Helping the Planet Heal: PA Landowner on Local NPR
Louise Hartman and her 2 sisters inherited a 254-acre property of forested land in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania. Having once been a successful chestnut farm in 1900s, the forest was ripe with profitable trees. After high-grading 154 acres of timber, the trio decided to reach out to forestry programs to more sustainably manage their land and help them financially.
“You know, like they say, take your change at the end of the day and throw it in a jar, and at the end of a year, you’d be surprised at how much you have?” Hartman asked. “Well, that’s what it’s like to me to do this.
Sarah Hall, National Director of Forestry for the Family Forest Carbon Program, and landowner Louise Hartman, who enrolled her Northumberland County forest in the program in the fall of 2020. Credit: Kara Holsopple / The Allegheny Front.
Hartman was recently featured on The Allegheny Front, an environmental news program on Pennsylvania’s local NPR station, WESA. The story, titled Forest Owners Look to the Carbon Markets to Help Manage Their Trees, highlights her carbon sequestration efforts after enrolling in the Family Forest Carbon Program. Hartman describes her experience since joining the Family Forest Carbon Program 3 years ago as structured and informative, further explaining, “They develop a plan for your property, so I know each year what’s got to be done, what’s got to get checked up on. I know exactly how many trees I have. I know what type of trees I have.”
I'm contributing to helping the planet heal, to helping our species to be able to survive.
Sarah Hall, AFF’s national director of forestry, explains the purpose of the program is “all about creating additional carbon” thus, taking direct action against climate change. “The timber on the land is harvestable, meaning that if it does not have enough merchantable timber, it’s not eligible because then the carbon that we’re producing and thus the carbon credit we’re producing would have existed had our program not existed.” Sarah further explains additionality and the FFCP program are not end all, be all solutions, but instead “pieces of the puzzle that are helping to mitigate climate change.”
Read or listen to the full article at The Allegheny Front: Forest Owners Look to the Carbon Market to Help Manage Their Trees
Learn more about enrolling your property by visiting the Family Forest Carbon Program.
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