How a new Georgia project is helping rebuild forests after Hurricane Helene

Caption

A downed tree at Smith-Gaudry Park in Savannah after Hurricane Helene on Friday, Sept. 27, 2024.

Credit: Benjamin Payne / GPB News

Georgia is getting creative to help people hurt by Hurricane Helene in an effort to rebuild forested areas.

A new Georgia-specific forest carbon exchange initiative was announced at the beginning of this month that will engage local landowners in forest-management practices that will produce carbon credits and connect them with businesses seeking carbon offsets, according to a news release from the Drawdown Georgia Business Compact.

The Georgia-Grown Forest Carbon Initiative aims to create locally sourced carbon credits through reforestation, improved stewardship and afforestation practices, and then connect them primarily with businesses in-state seeking high-quality offsets, starting with members of the Drawdown Georgia Business Compact.

The program was announced at the beginning of October and will launch with landowners affected by Hurricane Helene, which damaged about 1.4 million acres of Georgia’s forests — roughly 30% of the damage classified as catastrophic. The pilot program will focus on helping small-acreage landowners recover by reforesting their damaged property.

Just since the announcement, the initiative has at least around 5,000 acres of interested landowners, including some in Middle Georgia, according to Lucas Clay, a carbon market expert who works on the project.

“The project will pilot its first efforts with landowners affected by Hurricane Helene, which damaged more than a million acres of Georgia’s forests,” a newsletter from Drawdown Georgia reads. “By helping small-acreage landowners reforest damaged tracts, the initiative aims to generate new revenue through high-integrity, locally verified carbon credits while preserving forest ecosystems and rural livelihoods.”

Recent mill closures in Riceboro and Savannah have added additional struggles for many forest landowners who are searching to replace lost income, according to the release.

“Without support, some landowners impacted by Hurricane Helene and mill closures might decide not to replant trees, or they may convert their forest land to farming or sell it for development, permanently removing it from Georgia’s forest ecosystem,” the newsletter reads.

The initiative aims to “stack benefits” by allowing landowners to tap into emerging markets for biodiversity and water quality in addition to the carbon sequestration market.

The value of the credits will vary depending on the type and quality of the project, according to the release. Ecosystem restoration, especially of native forests like longleaf pine, typically demands the highest pricing, for example.

The initiative was spearheaded by Georgia Tech’s Ray C. Anderson Center for Sustainable Business and in collaboration with Drawdown Georgia Business Compact, the Georgia Forestry Foundation and the University of Georgia’s Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources. It was funded by a U.S. Forest Service grant with a goal to organize a state-specific exchange that encourages investment locally while providing vetted, high-quality carbon credits.

“Part of the motivation for our project is that the credits will be vetted, there’s a social component, and there’s a biodiversity component,” said Allison Bridges, an extension professional for the Compact and the grant’s principal investigator. “Our project will help meet the high demand for high-integrity carbon credits.”

This fall, organizers are reaching out to landowners through existing forestry networks and hosting educational outreach opportunities, as well as adding a “Carbon 101” course to the Georgia Forestry Foundation’s “Forestry 101” program.

They’re also hosting site visits for corporate partners, highlighting the needs of hurricane-affected landowners and the long-term potential of improved forest management to boost carbon storage.

This isn’t the only program in the state working with carbon-sink projects.

The Georgia Carbon Sequestration Registry documents carbon stored through mass-timber projects and other carbon sinks in Georgia that can then be verified by a third party and sold as carbon credits, while the Georgia-Grown Forest Carbon Initiative facilitates the creation of projects that generate credits, verifies the credits and links them to buyers.

This story comes to GPB through a reporting partnership with Macon Telegraph.