Conserving Your Forest and Its Value
Now is the time to earn new income from your forestland.
Enrolling in a high-quality carbon credit program can earn you money, conserve your land, and create a plan for its future. Industries are facing more rigorous requirements to offset carbon emissions and more companies are stepping up environmental stewardship practices. The demand for carbon credits will only become stronger, and you can benefit.
Landowners with as little as 40 acres can now apply.
Until now, small landowners have been left out of carbon credit programs. Only large landowners and corporations could afford to enroll and participate. Our forest carbon programs are specifically designed for smaller landowners. If you have at least 40 acres of forestland, you may be able to generate income from managing your forest through long-term sustainable forest management practices.
How Landowners Benefit from Enrolling:
Carbon Credits 101: How they’re produced and measured and why they matter for your property.
Carbon sequestration is the process of capturing and storing atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2). Naturally, trees store carbon through photosynthesis, which is the process of trees converting water, sunlight, and CO2 into fuel for growth.
A carbon credit (or carbon offset, the terms are interchangeable) is how stored carbon is measured. It is a transferable instrument certified by governments or an independent certification body to represent an emission reduction of one metric ton of CO2.
Through assessment and modeling performed by our Carbon Development team, NativState can measure how much carbon your forestland currently sequesters, as well as how many carbon credits it could generate.
Baseline vs. Additionality
All forests will store various levels of carbon naturally as trees and plants grow, depending on the species, region, and climate. Trees will naturally store carbon as the forest matures, even without carbon market incentives or human intervention. This “business-as-usual” state is called the baseline. Small- and medium-sized landowners often turn to the following “business as usual” scenarios to realize income from their forestland:
- Aggressive timber harvesting
- Permanent deforestation/conversion from forestlands to alternatives:
- Pasture or row crop usage
- Commercial construction development
- Residential construction development
- Energy exploration and production development, (even solar)
Additionality refers to the additional amount of carbon that can be verifiably stored beyond the baseline through specific conservation activities like reducing the amount of timber harvested or creating forests on unproductive cropland. In our carbon design, inventory, and modeling efforts, we perform a thorough analysis, showing our landowner partners the difference forty-year Carbon Agreements make as an attractive alternative to the scenarios above.
Additionality is incredibly important as it validates a property’s potential to generate more carbon credits, which must be then verified by a carbon registry including the American Carbon Registry or Verra.
Improved Forest Management – Creating additionality and generating revenue.
Improved Forest Management (IFM) is a type of conservation project aimed at increasing carbon storage over a baseline, or a “business-as-usual level”. This is accomplished by both removing carbon from the atmosphere by increasing forest cover or maintaining existing forest cover relative to the baseline, and by reducing carbon emissions by reducing timber harvests beyond the baseline.
Our team works with landowners to create a customized Forest Management Plan (FMP) for their land following IFM principles. This plan is an important aspect of generating marketable carbon offsets and will demonstrate to the carbon registry that we are achieving the specific goals outlined in the plan.
Our foresters and carbon development team map out a plan for a healthy forest and optimized carbon storage that aligns with the long-term goals of the landowner and carbon registry certification criteria.
Selective Cut and Deferred Harvest
Enrolling your land in our forest carbon program does not mean your trees will never be cut.
NativState has two different harvesting plans for landowners to choose from based on their long-term goals for their forest. The main difference between the two is whether timber will be harvested for commercial purposes, which influences the amount of carbon offsets that can be achieved.
The first option, the Selective Cut Plan, allows for some commercial harvest. For example, mixed forest stands of pine and hardwoods are a perfect fit for this program because landowners can harvest the most valuable timber while improving habitat and generating carbon offsets. This plan allows landowners to maximize the timber value and carbon revenue potential. All income from timber harvest belongs to the landowner.
The Deferred Harvest Plan excludes commercial timber harvesting. This approach is particularly suitable for landowners that wish to enhance the recreational and conservation value of their properties. It also has the greatest potential to generate revenue from the sale of carbon offsets.
The NativState Carbon Agreement
The carbon agreement governs the relationship between NativState and the landowner. It sets parameters such as the term of the agreement, purpose of the agreement, royalty amounts paid to the landowner, and the type of harvest allowed.
After a property has been evaluated and qualifies for our program, we work directly with the landowner to meet their recreation goals while optimizing carbon offset credits. Ultimately, a forest’s resiliency is what will provide the greatest benefit to the environment and wildlife. Professional forest management is our tool to foster stewardship, conservation and support your land legacy.
NativState manages the annual maintenance and monitoring of the project to ensure trees are healthy and carbon is being sequestered according to plan. There is no cost to the landowner.
The landowner should notify NativState of any changes to the property such as damage from natural disasters or pests, prior to timber harvest or changes in ownership of the property. The Improved Forest Management plan will need to be reviewed every five years. NativState will work with the landowner to update the Improved Forest Management plan.
Getting Started: Carbon credit development at no cost to you.
When NativState begins work on a property for carbon development, our goal is to place each acre in its highest and best use. Our foresters and carbon development team meet with landowners and complete a full assessment of the property’s carbon potential to maximize value and meet the landowner’s long-term goals for their forest.
Our projects are validated and verified with independent carbon registries and marketed to our network of corporate buyers to generate carbon revenue for the landowner. The expenses for this plan, its implementation and ongoing management are free to the landowner, who not only receives the benefit of additional revenue, but also pride in sound stewardship of their forests.
Landowners receive a royalty percentage of the revenue generated from carbon credits sold from their forests in accordance with the carbon agreement determined at the onset of enrollment.
Our plans are tailored to each project and designed to produce the most possible carbon revenue per acre through sustainable forest management.
Enrollment is Easy
See if You Qualify
After sharing some basic information here (link to online form) a NativState Forest Carbon Specialist will follow up with a discovery meeting. This is a great time to ask questions and learn more about our program.
Get Your Land’s Carbon Value
We will prepare a Forest Carbon Assessment to determine if your land qualifies for our program and evaluate its full potential. At least 40 acres of forested land are needed to qualify.
Sign On
After you’ve met with our team and we’ve determined your land is eligible for our program, we’ll present you with an official offer and you will have a chance to decide if we are the right fit for the future of your land. Once you sign your carbon agreement our forestry team will begin taking action on your forest management plan.
Get Paid
After signing the agreement, you will receive an advance on revenue while we market and sell your land’s carbon credits. The remaining income begins once carbon offset credits are sold from the registry and continues through the 40-year program.We Take it From Here
NativState manages the project to make sure your trees are healthy and carbon is being sequestered according to plan. We do this for the duration of the 40-year contract. So, you can be sure that your vision for your land’s conservation will be upheld for at least that far into the future.
Ready to plan for the future of your forestland and realize its value?
Contact us with your questions and find out the next step for conserving your land.
Get Started
Use the form below to see if your land qualifies for our Carbon Credit Program.