Climate-Smart Forestry Gets Underway
Commercial Landowners Pilot New England Forestry Foundation’s $30 Million USDA Project
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Climate-smart forestry is a set of strategies and practices designed to mitigate climate change by managing forests in ways that increase carbon stored in the forest and in the wood products they produce. New England Forestry Foundation (NEFF) is leading the effort to advance climate-smart forestry across the managed portion of the 32 million acres of forestland that span New England. Earlier this year, NEFF and partners kicked off a $30-million initiative to help forest landowners implement climate-smart forestry practices and build markets for climate-smart forest products. NEFF’s program, called the New England Climate-Smart Commodities Partnership, is funded by a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities award.
The grant funds climate-smart forestry incentives to accelerate carbon storage in working forests for a pilot group of landowners in New England, including large commercial forests, smaller family woodlots, and Tribal Nations forestlands.
This spring, NEFF launched the first of its landowner incentive programs by opening enrollment to smaller-acreage landowners in much of New England, and it has just begun its Commercial Landowner Incentive Program. The Tribal Nations program is under development.
NEFF selected six landowners in Maine to pilot a set of climate-smart forestry practices on commercial lands as the first of three landowner cohorts that will go on to participate in NEFF’s five-year program. The six landowners will put practices on the ground across approximately 12,000 combined acres of forestland over 2024 and 2025. These early projects are a critical step in informing overall program design that will in turn help shape the future of climate-smart forestry in this region and beyond.
Read more about the general climate-smart forestry practices and specific methods proposed by NEFF.
The potential impact of climate-smart forestry
Based on their research, NEFF estimates that:
The acres enrolled in the first round of the Commercial Landowner Incentive Program have the potential to store an additional 250,000 metric tons of CO2 equivalent (MTCO2e)—equal to the carbon emitted from the energy used annually to heat and cool 23,000 homes—over the coming decades, as compared to current practices.
Applying a holistic approach to climate-smart forestry in New England can keep more than 646 million metric tons of CO2e out of the atmosphere over the next 30 years.
With over 80% of New England as forest, and only 22 percent permanently conserved, the region urgently needs integrated solutions, like this pilot effort, that simultaneously address the climate emergency while considering the ongoing demand for and reliance on wood products. According to the Wildlands, Woodlands, Farmlands & Communities vision, only 19 percent of the region is currently protected from conversion as Woodlands (land actively managed for timber, paper, heating, biodiversity, recreation, and more)—and this needs to grow to 29 percent by 2030 and to 60 percent by 2060. Not only does more land need to be protected, but it is important that the land be thoughtfully stewarded in ways that secure the future of all of the people and species that make New England their home. Projects like these that NEFF is supporting are vital to achieving this vision.
Looking ahead, NEFF will launch an incentive program for smaller-acreage forest landowners in southern New England in fall 2024. The Tribal Nations incentive program will continue to unfold through the remainder of the year.
Learn more:
© Lauren Owens Lambert
Tinsley Hunsdorfer specializes in nonprofit environmental communications and currently works as Communications Manager for New England Forestry Foundation, where she heads NEFF’s public-facing communications efforts and serves as lead writer for NEFF’s major publications. She is an enthusiastic birder and lives in Providence, Rhode Island, with her husband and their two beloved cats.
Marissa Latshaw works with mission-driven organizations to build empathetic, inclusive communication strategies that inspire action. She serves as co-coordinator of the Wildlands, Woodlands, Farmlands & Communities initiative and publisher of From the Ground Up, working with partners throughout New England to help bring a more holistic, integrated approach to land conservation.