Symposium helps spur carbon trading programs for Chesapeake’s forests
Sally Claggett is the Chesapeake Bay Program coordinator with the USDA Forest Service at the Chesapeake Bay Program.
I get a
thrill whenever I see forests on equal billing with farm lands in the Chesapeake region. Especially
when it comes to something BIG like carbon sequestration. Of course, one acre
of forest land can sequester much more carbon than one acre of agricultural
land -- 1-2 tons of carbon per acre per year for forest, compared to roughly
0.3-0.5 ton per acre per year for farmland. But when it comes to best
management practices for water quality, and well, eating, agriculture is king.
Kudos to Delaware, which is now only 30% forested (the smallest
percentage of forest for any of the six Bay states), to take on carbon for its champion
role in the Chesapeake
clean-up. When it comes to carbon, it’s all about taking advantage of existing
volunteer markets, such as the Regional
Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) and the Chicago Climate Exchange, and
potential regulatory markets in the United States’ future
From a
global perspective, the U.S.
is playing catch-up with carbon. Our nation did not ratify Kyoto in 1997 when 84 other countries signed
on. These countries are legally bound to reduce carbon emissions, with the
average target being to reduce emissions by 5% below 1990 levels. Here in the U.S., the
states have largely taken the leadership on reducing greenhouse gases, with
some big regional programs such as RGGI, the Western Climate Initiative
and the Midwestern Greenhouse Gas
Reduction Accord taking off. Last year, Congress got serious with the Lieberman-Warner
Climate Security Act, but it didn’t pass. Both of the prospective new
administrations have promised to enact climate legislation. Most likely only
after the economy settles down -- I mean up. It’s an exciting time for many who
have talked for nearly two decades about the need.
Back to
the symposium …
How will
the markets actually reduce greenhouse gases? It’s not shuffling money around. It
has to do with being cost-effective, promoting innovation and, indirectly,
better land use decisions. Big questions abound, however; like: will it work?
The top six issues are certainty, baseline, leakage, permanence,
additionality
and double
counting.
Once some
of the issues start being resolved, there’s great potential for forestry, since
80% of the forest land in this region is privately owned. The Bay Bank has moved
from concept to design and will be up and running in fall 2009. The Bay
Bank will facilitate both farm and forest landowner access to multiple
ecosystem markets (not just carbon) and conservation programs through an
easy-to-use online marketplace. Supporting aspects of the Bay Bank, such as the Spatial
Lands Registry, will be up sooner. The Spatial Lands Registry is one of
those tools that will help reduce issues such as certainty, baseline and
permanence. When a tool does this, it also reduces the make-it or break-it
transaction costs.
The
all-important new regulations will determine the direction of these burgeoning
markets. There need to be more drivers
to direct more businesses and people to invest in carbon sequestering
practices. The target reductions and rules need to be reasonable so a variety
of private landowners can take part in the market and get a worthwhile return
on their investment. The Delaware symposium is
helping with the outreach and understanding that will be needed for any market
to succeed.
What’s
good for carbon is good for water quality. Less cars, more forests and farms,
better-managed farms and forests, and hopefully, hopefully, a postponement of
sea level rise. That would be very good for the Chesapeake. For that matter, good for the
world.
Estuary conference in Providence, R.I., worth the long ride
Liana Vitali is a Living Resources Subcommittee staffer with the Chesapeake Research Consortium at the Chesapeake Bay Program.
Some
people might say that riding a train for 12 hours from Annapolis,
Maryland, to Providence, Rhode Island,
and back to attend a conference about our nation’s valuable estuaries
demonstrates real environmental dedication. Others might say, “Take the plane!”
I, of course, traveled the route using the former method. Who needs to deal
with extraneous baggage charges and cramped seating when you can pay the same
amount to travel via train through the New England
countryside and view the fantastic fall foliage, while also having ample time
to catch up on that long-forgotten summer read? OK, in retrospect, I wish I
took the plane. But no matter what mode of transportation, hundreds of
participants from around the country gathered in Providence, Rhode Island,
last week for the 4th biannual Restore
America’s Estuaries (RAE) Conference.
The four
days of the conference were jam-packed with over 50 different sessions, workshops
and plenary discussions pertaining to all things estuarine. Most of the
sessions I attended were facilitated by organizations and speakers from outside
the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Working here at
the Bay Program, I often have a front-row view of how our
partners are working to restore and protect our Bay. However, I felt by
attending sessions led by, say, the Puget
Sound Partnership or Save
the Bay - Narragansett Bay, I might gain a different perspective on how to
approach our efforts here in the Chesapeake Bay
region.
