Pictured Above: City of Puyallup City Manager, Steve Kirkelie, joins Pierce CD Executive Director, Ryan Mello at a planting project at the City's Peck Property, one of the inaugural project sites for the new City Forest Credits program. City of Puyallup has been a key partner in establishing this program.

With grant support from Boeing in Washington, in 2020 Pierce Conservation District became the first conservation district in the country to offer a carbon credit program that restores urban forested areas and vital riparian habitat. The support from Boeing allowed to us to launch a pilot program which helped restore 9-acres, which not only results in carbon sequestration, but improvements in salmon habitat, air quality, and energy savings.   

These restored acres will result in the creation of 4,587 carbon credits carbon credits, which are verified by City Forest Credits , then sold  by our carbon broker partner, South Pole, to businesses that want to invest in carbon offset projects and take immediate action on greenhouse emissions. Each carbon credit represents one ton of CO2 taken out of the atmosphere. Reducing your carbon footprint is the first recommended step for people who care about our climate. However, implementing actions to reduce emissions and offsetting your own footprint is challenging. Investing in high-impact emission reduction projects such as ours through this carbon credit program helps makes offsetting your own carbon footprint easier.

City Forest Credits, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit carbon registry that manages carbon protocols and impact standards for metropolitan areas throughout the United States, provides third party verification of our planting projects and empowers businesses to take local action to plant and protect trees through carbon offsets and impact certification. Planting and protecting trees is one step forward in addressing climate change and historical inequities of tree distribution. Private-sector funds can provide much needed resources for our urban forests and accelerate change.

The grant from Boeing also allowed us to conduct an analysis of publicly owned properties for potential future work, with 5,000 - 10,000 acres identified for restoration that can result in the creation of potentially millions of additional carbon credits. The co-benefits from these planting sites create a total savings of $133,051.56 per year, and more than $3.3 million over 25-years. Annually, these ecosystem services have been quantified to be valued at:

•    Rain interception: 15,616.68 m3/year, $114,647.41 per year

•    Air quality: -0.5109 tons/year, $1,175.25 per year

•    Energy – cooling (electricity): 163,853.41 kWh/year, $8,389.29 per year

•    Energy – heating: 512,906.98 kBtu/year, $5,838.77 per year

For their generous support for this initiative and of innovative conservation work throughout Puget Sound, we were proud to honor Boeing in Washington and Shyla Miller with our 2020 Brian Abbott Above and Beyond Award.