The spindly black spruce in our northern forests and the slow-to-decay needles they drop may turn out to have hidden value. The last Alaskan legislative session in Juneau saw the introduction of a bill that proposes tapping into an atypical forest resource: carbon. Senate Bill 144 (SB144) did not suggest exploiting timber or firewood, nor did it advocate profiting from hunting, fishing, gathering, or recreation. Instead, the bill addresses the forest’s potential capacity for carbon storage.
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| Huge expanses of boreal forests stretch across much of northern North America. Photo copyright John Lyle. |
Why does carbon storage or “sequestration” matter? Although the issue is far from simple, the heart of the matter lies in limiting the total amount of carbon is in the atmosphere at any given time. When carbon is immobilized in soils or plant matter, or trapped in the transformed organic matter that we know as fossil fuels, it is being kept out of the air. Atmospheric carbon -- in the form of carbon dioxide and other gases – exacerbates the greenhouse effect that leads to global climate change.
The international community is gearing up towards establishing systems of trading in carbon credits. These credits would effectively pay those who create systems to reduce or prevent greenhouse gas buildup in the atmosphere, while charging those who add to the problem. Although many researchers feel that reducing outputs of greenhouse gases is the key to long-term success – and even planetary ecosystem survival -- some scientists and politicians believe that forests could play an important role in shorter-term carbon management.
The legislative session ended before SB144 could be passed. However, if the bill becomes law next session, it would create a representative Carbon Sequestration Advisory Committee, which would recommend policies or programs to the commissioner of the Alaska Department of Natural Resources. The Commissioner in turn would be expected to produce a comprehensive assessment of carbon sequestration potential in the state. SB 144 states that “it is the intent of the legislature that efforts to quantify and verify carbon sequestration on state and private lands enhance the ability of the state to participate in any system of carbon sequestration marketing or trading.” In other words, if there is money to be made through carbon storage, Alaska wants to know how to cash in.
