Carbon Credits for Restored Western Dry Forests?

Book excerpt: Paying for large-scale ecological restoration of dry forests on federally managed lands throughout the western United States is urgently needed, but also quite expensive. Most experts agree that federal dollars will not be enough to do the job. While one of the obvious ways to help pay for restoration of overstocked forests is from timber sale proceeds, there may be another option-the sale of carbon credits in the newly emerging carbon marketplace. In this white paper, we discuss the basic issues involved in carbon trading, especially as it applies to forests and forest restoration in the American West. While the current carbon market situation is unlikely to provide much economic advantage, emerging federal cap-and-trade legislation and continuing interest in S2greenS3 economics may soon support a market-based scenario where healthy, restored forests are valued for their prodigious ecosystem services.