Extended Rotations: A New Model Helps Understand Carbon & Harvest Volume Benefits — (CFFC 2022 8/10)
Channel: Washington Conservation Action
Date: 05/01/2023

Extended Rotations: How a New Model Helps Understand Potential Carbon and Harvest Volume Benefits — Session 6: Carbon Friendly Forestry Conference 2022

Speakers:
— Amrita Vatsal, Managing Director, Business Development, EFM Investments & Advisory
— Sean Jeronimo, is the Principal Ecologist at Resilient Forestry
— Paula Swedeen, is the Policy Director at Conservation Northwest
— Rachel Baker, is the Forest Program Director at Washington Environmental Council

Session Description:
Exploration of strategies for greater forest carbon storage and sequestration has prompted discussion of extended rotations: growing stands actively managed for timber longer before harvest. Recent analysis has explored the potential and challenges of shifting to extended rotations, including a series in Sightline. For forests west of the Cascades, extending rotations provides significant carbon and biodiversity gains. However, some stakeholders raise questions about the impact of extended rotations on timber volume and local employment, and are concerned about the possibility of displacing timber harvest elsewhere (known as ‘leakage’).  
 
To explore how a transition to longer rotations would impact carbon, harvest volume, and net present value, Conservation Northwest and Washington Environmental Council worked with Resilient Forestry to develop an optimization model. The results demonstrate it is possible to achieve good outcomes for both carbon and local economies— sequestering significant additional carbon while increasing timber volume harvested and keeping local mills in business. These outcomes are enabled by an increased emphasis on thinning across on the landscape. In this session, panelists will describe the model, share results, and discuss potential policy implications.