retention, large trees, tip-ups, cavities and other features. Emulate natural disturbance regimes. Small group and STS systems, structural complexity enhancement, expanding gap irregular shelterwood systems.

• Benefits
  • Seeks to maximize opportunity for sequestration
  • Promotes forest resilience
  • Also associated with other ecological benefits, like biodiversity, old forest characteristics
• Considerations
  • Initial decline of carbon stocks (emissions)
  • High influx of deadwood may increase emissions
  • Vertical vs. horizonal structure

Large trees disproportionately contribute to forest carbon stocks. Legacy tree retention, crop tree release, or longer cutting cycles. Be a source future deadwood.

• Benefits
  • Keep more carbon on site
  • Large trees, which may also be old, are a source of strong locally adapted genetics -- good practice to keep oldest trees on site if possible
  • Adds to structural complexity
  • Biodiversity
• Considerations
  • May reduce economic value of harvest
  • If trees are to be permanent retention, consider ways to designate them as legacy trees
  • When paired with strategies to promote younger age classes, can help maximize storage and sequestration

Keep snags, create snags, and consider future snags/DWD, create more downed wood by felling and leaving. Consider a range of size classes (larger is better), species and conditions. Leave as many tops as possible.

• Benefits
  • Increase carbon stocks on site (deadwood)
  • Protects litter and soil pools; may add carbon to them over time
  • Can increase sequestration of remaining trees depending on strategy used
  • Good for resilience – deadwood can hold water, shade/protect soils and roots, trap duff, cycle nutrients, promote biodiversity (fungal diversity, wildlife habitat), prevent herbivory of regen
• Considerations
  • Initial decline of stand carbon sequestration potential if live trees are cycled to deadwood pool
  • High influx of deadwood may increase emissions from activation of microbial community
  • Can make it more difficult for access

More species in a stand can result in higher carbon stocks because more niches are filled. Consider functional diversity (trees with different strategies, like conifers vs broadleaf, mid vs high shade tolerance).

• Benefits
  • Seeks to maximize and stabilize carbon stocks
  • Promotes forest resilience
  • Also associated with other ecological benefits, like biodiversity
• Considerations
  • Initial decline of carbon stocks (emissions)
  • Consider favoring future climate-adapted species
  • Diversity can be vertical or horizonal

Carefully plan harvests to reduce damage to remaining trees, which can reduce their carbon sequestration rate and storage if decay and rot are introduced. Healthy, productive forests are bests for both storage and sequestration.

• Benefits
  • Helps to ensure healthy forest conditions for future sequestration
  • Reduce emissions from decay and mortality
• Considerations
  • Carbon gains are minimal

Soil carbon builds very slowly, but can be easily disturbed. Following AMPs/BMPs to protect soil and water also protects soil carbon. Deadwood can protect both, may help build soil carbon over long-term.

• Benefits
  • Minimize soil carbon losses
  • Also associated with other ecological benefits, like biodiversity, resilience
• Considerations
  • Management tradeoffs (scarification, roads, costs)
  • Not all disturbance can be avoided

Seek to harvest wood that could produce long-lived products. Even better if used instead of other high GHG materials.

• Benefits
  • Avoids emissions and increases the forest sector carbon stock
  • If products are used for longer than the equal amount of wood growth occurs, HWP carbon pool can add to forest sector carbon storage
  • Additional benefits if substitute for higher emissions products
  • Can be paired with previous strategies to increase carbon
• Considerations
  • Not possible in all stands
  • Difficult to quantify outcomes across forest products supply chain
  • May or may not be included in carbon payment programs/markets

Many ways we can reduce GHG emissions from other parts of the forest supply chain (biofuels, electricity, better efficiency, promote better recycling/reuse of wood products). To reduce GHG concentrations in the atmosphere we need to reduce fossil-based emissions, as well as sequester and store.

• Benefits
  • Seek to avoid GHG emissions which are the main driver of climate change
  • Can help the forest supply chain be better positioned in the future
• Considerations
  • Any emissions reductions in transportation, fuel use, etc. are not included in forest carbon markets/programs yet
  • Will require incentives to help folks transition
  • Lower emissions technology isn’t available for all forestry needs

• A Guide to Forest Carbon in the Northeast: Managing Forests for Carbon(PDF)-  Overview of how carbon offset programs are organized and work for landowners. 

• Healthy Forests for Our Future: a management guide to increase carbon storage in Northeast forests (PDF)- Management strategies to increase carbon storage in northeastern forests. 

• Managing Forests for Carbon in Massachusetts (PDF)- designed for foresters to manage forest carbon alongside climate considerations. 

• Enhancing the Carbon Benefits of Your Sugarbush (PDF)- Stewardship options to increase carbon and co-benefits. 

• Keep Forests Healthy A Tool to Assess Resilience, Health & Productivity (PDF)- tool for landowners to evaluate their forest for vulnerabilities and opportunities for forest carbon. 

• Avoid Deforestation: A Climate Mitigation Opportunity in New England and New York (PDF)-  a framework to identify area of high significance in carbon storage in each state. 

• Guide for a Forest Management/Stewardship Plan Addendum for Forest Carbon and Climate Resiliency (PDF)- Use this framework, tables, and resources to create a forest carbon addendum. 

• Practitioner’s Menu of Adaptation Strategies and Approaches for Forest Carbon Management (PDF)- List and examples of forest carbon management approaches and strategies from the Northern Institutes of Applied Climate Science 

The Recording of this webinar can be found – HERE

See the PowerPoint presentation slides – HERE