Download or read book Measuring Costs of Sequestering Carbon in Forest Stands with Different Management Regimes in Western Oregon written by Olga A. Zyrina and published by . This book was released on 2000 with total page 156 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This project was a part of larger work that compared major factors controlling patterns of carbon dynamics in two regions of the globe, the Pacific Northwest, USA and northwestern Russia. It was funded through the NASA foundation (grant # NAG5- 6242). Human economic activity is causing the release of pollutants such as carbon dioxide. The increased concentration of pollutants in the atmosphere is thought to cause greenhouse effect, in other words - the warming of the earth and lower atmosphere. Different methods are proposed to reduce concentration of greenhouse gases (GHG) in the atmosphere. Some involve development of more clean technologies. Some involve reductions in the use of fossil fuels. Another possibility is to store carbon (C) as live biomass. Plants use C for growth and development. Using forests to sequester C is one strategy for mitigating effects of GHG emissions. There are many methods in forestry to grow trees and produce wood products. Some of them include clearcutting, thinning, fertilizing, burning, and partial cutting. This project had three purposes. First, was to investigate the effect of a wide variety of silvicultural treatments on C storage and the economic value of harvested forest products. We measured economic value as soil expectation value. Second, was to use Data Envelopment Analysis to determine the efficient set of treatments, which make up the Production Possibility Frontier (PPF) in terms of C and economic value. Third, was to use the PPF to measure the marginal cost of carbon storage in moving from high SEV and relatively low C storage to lower SEV and relatively high C storage. C storage and timber harvest were simulated using the STANDCARB model for forest types common in north-western Oregon with two tree species, Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) and Western hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla). Fifty silvicultural regimes were investigated. They included clearcutting with rotations of 50, 70, 90, 110, 130, and 150. Each of the six rotation ages had eight combinations of silvicultural treatments consisting of artificial and natural regeneration, growth enhancement (GE) and thinning. Two partial cutting regimes: group selection and single-tree selection were also used in the analysis. C storage was calculated for every output year of each model run as a sum of live, dead, and stable C.C storage for each silvicultural regime was measured as the average over five full rotations from the steady state portion of the run. The analysis showed that average C increases with rotation age from 335.99 MgC/ha with 50-year rotation with natural regeneration and thinning to 826.36 MgCIha with 150-year rotation with artificial regeneration and GE. The use of artificial regeneration compared to natural regeneration gave a 20-30 MgC/ha improvement for all regimes. The total harvest from thinning and clearcutting over the rotation period averaged for several runs varied from 505.34 m3/ha (with 50-year rotation no treatment) to 1782.24 m3/ha (with 150-year rotation with GE and thinning) The use of artificial compared to natural regeneration gave a 20-50 m3/ha increase in harvest for all regimes. SEV is the present value of net revenues from perpetually growing tree crops following the specified regime. It measures the economic value of each regime. Generally, SEV has a negative correlation with rotation length. Using a 3.5 percent real discount rate, the maximum SEV ($7904.3/hectare) was obtained from 50-year rotation with artificial regeneration, GE and thinning In contrast, SEV for 130-year rotation with artificial regeneration was only $446.68/hectare. Using Data Envelopment Analysis (OnFront software) we found that 8 of the 50 regimes investigated were efficient in their ability to store C and produce economic value. The efficient regimes included 50, 110, 130 and 150-year rotations with artificial regeneration, GE and thinning; 110, 130 and 150-year rotations with natural regeneration, GE and thinning, and the 150-year rotation with natural regeneration and GE. When regimes with GE were excluded, we found 7 efficient regimes: 50 and 150-year rotations with artificial regeneration and thinning, 50, 110, 130 and 150-year rotations with natural regeneration and thinning, and the 150-year rotation with natural regeneration. The marginal cost of C storage is the SEV lost per unit of C due to change in silvicultural regimes that results in increase of average C stored. Marginal cost analysis indicated that marginal cost values were similar for regimes with GE and without. As C storage increased, the marginal cost generally increased. The increase in C storage from 428 MgC/ha to 589 MgC/ha implied a marginal cost of $13.28IMgC. In case of increasing C storage from 683 MgC/ha to 802.7 MgC/ha, the marginal cost would increase to $32.79JMgC.

