Offsets for Rally attendees
Participants who wish to voluntarily offset their travel or overall carbon footprint may add on carbon offsets to their Rally registration. Those credits will be purchased from Vermont Land Trust’s Cold Hollow Carbon Project and Allegheny Land Trust’s Buena Vista Heights Forest Carbon Preservation Project. Optional carbon offset for travel emissions are as follows: $5, less than 600 miles; $10, 600-1800 miles; $15, 1800 – 2,800 miles; $25, 2800 – 4000 miles and $35, 4,000+ miles.
The Cold Hollow Mountains sit at the heart of the largest intact broadleaf forest in the world—The Northern Forest—which spans from New York to Nova Scotia. Within that forest land, up to 90% of breeding for bird species takes place, including the Black-throated Blue Warbler, Canada Warbler, Wood Thrush, Bicknell’s Thrush, and others. The Mountains are also at a crucial nexus for far-ranging wildlife populations traveling across the Northern Forest, wildlife such as black bear, moose, bobcat and fisher.
Cold Hollow Carbon is the first of its aggregated forest carbon project in the country—bringing together 10 private landowners across 12 parcels and 8,600 acres of forests in the Cold Hollow Mountains of Northern Vermont to aggregate and sell carbon credits generated from their forests on the voluntary carbon offsets market under the American Carbon Registry Standard. Landowners in the program must follow certain forest management practices to maintain and improve carbon stocking on their lands enrolled in the program for a 40 year term. The project is administered by Vermont Forest Carbon, a limited liability corporation of the Vermont Land Trust (accredited), and Spatial Informatics Group, and was developed by Vermont Land Trust in partnership with University of Vermont, Spatial Informatics Group, Cold Hollow to Canada Regional Conservation Partnership, and The Nature Conservancy.
Allegheny Land Trust (accredited) worked with the local community in southeastern Allegheny County to permanently protect 155 acres of woodlands from rapidly encroaching residential development. The hilltop plateau and surrounding slopes of this undeveloped tract of land lie entirely within the lower Youghiogheny River Watershed just five miles upstream from the popular recreational river’s confluence with the Monongahela River, and only ten linear miles upstream from the City of Pittsburgh. A large portion of the Pittsburgh Region’s residents draw their drinking water from the Monongahela River just downstream from this confluence.
The 40-year-old maple, cherry and oak-hickory forest provides habitat for deer, turkey, and many species of birds. The Southwestern Pennsylvania region is currently challenged with poor air quality, increased flash flooding, and new temperature extremes exacerbated by the changing climate.
The co-benefits from this project provide a total savings (avoided costs) of $288,364 per year, and $11,631,889 over 40 years. In addition to these considerable sustainability and resiliency benefits, Buena Vista Heights will be open to the public 365 days a year for passive recreational uses including hiking, birding, mountain biking and selective hunting. The sale of these carbon credits will enable Allegheny Land Trust recover acquisition costs, sustainably steward this land, and purse potential future conservation land projects. This project is registered through City Forest Credits Urban Forest Carbon Program.
Land Trust Alliance Offsets
Sponsored by The Climate Trust, emissions from Land Trust Alliance staff travel, staff hotel rooms, heating/cooling/electrical at the Marriott Hotel, field trip buses and freight to/from New Orleans will be offset through the 18 Reserves Forest Carbon Offset Project.
The 18 Reserves Forest Carbon Project is located in Cleveland Metropark’s Bradley Woods, North Chagrin, Mill Stream Run, Brecksville, and Hinckley Forest reservations. The 8,961-acre project is managed for carbon sequestration, provision of wildlife habitat, protection of local water quality, and recreation. The forest consists primarily of mixed hardwoods including various oak species, American beech, yellow poplar, maples, American sycamore, and hickory, as well as scattered stands of pine and hemlock. This project is registered on the American Carbon Registry (ACR) using its methodology for Improved Forest Management (IFM) for Non-Federal U.S. Forestlands.