Trees sold for carbon credits on Olympic Peninsula
Jefferson Land Trust has sold 400 metric tons of its timber resources. But it didn't sell the wood.
In a transaction unique on the North Olympic Peninsula and in the Pacific Northwest, the sale was for the carbon stored in the trees, not the wood itself. The land trust is being paid $8,000, not for board-feet of timber in the Bulis Forest Preserve near Old Fort Townsend, but for the carbon collected in living trees that remove it from the atmosphere through photosynthesis.
In return, Shorebank Enterprise Cascadia - a nonprofit financial institution that works with local organizations to promote economic opportunity and a healthy environment - offsets three years of its "carbon footprint" - or the amount of carbon dioxide emissions created by the firm in 2008, 2009 and 2010.
By purchasing the carbon locked in the trees and soil of the forest, it acquires "carbon credits" that can offset other activities that create emissions.
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