United States Forest Service.

Pacific Southwest Region
1323 Club Drive
Vallejo, CA 94592
707.562.8737
TTY: 707.562.9240
FAX: 707.562.9130

Region 5 & PSW Engagement with California Climate Actions

Photograph of an urban setting, showing vehicles on a tree-lined street.

Researching the role of urban trees in fighting global climate change

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Forest Sector Protocols: In September 2009, the California Air Resources Board adopted the updated Forest Project Protocol, Version 3.0, which represents a rigorous greenhouse gas carbon accounting methodology for voluntary forest projects.

Urban Forest Project Reporting Protocol: State-of-the-art science from the Center for Urban Forest Research was used in the Urban Forest Project Reporting Protocol to provide cities, utilities, and other organizations with an opportunity to predict, measure, and verify the role of urban trees in fighting global climate change.

The AB 32 Scoping Plan contains the main strategies California will use to reduce the greenhouse gases (GHG) that cause climate change.

The Greenhouse Gas inventory serves as a baseline for projecting 2020 business-as-usual emissions.

California has established itself as a national leader in meeting the challenges of climate change and in determining the potential roles of forests in reducing greenhouse gases. California's Global Warming Solutions Act, known as Assembly Bill 32 (AB 32), requires statewide greenhouse gas reductions to 1990 levels by 2020. A further Executive Order challenges the state to reduce greenhouse gases to 80 percent reduction below 1990 levels by 2050. The California Air Resources Board (ARB) is the lead regulatory and policy body charged with developing rules, protocols and policies to meet those targets.

Several state agencies, the Forest Service, and a multitude of non–government organization and forestry leaders have been heavily involved in providing information, conducting analyses, defining policy parameters and working intensively to negotiate the framework for targeted reductions relating to forest management activities. Region 5 and the Pacific Southwest Research Station (PSW) are working with the state and various stakeholders in this process.

Interagency Forestry Working Group

Deputy Regional Forester, Jim Peña serves on the Interagency Forestry Working Group (IFWG) on Climate Change. The purpose of the committee is to review and provide guidance for all California forest and climate change related activities. The Board of Forestry and the California Natural Resources Agency will co-chair the IFWG with participation from seven other departments and agencies including: California Environmental Protection Agency, Air Resources Board, California Department of Fish and Game, California Energy Commission, Department of Water Resources, California Department of Forest and Fire Protection and the U.S. Forest Service. http://climatechange.ca.gov/forestry/index.html

Carbon Inventory Assessment

Region 5 and PSW assembled a Climate Change Interdisciplinary Team (CC ID Team) to conduct a carbon inventory assessment of national forests in California. The CC ID Team utilized best available data to complete this assessment. The intent of the CC ID Team was to do the proper analysis and assessment so that management can understand capabilities, costs, and programmatic implications and determine next steps. The CC ID Team will not be formulating policy nor will they be making decisions.

Forest Sector Protocols

Forest Service staff served on the Forest Protocol Workgroup that was convened by ARB and the California Climate Action Registry to update the existing forest protocols in order to promote greater participation and make improvements to the protocols' clarity, accuracy, conservatism, environmental integrity, and cost–effectiveness. The ARB adopted the original Forest Sector Protocols in 2007. The Forest Protocols are designed to address forests' unique capacity to both store and emit carbon dioxide and to facilitate the positive role that forests can play to help reduce greenhouse gases. The protocols provide the accounting rules by which project proponents must measure the carbon which can be captured and stored by forests in order to offset carbon emissions.

On September 24, 2009, the California Air Resources Board adopted the updated Forest Project Protocol, Version 3.0, which represents a rigorous greenhouse gas carbon accounting methodology for voluntary forest projects. The update includes numerous improvements, including expanding applicability for other landowner types, especially public lands and private commercial forests, more accurate and conservative methods for calculating baselines and additionality, and improved methods to address leakage and permanence risks. The protocol also requires a demonstration of sustainable harvesting practices, and promotes natural forest management.

Urban Forest Project Reporting Protocol

The PSW, Center for Urban Forest Research assisted in the development of the Urban Forest Project Protocol that has been adopted by California Air Resources Board and the California Climate Action Registry. The protocol provides a credible methodology for accounting and reporting the effects of urban forests on greenhouse gases.

The Center has also developed a Tree Carbon Calculator, the only tool approved by the California Climate Action Registry's Urban Forest Project Reporting Protocol for quantifying carbon dioxide sequestration from GHG tree planting projects.

California Greenhouse Gas Inventory

ARB is required by AB 32 to determine the statewide greenhouse gas emissions level in 1990 across all sectors. The Forest Service is working with ARB, various state agencies, advisory committees, and other entities to establish an accurate and credible statewide greenhouse gas emissions inventory baseline for the forest sector in California.

California Landscapes Adaptation Workgroup

Forest Service staff is participating in the California Landscapes Adaptation Workgroup, an interagency team of experts that is helping advise the state in the development of a landscape–level climate change adaptation strategy. The 2009 California Climate Adaptation Strategy Discussion Draft is now available: http://climatechange.ca.gov/adaptation/index.html