MANISTIQUE, Mich. (WLUC) – A private land company is preserving forest land in an effort to remove carbon from the atmosphere and keep it stored in trees in a process called carbon capture.
Aurora Sustainable Lands owns more than 1.65 million acres of forestland in 14 states. Almost 70,000 acres are in the U.P. near Manistique. The majority of the property borders Seney National Wildlife Refuge to the east and south but spans from the shores of Lake Michigan near Manistique up to the shores of Lake Superior near Deer Park.
“Our primary goal as a company is to manage forest for the climate,” Vice President of Carbon Operations Cakey Worthington said. “That means carbon storage on the landscape. That means managing for biodiversity and wildlife recreation and other benefits.”
During photosynthesis, trees take CO2, store the carbon and release the oxygen. Worthington said the more trees, the less carbon released in the atmosphere, thereby combatting climate change.
“We have been out here trying to design a long-term management plan,” Worthington said. “So that these forests can be providing climate benefit to Michigan and the local communities in the long term.”
On each Aurora property, local foresters establish permanent sections of trees. They measure the trees in each section and estimate stored credit. Besides carbon storage, the company focuses on forest management to diversity wildlife habitat.
“These lands are open to the public for recreational purposes,” Director of Northern Forests and Conservation Shawn Hagan said. “One of the big benefits to that is certainly the hunting heritage that we have here in the U.P. and these lands are open for that opportunity.”
Worthington said auditors are now verifying Aurora’s calculations of carbon storage on the Manistique property. Once approved, the company can sell carbon credits to help businesses offset their own carbon emissions.
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