Governor Tim Walz has called for 100% carbon-free electricity by 2040. At the same time, the House Climate Caucus recommends expanding that goal for zero net carbon emissions to transportation and agriculture by 2050. As Chair of the Minnesota Forest Resources Council, and as someone who shares in the concerns about climate change, I applaud the Governor’s position and the goal of the House Climate Caucus. Tricky though are the details in how carbon is accounted for in its continuous cycle between its atmospheric form as CO2--a known climate change driver--and the carbon stored in trees, soil, and even the 2x4’s of your home.

A case in point—carbon released from coal, petroleum or natural gas when it is used to produce electricity or diesel fuel, has been stored in the earth for millions or hundreds of millions of years. Burning wood also releases CO2. However, it is from carbon that trees have removed from the atmosphere over the past 50 years or so. An argument can be made that in this wood as energy example, carbon is being recycled, that as new trees grow in the place of those harvested, the cycle begins again. This is why some nations are using renewable, sustainably managed wood to replace fossil fuels in the generation of electricity, and as a renewable energy source for biodiesel. This wood for energy approach also can be a transitional strategy as we move from fossil fuels to other renewable sources of energy such as wind and solar.

Governor Walz’s FY22-FY23 budget also recommends investing $1 million in transitioning to a new, modernized approach for conducting forest inventories, and $2.6 million in expanding the capacity of the state tree nursery and in incentives to encourage more tree planting. These are solid beginning strategies to better measure and sequester carbon in forest ecosystems. They deserve wide support.

As Chair of the Minnesota Forest Resources Council, I along with our 16 Council members representing economic, environmental, and social forest stakeholder groups, strongly support the forest inventory and tree planting initiatives proposed in Governor Walz’s budget recommendations. Once again, however, there are important details with regard to how these investments will accurately track and better trap carbon through our forests, our forest products, and our forest based economies. The question is not “are forests crucial for combating climate change now and into the future”? The answer to that is a resounding “YES!” Climate change is too important of a threat to our society, to our environment, and to our Minnesota forests to not get it right.

This is why I am asking the Minnesota Forest Resources Council to invest in crafting a sustainable forest carbon-based strategy, developed with support from our best Minnesota scientists, carbon experts and forest ecologists, to serve as a carbon centric answer to the Council’s 2020 “Climate Change and Minnesota’s Forests” report. We want to share this forest carbon strategy with Governor Walz’s Advisory Council on Climate Change so it can become part of a comprehensive, statewide climate change strategy.

Pete Aube, MFRC Chair