Terrestrial Sequestration Baselines, Supply Curves, and Pilot-Scale Validation Projects

WESTCARB has developed baselines that show how much carbon is currently stored by different ecosystems throughout four of the six WESTCARB states. To develop these baselines, WESTCARB applied a proven analytic framework that has been used to determine how much carbon is stored in more than 2.5 million acres around the world. Researchers then incorporated baseline data into the WESTCARB Carbon Atlas.

WESTCARB has also estimated how much additional carbon could be stored in forests, rangelands, and croplands at various costs per ton of CO₂ removed. For each state, these supply curves consider: (1) the amount of carbon that can be sequestered by a particular change in land use or management, and (2) the number of CO₂ emission offset credits likely to be offered at different price points. In creating the supply curves, WESTCARB used the best available data sets in each state.

WESTCARB then used the supply curves as input to selecting terrestrial sequestration pilot projects. In addition to cost, evaluation criteria included fire management, landowner interest, watershed quality, water availability, habitat/biodiversity conservation, proximity of biomass power plants (or planned plants), and timber supply. Based on this evaluation, WESTCARB identified two locations for multi-faceted validation projects — Shasta County, California, and Lake County, Oregon.