NEW ESTIMATES OF THE COSTS OF MANAGING FORESTS TO INCREASE CARBON STORAGE

Natural climate solutions offer the promise of low-cost carbon mitigation together with the provision of additional ecosystem services. We provide new estimates of the cost of increasing carbon storage in the forests of Western Oregon and Washington using forest management. Relative to previous studies that focus on lengthening timber rotations, we emphasize the importance of silvicultural treatments, in particular, pre-commercial and commercial thinning. We find the lowest average costs — in the range of $13–18/MT CO 2 e — when commercial thinning is combined with longer rotations and discount rates are relatively low. Across the ranges of management scenarios and discount rates we consider, the majority of forest lands in the region can generate carbon offsets at prices below $40/MT CO 2 e, the current allowance price in California’s carbon market. When carbon flows are valued at the Social Cost of Carbon, benefits from forest management greatly exceed the costs.