The Forest Service recently approved a $250,000 grant for Kodama Systems, Inc., in collaboration with Blue Forest and The Trust for Public Land, to fund the creation of “wood vaults” in California.
The pilot project will construct “engineered earthen wood vaults … in arid environments.” Slash from forest-thinning projects will be buried in the wood vaults, “sequestering the carbon” contained in the slash “for centuries.”
Besides sequestering carbon, wood vaults will eliminate the “need” to burn the slash from forest-thinning projects. This combination provides the opportunity for “a new financial approach that leverages the carbon value of wood residue rather than burning it at a cost and emitting carbon.”
The resulting carbon-removal credits “generated from the avoided emissions” will be sold “to cover project costs, service debt and provide financial returns.”
Photo: Cutting trees for fire mitigation emits more carbon dioxide than wildfire, but transporting and burying the resulting slash in wood vaults may somehow generate financial returns through the sale of carbon credits (photo by Cecilio Ricardo, U.S. Forest Service).
