carbon

Conservation groups hope to use a new map of tree elevation to prevent valuable stands of aging forest from becoming lumber.

The five-year pilot project will demonstrate how improved methods of growing and cutting trees works across 70,000 acres, with a goal of eventually expanding to millions of acres.

A small but growing number of Maine groups have set aside portions of their land and sold credits that require them to lock up a certain amount of carbon in the trees that cover it.

The goal of the program is to remove more carbon from the atmosphere by growing more and better quality wood, verifying the results and building markets for climate-friendly wood products.

At the Howland Research Forest, carbon and other greenhouse gas measurements are continuously recorded from the top of several meteorological towers that soar above a lush canopy of spruce, hemlock and white pine.