Switzer Fellow Concept Paper Realizing the Potential for Carbon Sequestration on Appalachian Mountain Club Forest Lands Organization

5 Joy St.

Boston, MA 02108

www.outdoors.org

AMCinformation@outdoors.org
Contact: Dr. David Publicover, Senior Staff Scientist

PO Box 298

Gorham, NH 03581

603-466-8140

dpublicover@outdoors.org
Organizational description: Founded in 1876 and headquartered in Boston, MA, the AMC is the nation’s oldest recreation and conservation organization. AMC’s mission statement states “The Appalachian Mountain Club promotes the protection, enjoyment, and understanding of the mountains, forests, waters, and trails of America’s Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions.” The AMC has more than 100,000 members, advocates, and supporters, including 12 local chapters from Maine to Washington, DC, more than 16,000 volunteers, and over 450 full time and seasonal staff. AMC’s activities and programs include operation of over 50 recreational facilities throughout the northeast (most notably a series of high mountain huts in the White Mountain National Forest), outdoor recreation trips and programs, trail construction and maintenance, environmental education, and conservation advocacy and research. Initiated in 2003, AMC’s Maine Woods Initiative includes nearly 70,000 acres of forest land in the 100-Mile Wilderness region managed for a combination of outdoor recreation, natural resource protection, sustainable forestry, and community partnerships.
PROJECT DESCRIPTION
The AMC seeks a Switzer Fellow to provide leadership to an emerging effort to maximize the carbon sequestration potential of AMC’s forest lands in service of AMC’s mission and organizational goals. The position would be housed in AMC’s Research Department at the AMC’s Pinkham Notch Visitor Center in the White Mountain National Forest, located on Route 16 south of Gorham, NH.
Background
AMC’s mission statement is to “promote the protection, enjoyment, and understanding of the mountains, forests, waters, and trails of America’s Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions” and addressing climate change today is part of the organization’s focus. Action to address climate change is relevant to several goals set forth in the club’s “Vision 2020”¹:

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  Leading Regional Conservation Action
  
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    Educating and motivating members, guests, and other outdoors people on ways to reduce their recreation-driven carbon footprint.
    
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  Realizing the Larger Opportunity in Maine's 100-Mile Wilderness through AMC's Maine Woods Initiative
  
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    Creating a new replicable model for landscape-scale conservation, backcountry recreation, public access, and economic sustainability.
    
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    Strengthening our sustainable forestry program as a regional model for balancing recreation and forestry.
    
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  Advancing Excellence in Outdoor Recreation and Leadership Training
  
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    Demonstrating the highest levels of environmental stewardship, education, and sustainability at all destinations.
    

Over the past decade AMC has become actively involved in efforts to combat climate change in selected areas that are germane to this mission. Our involvement is described on AMC’s web site and in the club-wide energy policy² and takes many forms:

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  Research into historical climate trends on Mount Washington and the effects of climate change on the region’s mountains.
  
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  Educating our members and the public about climate change issues and the need for energy efficiency and conservation.
  
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  Advocating for public policies addressing climate change and the transition to a more “carbon-friendly” energy economy and infrastructure.
  
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  Engagement in rulemaking for and permitting of energy generation and transmission projects.
  
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  Supporting forestland conservation and sustainable forest management practices aimed at maintaining and increasing carbon storage in the region’s forests.
  
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  Completion of a carbon offset project on a portion of the Maine Woods Initiative lands.
  

AMC has made an organizational commitment to reducing our own carbon footprint by 80% from our 2004-2005 baseline by 2050. Steps taken to meet this goal include increasing the energy use efficiency of AMC’s facilities, utilizing on-site renewable energy sources, promoting the use of remote communications rather than physical travel, and promoting the use of carpooling and public transportation by staff and visitors to AMC’s facilities.

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  It may be harvested and sold as timber, providing income to AMC to offset the costs of land ownership and support its mission (our “green endowment”) as well as a source of renewable raw materials to local mills and support for the local economy.
  
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  It may be developed as an official forest carbon offset project as has been done for the KIW ecological reserve. The “offset credits” registered through such a project are a marketable commodity that may be sold for income that would be used to support AMC’s mission. The development and use of offset credits are recognized as an economically efficient tool in the effort to combat climate change.
  
