Have you noticed how carbon “offsetting” or trading is becoming mainstream, with stories making it into the mass media? States like California , and even cities like Boulder CO, USA are designing programs which may interact with carbon offsetting. In Europe, the focus is on how to ensure that continent-wide systems for carbon trading or “offsetting” perform well. The culture of forest ownership is also in a period of rapid change, independent of carbon management initiatives. Because trees are where we want much of that ‘offset carbon’ to go, and to stay for many decades, we need to keep our TreeHugging eyes on forest stewardship. Seeing the forest for the carbon, right? Using North America as our example, we refer you to Lloyd’s recent post which documents a recent downside of forest change: accelerated clearing of the Boreal Forests to make non-recyclable butt wipe. (An exaggeration; but it got your attention right?) On the positive side, forests in the “lower-50” have been overall on the mend, not so much by modern intent but due to long term shifts in land ownership and markets. Mostly the recovery of US forests is a matter of land having been divided into plots so small is it increasingly less cost effective to harvest in industrial quantities, while populations concentrate in urban centers.
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