Group hoping to add diversity to area with carbon market idea
Marcellus Shale is a booming market in Greene County. When residents consider how undeveloped land can be used, they think rocks and natural gas.
The Southwestern Pennsylvania Woodland Owners Group is hoping to add diversity to Greene County and surrounding areas by bringing the idea of carbon markets to the area.
SWPWO President Gay Thistle said, “I just want people to think of other ways of using their land.”
On Wednesday, Nov. 12, SWPWO held a community meeting at the Greene County Fairgrounds. The meeting, intended to inform local residents about carbon markets included featured speaker Josh Parrish, director of the Working Woodlands Program for the Nature Conservancy.
Although the meeting was open to the public, Thistle said the topic is most attractive to woodland owners, or people who own property that houses a forest.
The goal of the meeting was to educate woodland owners about how carbon markets, or carbon emissions trading, can help the environment and to gauge interest in the idea.
According to the website Environment for Beginners, the concept came about as an effort to reduce companies’ carbon emissions that harm the environment and contribute to climate change.
Forests are the largest storage system for carbon; they use carbon dioxide and prevent it from polluting the atmosphere.
The carbon market allows companies to continue emitting carbon gases if they pay to help conserve the forests that will absorb the carbon.
“The carbon market is a trade set up for polluters to trade the right to pollute with landowners or people who store the carbon,” said Thistle.
Carbon emitters can buy “carbon credits” that allow them to emit more gases. The money goes to landowners like those of SWPWO to help them preserve their forests.
This provides financial incentive for landowners to be a part of carbon markets and preserve their land.
The Nov. 12 meeting helped to explain this process, and Thistle hopes it brought issues of damage to the environment to the forefront and persuaded some people to bring carbon markets to Greene County.
“Carbon markets would put an awareness (about the environment) out there if they become an available market for the public,” Thistle said.
The SWPWO provides educational opportunities for landowners and conservationists and emphasizes the growth of high quality trees. By these standards, becoming a part of carbon markets isn’t an option for just anyone.
“You can’t just sign up,” Thistle said. “You have to prove that you’re growing high quality trees and managing your property.”
Thistle said there will most likely be opposition from some community members who don’t see a need for carbon markets in the area.
“There’s a lot of disbelief about climate change,” Thistle said. “People think it’s just a political maneuver, and they say, ‘What do we need carbon markets for?'”
Thistle hopes that the SWPWO’s meeting helped to illustrate the consequences of too much carbon emission into the atmosphere and will spur people to help support forest land.
She also emphasized that the outcomes of becoming a part of carbon markets aren’t going to be immediate, and the process isn’t for financial gain. Instead, it is to make sure that forests and healthy land are preserved for future generations.
“As a tree farmer, my cash flow is nothing,” Thistle said. “I plant a tree and wait 80 years to harvest it. I’m not the one that’s going to see these benefits.”