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Forest and Trees Carbon Accounting Cohort 2022

Status

Start: July 2022
End: October 2022
Client or funder: Doris Duke Charitable Foundation
Collaborators: World Resources Institute (WRI), Woodwell Climate Center, Chesapeake Conservancy, Blue Raster ,16 U.S. Communities (2 Tribal Nations)

Context

In April 2021, the United States released an updated Nationally Determined Contribution
that emphasized the role forests and urban trees play in meeting that goal by 2030. Local governments have unique policy tools available to implement tree-based climate strategies. Most Community-wide inventories include the basic emissions for daily life, such as energy usage, transportation and waste, excluding Forestry. The LEARN tool is a newly developed ICLEI USA tool that aids communities with
accounting for Forestry emissions and sequestration, that can be added to the ClearPath tool to complete an inventory.

Photo by Alden Skeie on Unsplash

Project Activity

ICLEI USA’s 2021 Forests & Trees Carbon Accounting Cohort Training Session is a 6-month structured technical assistance program to guide communities in the application of the Forestry Protocol, an appendix to the U.S. Community Protocol for GHG Emission Inventories. Kicking off July 2021, ICLEI USA staff assisted 16 communities in the process of assessing the emissions and removals of carbon through forestry and urban tree management. At the conclusion of the cohort session, participating communities had a key element of the Agriculture, Forestry, and Land Use (AFOLU) sector of their community-wide GHG inventory.

Outcomes

Participants learned how to conduct a forest & trees inventory and how to use the LEARN tool.

Those Involved

Eagle County (County Staff)
Eagle County (Walking Mountains)
Columbia, MO
Thurston County, WA
MWCOG
Anne Arundel County
Howard County
Baltimore, MD
New Paltz, NY
Olympia, WA
Gardiner, NY
Ulster County, NY
Cincinnati, OH
EcoAction Partners (San Miguel and Ouray County, CO)
State College, PA
Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe
Rappahannock Tribe
Baltimore County, MD