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This project is attempting to protect carbon offsets from the projected arrival of an invasive species.

In the future it is expected that the Whaelghinbran Forest will be invaded by Hemlock Wooly Adelgid, which leads to the mortality of hemlock trees. These trees sequester and store carbon, preventing it from entering our atmosphere and contributing to global climate change. If the Hemlock Wooly Adelgid were to kill a large population of hemlocks, much of this carbon would be lost from the forest. Community Forests International in association with the Climate Forest Company have come together to prevent this. In order to keep the forest healthy and the carbon offsets intact, the project managers plan to improve the resistance of the forest and transition to a more mixed composition of climate-resilient species of trees.

Project Area

Whaelghinbran Forest is a 705-acre property and forest carbon offsets project since 2012. It is closest to the community of South Branch, Kings County, New Brunswick, Canada. The property holds a total of 17,782.8 megagrams of carbon. There is a 20-acre hemlock stand on the property that is holding 4,518.5 megagrams of carbon, which is the second highest carbon sink on the property. The project managers would like to proactively mitigate the probable effects of Hemlock Wooly Adelgid without jeopardizing the carbon offsets of the property.

Management Goals

Key goals and objectives of this project include:

  • Properly mitigate the probable damage from Hemlock Wooly Adelgid on the 20-acre pure hemlock stand. 
  • Maintain saleable carbon across the entire property, to respect carbon offset commitments for the property.

Climate Change Impacts

For this project, the most important anticipated climate change impacts include:

  • Certain insects and pathogens are increasingly becoming more common in part due to climate change. This rise in insects and pathogens can be exacerbated by increased drought and other stressors. 
  • Climate change causing increased temperatures can lead to earlier insect and pathogen growth. 
  • Climate change increases the maximum amount of precipitation and can lead to more powerful and destructive storms on average over the year.

Challenges and Opportunities

Climate change will present challenges and opportunities for accomplishing the management objectives of this project, including:

Challenges

The low diversity of this system puts it at a greater risk to climate change because the less diversity a system has the less of an ability to recover and less resilience to disturbances, disturbances like the Hemlock Wooly Adelgid. 
Due to habitat fragmentation in the area, the hemlocks cannot distribute their seeds very far and the whole system becomes more vulnerable.

Opportunities

Red oak seedlings are present in a few other nearby stands. Red oak may naturally regenerate in this stand in response to lighter conditions and mineral soil exposure after harvest.
Growth rates of climate-resilient species are predicted to be high for the next 30-50 years, making it possible for the regeneration of other species.

Adaptation Actions

Project participants used the Adaptation Workbook to develop several adaptation actions for this project, including:

Area/Topic
Approach
Tactics
Forest
2.1. Maintain or improve the ability of forests to resist pests and pathogens.
Forest Strategy 5: Maintain and enhance species and structural diversity.
5.1. Promote diverse age classes.
Harvest about 30% of the overstory hemlock, uniformly distributed through the stand, to open the canopy and free up light and nutrients for the remaining trees.
Do a second harvest/ intervention to remove a further 30% of the stand in 10-15 years.
After harvest, proactively manage regeneration to encourage climate-adaptive species, possible by thinning out unwanted species. Seed or plant select climate-adapted species, like red oak, to augment natural regeneration.
If appropriate, transition to a mixed stand through regeneration management and/or planting climate-resilient species.

Monitoring

Project participants identified several monitoring items that could help inform future management, including:
Forest inventory completed every 7 years, including tree species composition and carbon stocks to evaluate within 14 years of first harvest, the stand is comprised of 30% climate-adapted tree species other than hemlock.
Seedling survival assessed after 3 years and forest inventory completed every 7 years, including tree species composition and carbon stocks to evaluate 70% survival of planted seedlings after 3 years.
Regeneration survey to be conducted every 7 years, capturing size categories, species, and vigor rating any regen under 2m (6 ft) to evaluate the goal of 50% regenerations are climate-adapted species that are not hemlock.
Forest inventory completed every 7 years, including tree species composition and carbon stocks to evaluate that the carbon removed in the first harvest is replaced through ongoing growth and sequestration across the entire property by 2025.

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