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As a representative of the 70,000 plus family woodland owners in Oregon I have been encouraged by the regional debate around having the consumer pay for an ecosystem service such as carbon.

Action is needed today to provide revenue to working forestlands that store carbon as trees grow. We have a very effective carbon storage system that nature has designed. And yet forest landowners are under increasing pressure to convert their working forest to other lands due to price.

If we can generate revenue from the carbon that trees and wood products store every day as we move to a less oil dependent economy, the more likely people will look to hold that land in forest cover. The positive additional consequences of forest cover, such as clean water and habitat, are unlikely to be rewarded by a market that just wants to buy carbon but we can at least set a trend away from placing the environmental cost of our actions on the landowning community alone.

We have see the failures in Europe and we need to be very aware of unintended consequences of a cap and trade system, such as placing the burden on the poorest sections of society.

A regional policy can set a prescient for a national system, so to have a system here for the next President to look at has to be a good thing.

A lot has still to be done and there will be winners and losers as with all markets. We must see this issue with new eyes and let go of some of the entrenched positions around natural resources that have dominated PNW politics. The time for cool heads, as well as, a cooler globe has arrived.

posted 4 years, 10 months ago
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