Can farms and forests help us meet the climate challenge?
Our county is making progress in crafting the Thurston Climate Mitigation Plan (TCMP). This joint project of county government and our three largest cities has had a long gestation. Now the draft plan is receiving a last review to consider recent public comments before being presented to the local jurisdictions for adoption.
The plan is ambitious and complex. It includes more than 70 recommendations for actions to achieve its targets to reduce our local net carbon emissions from 2015 levels by 45% by the year 2030, and by 85% by 2050.
Most of the plan identifies ways we can reduce carbon output. For example, can we shift from fossil fuels to electricity to power cars and heat buildings? Are there practical, cost-efficient changes in how we construct new buildings, and retrofit older ones, that will improve energy efficiency?
But another important element of the draft plan takes a different approach. Can something be done locally to actually remove carbon from the air? The answer is yes, through carbon sequestration. Plants take up carbon dioxide from the air. Remember that from high school biology? Carbon from that process is stored in plant matter.
Developing a strategy to increase this carbon storage is crucial to the ability of the plan to meet its targets. Even if all the other actions proposed by the plan are implemented, we still need a significant net gain in carbon storage to reach the goals.
The draft plan looks at two important opportunities for carbon capture.
Look at agriculture first. Whether farmland can provide a net carbon storage benefit depends on how it is managed by farmers and ranchers. Just this year, the Legislature enacted the Sustainable Farms and Fields grant program to help landowners adopt practices that will increase carbon storage. The Thurston County Conservation District also offers a variety of programs to support farmers.
But in Thurston County, farmland acreage is declining. Each year, around 3,000 acres of agricultural land is lost to other uses. With our continuing population growth, sustaining a viable base of agricultural lands is a daunting task. The South of the Sound Community Farmland Trust is a nonprofit organization working to protect existing farmland for the future. Visit their website for the details.
The other opportunity included in the TCMP is trees. Trees draw down atmospheric carbon and store it in their cells. Forests in our county are powerful reservoirs of carbon storage. Our soils, rainfall, and relatively long growing season contribute to forest growth.
Planting trees can provide important carbon storage benefits, but it takes time for those trees to grow. The draft plan proposes a goal of protecting or replanting the equivalent of 37,000 acres of forest by 2030. Again, population growth poses a challenge. Can we protect existing forest lands in and near our urban areas? We know that trees have other important human health benefits. Can we envision a greener future in the places where we live?
Another opportunity is to manage forests in ways that improve carbon capture. A nearby example is the Nisqually Community Forest, a project of the Nisqually Land Trust. In the headwaters of the Mashel River in Pierce County, some 2,000 acres of former commercial forest land is being managed with techniques to improve carbon capture, as well as to provide better streamflow and wildlife habitat, while also sustainably producing forest products. What lessons can we learn from this and similar efforts?
What’s next for the TCMP? In the coming weeks, the plan goes to the four jurisdictions that have cooperated in its development. It’s time for us to urge our local elected officials to adopt the plan and move forward. There’s much work to be done. The details of our our combined efforts will change. But there is power in starting the long journey together. Let’s begin.
Cleve Pinnix is a retired State Parks Commission director, a Panorama resident, and a member of The Olympian’s 2020 Board of Contributors. Reach him at cfp.ranger44@gmail.com.
This story was originally published November 20, 2020 at 5:45 AM.