CONSERVATION CORNER

Power Companies Team With The Carbon Fund To Manage Greenhouse Gas

by James L. Cummins

The electric power sector recently launched an initiative to address the climate change issue, restore critical wildlife habitat, improve water quality and reduce flooding - by planting trees.

PowerTree Carbon Company, LLC, a voluntary consortium of 25 leading U.S. power companies, has established a multi-million dollar fund to undertake six bottomland hardwood reforestation projects in Louisiana, Mississippi and Arkansas. As the trees grow, they will capture more than 1.6 million tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere and provide habitat to threatened and endangered species.

"The national debate over how to address environmental concerns - whether we're talking about global climate change or local conservation issues - is too often plagued by impasse," said Mike Rodenberg, PowerTree board chairman and Detroit Edison representative. "It is true that we do not yet have effective technologies to reduce CO2 emissions from fossil-fuel power generation and other industrial processes, and it will take time to transition to such advanced energy sources or technologies. But there are plenty of steps we can take now to deal with concerns about greenhouse gases that provide additional benefits like reforestation. That's why it's so important that power companies partner with environmental organizations, public agencies and private landowners to demonstrate what can be done."

PowerTree Carbon Company's focus is reforestation in the Lower Mississippi Valley (Louisiana, Mississippi and Arkansas). Over the years, much of the valley has seen a loss of critical wildlife and fish habitat, increased sediment loading in rivers and destruction of wetlands. PowerTree Carbon Company's work in the Lower Mississippi, in partnership with groups such as The Carbon Fund, will help return these marginal agricultural lands to thriving ecosystems.

Over the next century, each acre of new forest will absorb approximately 450 tons of CO2, which trees and other plants pull from the air and convert to energy in order to grow. PowerTree Carbon Company and its partners in the Lower Mississippi will restore about 3,600 acres. In addition to trapping CO2 and enhancing habitat, this reforestation program will enhance water quality by filtering pollution, shading waterways and controlling flooding.

Partners, projects and locations include one with The Carbon Fund on Black Bear Plantation, near Onward, Mississippi. This is near the site of the proposed Theodore Roosevelt National Wildlife Refuge and near the location of the famous 1902 bear hunt that resulted in the "teddy bear" being created.

For more information, visit PowerTree Carbon Company's web site at www.PowerTreeCarbonCompany.com or The Carbon Fund's web site at www.thecarbonfund.org.

James L. Cummins is Executive Director of the Mississippi Fish and Wildlife Foundation in Stoneville, Mississippi. Known as "Wildlife Mississippi," the Foundation is a non-profit, conservation organization founded to conserve, restore and enhance fish, wildlife and plant resources throughout Mississippi. Their web site is www.wildlifemiss.org.