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  Credits could be sold to our guests to offset the carbon footprint of their vehicular travel to our facilities. This would both provide income to AMC (which could be used for climate change related projects such as financing additional energy efficiency projects) and help to offset the organizational carbon footprint.
  
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  The sequestered carbon could be applied directly to offsetting AMC’s organizational carbon footprint. While this does not provide income to the club it would help us reach an important mission-related goal. There could be a financial benefit to using forest carbon in this way if it precluded the need to purchase RECS or offset credits from an outside source.
  

AMC’s properties vary in their ability to contribute to these different uses for sequestered carbon:

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  The KIW ecological reserve prohibits timber harvesting but is the site of our completed carbon offset project. Credits through 2019 are committed for sale but credits beyond that are available for sale or internal use.
  
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  The Roach Ponds ecological reserve also prohibits timber harvesting, and the easement also precludes it from being developed as an official offset project. However, it could be developed, following standard protocol as a non-registered project for internal carbon offset purposes.
  
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  The Baker Mountain ecological reserve is also precluded from development as an official project, because much of the area is steep and economically inoperable.
  
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  The non-reserve parts of the KIW, Roach Ponds and Baker Mountain properties could be developed as an official offset project, and much of the land is also actively managed for sustainable timber production. Because of the relatively low stocking on much of the property (due to previous commercial timber harvesting) the economic viability of s an officially registered project today is an open question.
  
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  The Cardigan Reservation is legally available for timber harvesting but AMC is unlikely to pursue this activity due to the conflict with the high level of recreational use. It has a high level of carbon stocking and could be developed as an official offset project, but due to its relatively small size the economic viability of such a project is also unknown.
  

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  What is the most financially beneficial use of a unit of carbon sequestered on AMC lands?
  

In addition to the inherent non-financial benefits of carbon sequestration, this carbon also has a variety of potential uses that have financial benefit to the club as set forth earlier in the document. For example, an earlier assessment indicated that at current prices a unit of carbon has more value when harvested as timber than sold as an offset credit. However, changes in the relative value of these products could alter this balance. The ability to sell carbon credits could provide a hedge if there were to be a decline in prices or markets for our harvested timber.

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  How might we credibly make use of “unofficial” credits?
  

There are portions of AMC’s property that are sequestering significant amounts of carbon but which are precluded from being developed as an official project due to existing reserve easements (e.g. the Roach Ponds reserve) or which may not be financially viable as a project (e.g. Cardigan). The carbon sequestration credits on these lands could be calculated following a recognized protocol but they would lack the third-party verification or listing on a recognized registry (such as the Climate Action Reserve) that is part of the project development process. How might AMC make a credible case for the internal use of these unofficial credits (for example to offset the organizational carbon footprint)? Would it be possible to obtain an unofficial but thorough third-party verification (which would come at a significant cost)?

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  Conduct a more refined estimate of the viability of a carbon offset project on MWI managed lands using existing inventory information.
  
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  Assess the financial tradeoffs between timber harvesting and carbon credits on MWI managed lands under a range of prices for both products.
  
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  Conduct a more refined estimate of the viability of a carbon offset project on the Cardigan Reservation (including conducting a field inventory).
  
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  Develop an estimate of unofficial carbon credits that would accrue for the Roach Ponds reserve (including conducting a field inventory).
  
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  Develop a more refined estimate of the carbon footprint of guest travel to AMC facilities.
  
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  Evaluate issues (ethical, public relations, etc) related to using unofficial credits for internal AMC purposes (primarily offsetting organizational carbon footprint).
  
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  Investigate the practicality of and procedures for selling carbon credits (official or unofficial) to AMC guest to offset their travel to AMC facilities.
  
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  Develop educational materials for AMC staff, board and members on issues related to forests, climate change and AMC lands.
  
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  Work cooperatively with AMC staff to develop a long-term plan on how best to utilize the carbon sequestration potential of AMC’s forest lands.
  
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  Assessing how well AMC’s experience and gained knowledge can extrapolated to broader issues and landscapes. On a larger scale these results could have precedence for other conservation forest lands and addressing the tourism transportation travel sector, whose greenhouse gas emissions are currently not regulated (unlike the electrical generation sector).
  

Participation in this project would provide the Fellow the opportunity to utilize and enhance their knowledge and skills in a range of areas related to the relationship between climate change and forests, including ecosystem service and forest carbon offset markets, regional forest ecology and management, forest inventory and modeling, organizational carbon footprint analysis and economic analysis.