US Forest Carbon Projects

Agenda
Start Date: March 10, 2016
Location: Holiday Inn Portland South, Wilsonville, OR

March 10, 2016

10:00  Background on Carbon Projects – Dave Walters, Landvest, Eugene, OR
• What are the various types of carbon projects? What are the options when selecting a carbon project?

• How are carbon projects structured and what are the protocol requirements? What is necessary to bring a project to the marketplace?

• Overview of the US carbon marketplace. Where are existing carbon projects, what is their scale and sale price?

• Opportunities and tradeoffs in managing private timberlands for carbon.

11:00   Carbon Project Development Timeline and Key Steps – Dave Walters
• Scoping: Is the project worth spending money on?

• Information Gathering: What kinds of information are required by the project protocols?

• Analysis: What type of analysis is needed to validate the project?

• Submission and Processing: How to prepare a project for the marketplace.

Noon  Lunch

1:15  The Carbon Inventory: What does your inventory need to look like? – Dave Walters

• Project Requirements: Building an inventory system to match project protocol requirements. Measuring biomass instead of board feet.

• Design Considerations: What type of plots, how many and where, what do you need to measure, and what information needs to be collected.

• Processing: Calculating biomass using project protocol requisites.

• Documentation: Doing what you say you will do and recording every step.

3:00  Break

3:15  Growth and Yield Modelling: Modelling your forest out 100 years – Dave Walters

• Project Requirements: Modeling and projection conditions for submitting your project.

• Which model to use: Review of approved models and alternatives.

4:30  Adjourn

March 11, 2016

8:30  Growth and Yield Modelling, Continued
• What do you need the model to do? It is not your typical analysis.

• Pros and cons of approved models.

• Documentation for verification

10:00  Break

10:15  Harvest Scheduling – Dave Walters
• Merging your regular business model with long planning horizons.

• Approaches and tools for scheduling

Noon  Lunch

1:15  Forest Carbon Verification: Lessons Learned From the Verification of Over 50 million Tonnes – Zane Haxtema, Senior Verification Forester, SCS Global Services, Seattle, WA

2:00  Legal Considerations and Potential Pitfalls When Developing a Carbon Project – Greg Fullem, Schwabe, Williamson & Wyatt, Portland, OR

3:00  Break

3:15  Recap and Take Home Messages

3:45  Adjourn

About the Conference
The development of a US forest carbon project involves many of the same tools, data, and analytical processes as are needed in other complex forestry projects. These include a complete forest inventory, growth and yield models, volume and biomass equations, and the use of a harvest scheduling model. However, in the application of each of these items, there are subtle (or not so subtle) differences when the aim is the development of a carbon project.

In two days, this workshop will focus on forest inventory and modelling considerations specific to the development of a US forest carbon project. The approach taken will be to identify and discuss the needs of a hypothetical project, with consideration given to recommendations on tools to use and approaches to take. Particular points will be made in clarifying differences between the needs of a carbon project and those of a similar project that is focused on more traditional industrial forestry goals.

Attendees will gain insights into the process of developing a forest carbon project, with recommendations and specific suggestions on approach.