Download or read book The Economics of Carbon Sequestration in Western Oregon Forests written by Eun Ho Im and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 302 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study considered regional forest policies for sequestering carbon in existing forests in western Oregon. A model of log markets in western Oregon was employed to examine the impacts of forest policy changes on future carbon stock, harvests, and management activities. A carbon tax program, as a mitigation option for encouraging forest carbon sequestration, would lead to reduced harvest and increased carbon stock in timber inventory. Changes in the level of silvicultural investments vary by owner, depending on the nature of their initial inventory. In general investment under the tax is concentrated in regimes that establish faster growing plantations. Average rotation age increases, varying in extent across ownerships and site qualities. The carbon tax reduces both consumer and producer surpluses in regional timber markets. Producers are compensated by the carbon subsidies, except at low carbon tax levels. Estimates of the marginal cost of sequestering carbon in western Oregon private forests are shown to be within the range of costs for projects considering afforestation alone in some eastern regions of the United States. If the carbon tax system takes into account carbon in forest products and woody residue, the marginal costs of carbon sequestration rise substantially because of the trade-offs between carbon in the timber inventory and in product and residue pools. Raising timber harvest from western Oregon federal timberlands would cause a reduction in regional carbon flux in forests and forest products. Projections of harvests by ownership given a constraint or target for regional carbon flux show that there are significant opportunities for substituting timber harvest and carbon sequestration between federal and non-federal lands in western Oregon. A relatively small reduction in non-federal harvest would offset a substantial loss of carbon flux in federal timberlands. The same carbon flux levels obtained in the carbon target scenarios could be achieved if a carbon offset market were available for all owners including federal agencies. The marginal welfare cost derived from the shadow price of the carbon target constraint is the market price of carbon that could produce the same flux as the constraint. The analysis indicates that only modest carbon prices would be needed (

Download or read book Carbon Sequestration in Forests written by Ross W. Gorte and published by DIANE Publishing. This book was released on 2009 with total page 28 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Contents: (1) Background: Congressional Interest in Carbon Sequestration; (2) Carbon Cycling in Forests: The Forest Cycle; Forest Types: Tropical Forests; Temperate Forests; Boreal Forests; (3) Measuring and Altering Forest Carbon Levels: Forest Carbon Accounting; Land Use Changes; Forestry Events and Management Activities: Vegetation and Soil Carbon; Forest Events ¿ Wildfires; Forestry Practices; Wood Energy; Leakage: Land Use Leakage; Product Demand Leakage; Federal Government Programs: Federal Forests; Federal Assistance for State and Private Forestry; Federal Tax Expenditures; Federal Programs Affecting Land Use; Accounting for Forest Carbon Sequestration; (4) Conclusions. Table.

Download or read book Costs of Sequestering Carbon Through Tree Planting and Forest Management in the United States written by Robert James Moulton and published by . This book was released on 1990 with total page 54 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Costs of Sequestering Carbon Through Tree Planting and Forest Management in the United States written by and published by . This book was released on 1990 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Measurement Guidelines for the Sequestration of Forest Carbon written by Timothy R. H. Pearson and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 48 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Measurement guidelines for forest carbon sequestration were developed to support reporting by public and private entities to greenhouse gas registries. These guidelines are intended to be a reference for designing a forest carbon inventory and monitoring system by professionals with a knowledge of sampling, statistical estimation, and forest measurements. This report provides guidance on defining boundaries; measuring, monitoring, and estimating changes in carbon stocks; implementing plans to measure and monitor carbon; and developing quality assurance and quality control plans to ensure credible and reproducible estimates of the carbon credits.

Download or read book Climate Change and Forest Sinks written by Richard G. Newell and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The possibility of encouraging the growth of forests as a means of sequestering carbon dioxide has received considerable attention because of concerns about the threat of global climate change due to the greenhouse effect. In fact, this approach is an explicit element of both U.S. and international climate policies, partly because of evidence that growing trees to sequester carbon can be a relatively inexpensive means of combating climate change. But how sensitive are such estimates to specific conditions? We examine the sensitivity of carbon sequestration costs to changes in critical factors, including the nature of the management and deforestation regimes, silvicultural species, agricultural prices, and discount rates. We find, somewhat counter-intuitively, that the costs of carbon sequestration can be greater if trees are periodically harvested, rather than permanently established. In addition, higher discount rates imply higher marginal costs, and they imply non-monotonic changes in the amount of carbon sequestered. Importantly, retarded deforestation can sequester carbon at substantially lower costs than increased forestation. These results depend in part on the time profile of sequestration and the amount of carbon released upon harvest, both of which may vary by species, geographic location, and management regime, and are subject to scientific uncertainty.

