Climate Action and Reforestation in Northern Michigan

Description

With funding from the NRCS, the project will reforest over 16,000 acres across 27 counties in northern Michigan. The project will focus on private landowners who hold 20-500 acres, with an emphasis on planting climate-smart species.

The FCCP has two major roles in the project: research and outreach/knowledge transfer.

Research

The FCCP will collaborate with the DNR to assess carbon sequestration and storage benefits with modeling, using site-specific inputs. Additionally, the FCCP will research the social and economic impacts of the project, including potential future revenue generated from forest harvest and potential tax benefits. The social impacts research will involve assessment of landowner likelihood of new practice adoption and effectiveness of knowledge transfer materials.

Outreach/Knowledge Transfer

The first component of the knowledge transfer aspect of the project is implementing a ‘train the trainers’ learning experience for implementing partners. These trainings will focus on carbon storage and management, carbon measurements, and emerging carbon incentive programs. The second component of knowledge transfer is outreach to landowners. The FCCP will provide parcel level estimates of carbon storage value on their land, as well as information about carbon incentive programs.

Project Goals

This project has four major goals:

Develop new forested areas and keep them that way
- Influence the economics that drive land use decisions
- Minimize incentives to develop/ agricultural conversion
Make restocking and reforestation more attractive to landowners
Increasing emphasis on carbon storage and climate in programs and communication
Boost capacity to engage in dialogue and incentives around carbon values for forests