Estimates for forest carbon sequestration cited in the Sept. 17 Portland Press Herald article by Staff Writer Tux Turkel highlight the dilemma of harvesting trees versus carbon storage for small woodlot owners.

Maine forests sequester carbon, but how much is not well known. The demise of pulp and paper mills has resulted in a superabundance of forest growth, but jobs lost, particularly in rural areas, have not recovered.

Carbon capture by forests is one of nature’s free CO2 management systems, but to harvest its value and not the trees, it must be measured accurately. Forest carbon protocols are out of reach financially for small woodlot owners, or not deemed suitable for long-term financial gain.

Also, protocols based on limited forest mensuration and model simulations can be invalidated by direct measurement. Measurement of forest carbon CO2 flux accommodates small and large landowners, providing high-quality forest carbon offsets to Maine businesses and potential for creation of jobs in rural areas.

Forest carbon is difficult to quantify without measurement of carbon sequestered by the forest during photosynthesis and lost by respiration. The resulting net carbon sequestered can be transformed into high-quality verifiable forest carbon offsets. Claims of emission reduction not based on a complete carbon accounting are likely to be inaccurate and of low value.

If Maine’s 17.6 million acres of forest sequestered a directly measured 1 metric ton CO2 per acre per year and sold for $10, over a period of 10 years Maine forest carbon could be worth $1.7 billion, a harvest worth looking into.

Bruno Marino

Brunswick

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