Carbon Capital Fund

The Carbon Capital Fund provides financial support for carbon sequestration demonstration projects on National Forest lands, showing the value of trees and forests in a larger climate change strategy. These projects plant trees in naturally deforested areas, sequestering carbon and providing additional benefits to the forests. Without your support, these projects could not take place.

Offset Your Carbon Footprint

By contributing to the Carbon Capital Fund, you can take a positive step to address global climate change by reducing the impact of your carbon footprint over a 100 year period. Trees will be planted on National Forest lands that have been deforested by severe wildfire and where they are not naturally reestablishing. Planting trees is a natural option to decrease atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gasses, and simultaneously benefiting water quality, wildlife habitat, and recreational opportunities.

Act Today!

Calculate your annual carbon footprint to determine your estimated output of carbon dioxide.
Determine ways to reduce your carbon emissions. Changing your behavior to reduce your emissions is the best climate change strategy available!

Donate to the Carbon Capital Fund at any level you choose to help offset the emissions you are not able to reduce.

How You Will Help

Your National Forests have experienced unprecedented levels of wildfire in recent years. Drought conditions associated with climate change, and with historical fire suppression policies have exacerbated the effects of wildfire, making their occurrence more severe and widespread. Recent natural and catastrophic events have made it impossible for the agency to keep pace with growing demand for reforestation. Pairing your contributions to the Carbon Capital Fund with contributions from others allows these important projects to take place. These projects could not occur without your help.

Demonstration Projects

The Carbon Capital Fund will provide financial support for carbon sequestration demonstration projects on National Forest lands, showing the value of trees and forests in a larger climate change strategy. Working in areas that have been deforested by severe wildfire and other natural forces, the Carbon Capital Fund plants native trees in areas trees are not reestablishing naturally. Breaking down carbon dioxide through photosynthesis, and storing it internally, these trees sequester carbon as they grow.

The projects have specific goals:

Highlight the value of trees and forests in a broad climate change strategy.

Promote opportunities for forest-based carbon by providing complete project transparency about important details including costs, carbon accounting, forest carbon modeling tools, third party verification, and carbon registration.

Increase awareness of how personal emissions affect greenhouse gas concentrations, which contribute to climate change.

Highlight the benefits beyond carbon sequestration that are associated with Carbon Capital Fund projects.

These demonstration projects are not about finding a long-term funding solution to the reforestation backlog on National Forests, but rather to improve knowledge about the role that forests have in climate change strategies.

Is It All About Carbon?

Your contribution will help fund carbon sequestration demonstration projects on National Forest lands. However, the benefits of the program beyond carbon are substantial, improving local wildlife habitat and water quality, and the overall ecological condition of our National Forests. Learn more.

Every project implemented is consistent with standards and guidelines outlined in the plan for each National Forest, providing a management framework for multiple objectives.

2008 Demonstration Project

Custer National Forest
The first carbon sequestration demonstration project will begin in the spring of 2008 on the Custer National Forest, straddling Montana and South Dakota. Reforestation will take place on areas burned in the Kraft Springs Fire with ponderosa pine seedlings to increase forest cover, benefit elk, mule deer, white-tailed deer and goshawk habitat, and improve water quality.

Current status: Forest inventory crews collected baseline data in mid-May to determine initial carbon levels for the project area. Planting crews followed a few weeks later, putting the pine seedlings in the ground to grow in their native habitat.

2009 Demonstration Projects

San Bernardino & Plumas National Forests
Selected for the summer of 2009, two additional carbon sequestration projects will take place on the San Bernardino National Forest in Southern California and the Plumas National Forest in Northern California. Restoration will take place on areas burned by severe wildfire.

On the San Bernardino, a mix of jeffrey pine, ponderosa pine, lodgepole pine, sugar pine, coulter pine, incense cedar and white fir will be planted. The restoration will benefit bald eagle, the endangered Southwestern Willow Flycatcher, a number of sensitive amphibian species and other wildlife, as well as water quality for the San Jacinto Basin.

On the Plumas National Forest, reforestation will include a mix of douglas-fir, ponderosa pine, sugar pine, incense cedar and white fir, benefiting water quality in the Feather River, fishing and camping, sensitive amphibian species and other wildlife.

Current status: Seedlings were germinated in the greenhouse this past winter and are currently growing at a Forest Service nursery. Once they’re sufficiently mature, they’ll be moved to growing areas outside to acclimatize before being planted in the spring of 2009.

The Science

Carbon Capital Fund demonstration projects are based on years of scientific study about the growth and development of trees. In recent years, this information has been incorporated into computer models that predict the amount of carbon that will be sequestered over time. Variables such as species, soil productivity, and geographic region are controlled to give estimates of the amount of carbon that trees retain as they grow. These models are used to predict the carbon benefit associated with your donation (learn more).

The Carbon Capital Fund is working with Winrock International to provide third-party verification, ensuring the validity of the computer models. Baselines for comparisons will be developed with strict quality control and quality assurance at least equivalent to the standards identified in meeting an ‘A’ rating under the Department of Energy 1605(b) greenhouse gas reporting guidelines.

The Trees

With your donation, native trees will be planted in areas within their native range that have been deforested by severe wildfire on National Forest lands. As these trees grow, they will help fix the carbon dioxide by splitting it up into carbon and oxygen. Trees use the carbon to grow while they naturally respire oxygen (learn more).

Some Considerations before you Donate

Trees take a long time to grow: Carbon sequestration will take place over the life of a tree. Carbon benefits associated with the Carbon Capital Fund may take up to 100 years to be completely realized, depending on location.

All offsets will meet strict rules of financial and biological additionality. Biological additionality for Carbon Capital Fund projects refers to the carbon stored by trees – planted with your donations. Rigorous models have been developed to predict just how many trees (if any) would regenerate naturally and how much carbon they would retain. Natural regeneration serves as our baseline for biological additionality ( learn more).
Trees will be planted and managed in accordance to the forest plan for each individual forest. Improvements made to National Forest System lands through the Carbon Capital Fund become property of the United States, and are subject to the same regulations and administration of the U.S. Forest Service as other National Forest improvements of similar nature.

Donors are not entitled to any share of interest in the affected Forest Service property other than the right to use and enjoy it under the existing regulations of the U.S. Forest Service.