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Midori Sylwester - Northwest Natural Resource Group: Carbon Credit Research

Hi 491! Today is my 22nd birthday and, to celebrate, I get to share what I've been up to the last eight weeks!

Northwest Natural Resource Group (NNRG) is a forestry nonprofit prioritizing ecological practices. The organization works closely with a wide range of entities: small forest landowners, land trusts, Indigenous communities, and local governments, to name a few. NNRG emphasizes maintaining and promoting healthy Pacific Northwest forests through practice, education, research, and support. Throughout the quarter, I've learned that private landowners make up much of the forestland in Washington State and are an important group for organizations like NNRG. Carbon market opportunities have prevailed as a recurring interest for this specific community Northwest Natural Resource Group is serving - which is exactly what I'm for!

Many of you might have a general idea of what carbon credits are, as I'm sure many of you have heard of cap-and-trade or carbon offsets. If you're completely unfamiliar, the concept of carbon offsets is the idea that individuals can neutralize their personal emissions by investing in projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions, including forestry projects like improved management, harvest deferral, or afforestation. Carbon credits are what an individual would "buy" in the market to compensate for the emissions they're hoping to cancel out. Northwest Natural Resource Group wanted to compile a report of the opportunities available to small landowners (ie individuals with anywhere from 10 acres to 1000 acres). Carbon markets are incredibly young and complex, so the opportunities available to landowners are often associated with questions of credibility, transparency, and accessibility. Understanding what carbon credits are, how they're related to the market, and how to get involved is time consuming - it took me four weeks to finally grasp the most basic aspects. In sum, creating a project on your own is quite expensive, averaging roughly $100,000 at the least, just to develop a project idea. Carbon programs are meant to assist in this process, managing project development, carbon calculations, revenue streams, and verification. Yet, the carbon programs available to small forest landowners are surprisingly minimal, mainly because smaller projects can be especially costly and pale in comparison to the revenue that could be generated by projects with larger acreage.

To better understand the needs of small landowners, I've had the wonderful opportunity to speak to a handful of individuals who own forestland and are interested in carbon market opportunities. While some currently have their land enrolled in projects, others have only briefly looked into the idea before walking away. I've also been able to flesh out program requirements by talking to directors of carbon programs, understand how carbon projects can be successful on larger plots by talking to land trusts, and explore the chaos of developing carbon projects by talking to developers about their experiences. Much of my time throughout the last few weeks has been split between conducting these important interviews and continuing my literature review, all of which has culminated in a lot of information in the palm of my hands that I'm excited to finally mold into a final deliverable for NNRG.

One of the most interesting aspects of my work throughout my internship has definitely been navigating such a controversial topic. I read a lengthy New York Times article following the South Pole carbon project scandal, which brought to light the corruption and secrecy behind many of these programs. Listening to the perspectives of small landowners, many of them are hesitant because of how unwilling carbon programs are to share their methodology for payment or quantifying carbon. How are landowners supposed to trust these project developers enough to give them access to their land without full transparency on the other end? Talking to carbon programs have also made me wary, as I've had to remember their intention is to market their services and paint themselves in a positive light. I have had representatives from programs tell me their methodology is proprietary or that they're not willing to answer certain questions. As I've begun to understand the supply-side workings of the carbon market, all of these interviews covering a range of perspectives and experiences have been so engaging and interesting. In a larger context, this experience is highly applicable to my future goals! I'm an environmental studies and economics double-major, which means this internship was the perfect opportunity to integrate both of the disciplines I'm interested in. Listening to the needs of the impacted community through one-on-one interviews that center their perspectives and opinions equips me with skills to move forward post-grad with an understanding of how to prioritize communities I work for or with in a way that truly addresses their needs. Especially in a field that can often drown in discussions around profit and financial gain, my internship with NNRG has been a direct reminder that values are the most important decider, even in opportunities that present a dollar value.

This past week, I had the opportunity to shadow a forester for a day. During my time in the field, I learned how hard foresters work to quantify carbon sequestration on forestland - which includes a similar methodology to what we did during our random plots lab in ENVIR301! The forester and I calculated things like vegetation cover, DBH, and tree age in random inventory plots throughout a parcel. All of this relates to the beginning steps of project development, determining how much carbon a land can sequester, which later translates into the amount of carbon credits a landowner can sell in the market. Below is a picture of me coring a tree, which allowed us to determine the age of the tree and later leads us to an estimate of just how much carbon can be absorbed by the trees in this specific project. (The tree was 60 years old!)

On the topic of interviews, one challenge I've had is quickly adjusting to different conversations. While most of them have gone smoothly, I've had interviews that were difficult to navigate. One person I interviewed was asked two questions out of the ten I prepared - one of which was asking them to introduce themselves. In a situation like this, I allowed them to continue talking and asked clarifying questions when I saw fit. Although I wish I had approached the interview differently, I did receive a significant amount of relevant information that I am excited to use in my synthesis. Another case I've found happens more often are short, nondescript answers. Because I'm so used to following my interview guide, it can be difficult to think quickly on my feet in a way that encourages a natural and thorough answer from the person I'm interviewing. In these circumstances, I try to think about the answer that I'm looking for and phrase my question in an open-ended and neutral way, so as not to bias their answer. This quick thinking is a lot harder than I thought it'd be, but none of my interviews have ever been disastrous - so I guess that's saying something!

My question for you all is: how have you had to think quickly during your internship? In what ways have you navigated these moments and how has being put on the spot resulted in a change in your future behavior?