Download or read book Costs of Sequestering Carbon Through Tree Planting and Forest Management in the United States written by Robert J. Moulton and published by . This book was released on 1990 with total page 44 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Economics of Carbon Sequestration in Forestry written by Terry J. Logan and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2020-08-26 with total page 377 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since the 1992 Earth Summit, there have been increased efforts on an international scale to address global climate change. Reducing the increased levels of CO2 and other "greenhouse gases," which are believed to be contributing to this climatic change, will require major effort on the part of the world's governments. This means that the environmental, economic, social, and political consequences of climate change must be understood, and that strategies to mitigate climate change must also address these issues. The workshop detailed in this book concentrated on how economic principles and analysis could contribute to the planning of forestry projects aimed at affecting terrestrial carbon balances. More than 30 international scientists came together for one week near Stockholm, Sweden and divided into working groups charged with addressing a specific issue and preparing a paper within this time frame. This book contains the majority of papers presented at this meeting, and includes both the working group papers and the individually presented papers.

Download or read book Economics of Carbon Sequestration in Forestry written by Terry J. Logan and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 1997-12-29 with total page 376 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since the 1992 Earth Summit, there have been increased efforts on an international scale to address global climate change. Reducing the increased levels of CO2 and other "greenhouse gases," which are believed to be contributing to this climatic change, will require major effort on the part of the world's governments. This means that the environmental, economic, social, and political consequences of climate change must be understood, and that strategies to mitigate climate change must also address these issues. The workshop detailed in this book concentrated on how economic principles and analysis could contribute to the planning of forestry projects aimed at affecting terrestrial carbon balances. More than 30 international scientists came together for one week near Stockholm, Sweden and divided into working groups charged with addressing a specific issue and preparing a paper within this time frame. This book contains the majority of papers presented at this meeting, and includes both the working group papers and the individually presented papers.

Download or read book Carbon Budget Accounting at the Forest Management Unit Level written by Martin Von Mirbach and published by . This book was released on 2000 with total page 26 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This report has been prepared in response to an identified need to provide guidance to forest managers seeking to report on a carbon budget at the scale of the forest management unit. Key concepts, tasks, and methods related to carbon budgeting are first reviewed, and a few points gleaned from research carried out in Canadian model forests are summarized. Carbon budgeting is then explained with reference to three distinct tasks: obtaining a baseline measurement of the amount of carbon in a particular forest at a given time; measuring the change to that stock over time; and evaluating the likely impact of various management activities on future changes to the carbon budget. Information needed in order to apply these steps is given, with a focus on how to use existing inventories to record carbon stocks & fluxes. The report concludes with a listing of some activities that could help to store carbon in forests.

Download or read book Carbon Sequestration Potential of Agroforestry Systems written by B. Mohan Kumar and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2011-08-05 with total page 317 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tree based production systems abound especially in the tropics. Despite the pervasiveness of such multipurpose “trees-outside-forest” resources, they have not attracted adequate attention in the development paradigms of many nation states. These multispecies production systems impact the ecosystem processes favourably. Yet, our understanding of the diversity attributes and carbon dynamics under agroforestry is not adequate. This book focuses on the role of multispecies production systems involving tree and crop species as a means for carbon sequestration and thereby reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide levels. Sixteen chapters organized into three broad sections titled: Measurement and Estimation, Agrobiodiversity and Tree Management, and Policy and Socioeconomic Aspects represent a cross section of the opportunities and challenges in current research and emerging issues in harnessing carbon sequestration potential of agroforestry systems.