This
strategy worked! For example, while attending a session called “Creating Public
and Political Will to Restore Our Coasts and Estuaries,” I learned that the
folks at People for Puget Sound
developed a fun, comprehensive social marketing campaign called MudUp. Almost since its inception, MudUp has
been a huge hit with the local community through convincing poster ads and an
endearing Mud Monster mascot that attends all MudUp events. Hmm, if the Chesapeake
Bay Program had a mascot, what would it be?
As a side
note, Providence
and nearby areas are real delights to visit. A few co-workers and I had some
free time to visit Newport,
which is just a must-see. The mansions and Cliff Walk are truly spectacular.
Oh, and you can’t leave Newport
without a visit to Flo’s Clam Shack; you would regret it if you didn’t go and try
their fish and chips -- so good!
All in
all, my trip to Providence was extremely
insightful (no matter how long the commute!), and I’m looking forward to the
5th biannual RAE Conference in Galveston,
Texas, in 2010!
Liana gets soaked by a wave as she enjoys Narragansett Bay and the Atlantic Ocean at sunset in Newport, Rhode Island.
MAST students visit Bay Program office
Krystal Freeman is a Living Resources
Subcommittee staffer with the Chesapeake Research Consortium at the
Chesapeake Bay Program.
Yesterday morning, a group of college students from Hampton University’s Multicultural Students at Sea Together (MAST) program came to our office to learn about the Bay Program. We the Chesapeake Research Consortium (CRC)
staffers are generally only a few years removed from our Bachelor’s
degrees, making us perfect candidates to represent CBP for this
particular group.
As the group approached the Fish Shack, I couldn’t
help but think they looked very clean and well put-together to have
been sailing the Chesapeake for close to two weeks!
Everything about this group varied: one was a
graduate student and another will be starting college as a freshman
this coming semester. Majors ranged from marine biology to women’s
studies and political science. English is not the first
language of several of the students, and they allowed me to use my
Spanish with them as we continued discussing CBP during the break. The
students in this program create a fun and enthusiastic group — once
they started talking, you could tell that they would continue talking
about the summer of 2008 for a lifetime.
I and the rest of the CRC staffers were able to
share with the group many of the opportunities afforded us by working
here through the CRC Career Development Program: projects we have played a role in, people we have met, and volunteer activities we’ve completed. In
addition to information about the subcommittees we support, we shared
things from our own college experiences such as internships, research
projects, study abroad…even ID pictures and school spirit. It was
definitely a different feeling standing in the Fish Shack as the
“seasoned veteran” passing on words of wisdom.
Krystal speaks with MAST students in the "Fish Shack," the Bay Program's conference room.
Thoughts from the World Water Expo
Lewis Linker is a modeling coordinator with the U.S. EPA at the Chesapeake Bay Program.
The world’s a pretty big
place. So when a group of water resource experts from different parts
of the world come together, and all describe the same problems (though
seen through different lenses of geography, culture, and language),
that’s a notable thing.
That’s what happened at the 2008 World Water Expo in Zaragoza, Spain,
where water resource experts from across the globe — including
Australia, Israel, Jordan, Spain, South Africa, and the United States —
participated in a scientific symposium as a kick-off to the Expo. All
invited speakers there spoke of problems with growth, water supply,
water quality, and climate disruption. The water resource conditions in
the various countries were as varied as the languages spoken, but the
underlying problems were the same. Jordan, for example, is arid with a
developing economy, whereas Australia is arid with a post-industrial
economy — yet both face the same challenges of growth, water supply,
water quality, and climate disruption.
Where does the Bay Program fit into this picture?
As an invited participant, the Bay Program described our approach of
integrating models, monitoring, and research for restoration of the
Chesapeake. Our presentation of the linked airshed, watershed,
estuarine, and living resource models, along with the supporting and
corroborating monitoring observations and research was well-received,
and was seen as a world-class example of the information systems needed
to support water resources under pressure from population growth,
climate change, and past environmental degradation.
All of the invited speakers spoke to problems of
growth and water quality. In the Chesapeake, we’ve been working a long
time to restore water quality despite growth pressures in our
watershed, so these are issues we’re familiar with. But just like in
other parts of the world, the issues of providing an adequate water
supply and climate disruption are also emerging issues for the
Chesapeake. Last year, the city of Fredrick, Maryland, had to curtail
construction permits due to concerns over the sufficiency of water
supply. This may be a harbinger, because our Chesapeake water supply
infrastructure is designed for average annual flows different from the
decreased annual flows we may see with future climate change, as the
Bay Program has described in presentations at the 2007 American Water
Resources Society and the Coastal and Estuarine Research Federation.
At the World Water Expo we saw that the challenges
of growth, adequate water supply, water quality, and climate disruption
were ubiquitous. The world’s a big place and a watery place. How ironic
that we’re all in the same boat.