Dear Department of Energy and the Oregon Climate Action Commission,
Thank you for this opportunity to comment on the best way forward to help Oregon meet its drawdown goals. I am the Forestry and Natural Lands Lead for MCAT, Mobilizing Climate Action Together. We strongly recommend that you adopt Option Three: achieve net sequestration of at least 57.5 MMTCO2e per year across all land categories by 2050. We are very concerned that over the past two decades according to the Carbon Inventory conducted by DOE that overall sequestration has significantly decreased. This decrease has happened at the same time that our national forests transitioned from being carbon sources for several decades up through the 80s to carbon sinks after the implementation of the Northwest Forest Plan. This raises important questions regarding the causes of this change.
Oregon has an especially potent weapon in addressing the climate crisis: our forests. Our natural forests, west of the Cascades, are one of the most carbon dense on a per acre basis in the world. That is, they are one of the most effective natural climate solutions that exist. Research conducted by Portland State University and The Nature Conservancy examined a diversity of natural climate solutions and identified one that was far superior to all the others: growing trees longer. This is already a solution that has been implemented, as mentioned above, on our national forests. Where we now have the greatest opportunity is to implement this solution on private industrial timber lands. We need to incentivize the large private timber land-owners, who now log on short rotation cycles of 35 – 40 years, to log on 60, preferably 80 year cycles. Modelling indicates that doubling from 40 to 80 years would more than double the carbon sequestered while also more than doubling timber volume.
Earlier this year Governor Kotek in her Executive Order No. 25-26 made clear her priority around climate resilience. As has been widely stated in the past we have clear known unknowns and unknown unknowns. As a result we have many uncertainties around how to fully meet our sequestration and storage goals. Significant work remains in identifying essential information needs and gaps.
Over the coming decade Oregon needs to both find the necessary funding and build capacity to realize this ambitious sequestration goal especially in light of the overall declining net sequestration. To hold itself accountable Oregon must track and report progress on all the activities designed to achieve its sequestration goals. Importantly, Oregon needs to implement the needed incentives to drive changes in how we manage our natural lands and forests, as well agricultural lands. Change is hard and will not happen unless both our Governor and Legislator act to drive needed changes in practices.
Sincerely,
Rand Schenck
MCAT Forestry and Natural Lands Lead
** MCAT is a community of experienced volunteers, sponsored by the Oregon League of Conservation Voters, who help steward significant greenhouse gas reduction policy into law in Oregon. We actively engage with state agencies to ensure transparent development and vigorous implementation of climate programs including natural climate solutions. MCAT also actively organizes to elect and support legislators who will work for strong climate legislation.