Download or read book An Econometric Analysis of the Costs of Sequestering Carbon in Forests written by Thomas E. Mauldin and published by . This book was released on 1998 with total page 118 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Quantifying Potentential Benefits of Carbon Market Participation for Owners of Pennsylvania Oak Stands written by Chieh-chung Yang and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In United States, voluntary and mandatory state-level carbon trading programs are multiplying that allow forest landowners to be compensated for carbon sequestered by their forests. Forests are a potential carbon sink, and certain forest management activities can effectively result in increased carbon sequestration. This study tries to answer two questions: 1) Can owners of oak forest stands in Pennsylvania benefit by participating in carbon markets and are the benefits sufficient to induce participation? And 2) If so, to what extent and how would participation in carbon markets change the management behavior of Pennsylvania oak forest owners? In order to answer these questions, two objectives are addressed: First, apply the CAR Forest Project Protocol to a variety of Pennsylvania oak forest management scenarios on a sample of oak forest stands that vary in terms of age, site quality and stocking. Second, Evaluate how participation in CAR would affect the profitability of each management scenario and, if so, how participation would likely change the preferred management practice for each stand. Thirty-six oak plots in Pennsylvania were selected from the Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) database, with two from each of 18 groups based on Stand Age, Basal Area, and Site Condition. Seven management alternatives (two even-aged alternatives, four uneven-aged alternatives, and a No Management alternative) were simulated for each of the sampled plots using the Forest Vegetation Simulator (FVS). Carbon credits, or Climate Reserve Tonnes (CRTs), were calculated for each plot and management scenario using the Forest Project Protocol from CAR. The Shelterwood 80 (SW 80) management alternative was designated as the baseline scenario. The present value of the CRTs were calculated based on two carbon prices ($10 tCO2e and $30 tCO2e) and discounted rates (4% and 6%). In addition, the present value of timber harvests was also calculated for each plot and management scenario. Negative quantified removals were addressed by assuming that each plot/stand was part of a larger ownership and that negative removals are offset by positive removals on the rest of the property in any given year. Thus, no negative removals were carried over and no buffer pool was needed to account for reversals. This approach is referred to as the "enterprise-wide perspective." Confidence deductions were also set at 10%. Total quantified removals are generally larger for the no management scenario and the SW120 scenario but are lower and often negative for the other treatments. When carbon price is at $10/ tCO2e and the discount rate is 4%, the present values of the projected carbon credits shows that No Mgt or U 30W management is probably the better choice for landowners interested in maximizing CRTs. However, uneven-aged management treatments tended to produce the greatest present values of timber revenues. At a carbon price of $10/tCO2e, timber values tend to be much larger than carbon values. However, at a carbon price of $30/ tCO2e, the No Mgt option produces nearly as much value from carbon alone as the timber values from other options. This finding suggests that raising carbon price could make the No Mgt become the best scenario even though it produces no timber revenue. The higher discount of 6% disproportionately negatively affects the management scenarios that favor waiting longer before harvesting and reduces the ability of carbon credits to shift the optimal management regime to longer rotations and waiting longer before harvesting. Some limitations of the analysis presented here include the lack of cost data and possible inaccuracies in the way FVS projects stand development under the uneven-aged management scenarios.

Download or read book The Potential of U S Forest Soils to Sequester Carbon and Mitigate the Greenhouse Effect written by John M. Kimble and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2002-09-25 with total page 448 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Much attention has been given to above ground biomass and its potential as a carbon sink, but in a mature forest ecosystem 40 to 60 percent of the stored carbon is below ground. As increasing numbers of forests are managed in a wide diversity of climates and soils, the importance of forest soils as a potential carbon sink grows. The Potential of U.S. Forest Soils to Sequester Carbon and Mitigate the Greenhouse Effect provides researchers and policy makers with an understanding of soil processes and their relation to carbon dynamics, as well as strategies to monitor and techniques to measure forest soil carbon. It covers the effects of management on soils in a wide range of forest ecosystems together with policy options that are effective and benefit both the forest community and the over all environment. This valuable reference provides forest managers, urban planners, land owners, policy makers, and the general public with guidance that will allow for a holistic approach to land management, environmental quality, and improved forest productivity.

Download or read book An Econometric Analysis of the Costs of Sequestering Carbon in Forests written by Andrew Plantinga and published by . This book was released on 2020 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Kyoto Protocol and the U.S. Climate Change Plan recognize afforestation as a potential means of reducing atmospheric CO concentrations. To examine the cost-effectiveness of afforestation, we use econometric land use models to estimate the marginal costs of carbon sequestration in Maine, South Carolina, and Wisconsin. Our findings include the following: (a) earlier studies of afforestation programs tend to underestimate carbon sequestration costs, (b) afforestation still appears to be a relatively low-cost approach to reducing CO concentrations, (c) Wisconsin offers the lowest-cost opportunties for carbon sequestration, and (d) projected population changes have the largest effect on costs in South Carolina.

Download or read book Ecosystem Goods and Services from Plantation Forests written by Jürgen Bauhus and published by Earthscan. This book was released on 2010 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Plantation forests often have a negative image. They are typically assumed to be poor substitutes for natural forests, particularly in terms of biodiversity conservation, carbon storage, provision of clean drinking water and other non-timber goods and services. Often they are monocultures that do not appear to invite people for recreation and other direct uses. Yet as this book clearly shows, they can play a vital role in the provision of ecosystem services, when compared to agriculture and other forms of land use or when natural forests have been degraded. This is the first book to examine explicitly the non-timber goods and services provided by plantation forests, including soil, water and biodiversity conservation, as well as carbon sequestration and the provision of local livelihoods. The authors show that, if we require a higher provision of ecosystem goods and services from both temperate and tropical plantations, new approaches to their management are required. These include policies, methods for valuing the services, the practices of small landholders, landscape approaches to optimise delivery of goods and services, and technical issues about how to achieve suitable solutions at the scale of forest stands. While providing original theoretical insights, the book also gives guidance for plantation managers, policy-makers, conservation practitioners and community advocates, who seek to promote or strengthen the multiple-use of forest plantations for improved benefits for society. Published with CIFOR