Building Forest Carbon and Market Decision Capacity

The 2024-2025 Building Forest Carbon and Market Decision Capacity webinar and workshop series invites academics, forest industry, and other forestry experts to present on relevant topics to increase adoption of climate-smart technologies and practices in forest systems. The series aims to develop and expand forest stakeholder knowledge and perspectives on forest carbon payment programs for more informed decision-making by bringing together a diverse group of landowners, state and federal natural resource professionals, consulting foresters, academics, and policymakers.

This webinar series was co-hosted by the Forest Carbon and Climate Program (FCCP) at MSU and Forest Owner Carbon and Climate Education (FOCCE) at Penn State University and supported by the USDA Forest Service, Michigan State University Extension, Michigan DNR, and the Wisconsin DNR. The events took place on Thursdays throughout fall 2024 and spring 2025 at 3 pm Eastern Time.

Webinar 1: Introduction to forest carbon markets and payment programs. Presenter: Dr. Greg Latta, The University of Idaho
Webinar 2: Cost-benefit of voluntary carbon projects: demonstrating an online tool for landowner decision-support.Presenter: Dr. Raju Pokharel, Michigan State University
Webinar 3: Expert Panel of Forest Carbon Markets and Payment Programs. Panelists: Nathan Truitt, American Forest Foundation, Jon Remucal, Climate Action Reserve, Dr. Erynn Maynard-Bean, SCS Global Services, Dylan Jenkins, Finite Carbon, Dr. Nan Pond, Rubicon Carbon, Josh Fain, LandYield
Webinar 4: Voluntary and compliance forest carbon markets: understanding the opportunity. Presenter: Andrew Taylor with ACR/Winrock (focused on compliance markets). Alex Procton with Ecosystem Marketplace (focused on voluntary markets)
Webinar 5: Financial trade-offs of managing forestlands for carbon and wood products. Presenter: Dr. Bin Mei, Duke University

The workshop series was also co-hosted by the Forest Carbon and Climate Program (FCCP) at MSU and Forest Owner Carbon and Climate Education (FOCCE) at Penn State and supported by USDA Forest Service, Michigan State University Extension, Michigan DNR, and the Wisconsin DNR. The events will take place throughout spring and summer 2025 in four locations of Northeast and Midwest.

Workshop 1: Rinelander, WI (5/20/2025). Collaborators: University of Wisconsin-Madison Extension - Division of Forestry, Forest Carbon Works, The Conservation Fund, The Wisconsin DNR
Workshop 2: Albany, NY (6/5/2025). Collaborators: State of New York Department of Environmental Conservation, Cornell Cooperative Extension, The Nature Conservancy, Forest Carbon Works
Workshop 3: State College, PA (7/21). Collaborators: Penn State Extension, FOCCE Program, Forest Carbon Works
Workshop 4: Conway, NH (8/5). Collaborators: University of New Hampshire Extension, The Nature Conservancy, Forest Carbon Works

This project also developed an online tool to estimate the economic tradeoff of extending rotation for forest carbon management. We adapted from the Excel Document developed by Stockmann et al. (2024) following the methods for Manage Forest Systems developed by US Forest Service. Click the button below to use the tool and estimate forest carbon and economic tradeoff of extending rotation for forest carbon management at your forested lands.

Support for this project is provided, in part, by funding from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, Renewable Resources Extension Act.