Announcing a new agreement to advance large-scale U.S. solar development while championing land conservation and supporting local community interests; signed by major solar developers, conservation groups, agricultural organizations, environmental justice groups, and Tribal entities.

The business practices of Lyme Great Lakes Timberlands, which owns more than half a million acres of forested land in the Upper Peninsula, are the result of a series of events surrounding the history of logging in the region.

Jim Hourdequin presented “You Get What You Pay For II: A Timberland Investor’s Evolving Perspective on Forest Carbon Offsets” during the Yale Forest Forum on October 27, 2022. A video of his talk can be found here. and a PDF version is here.    

On October 16, 2022, affiliates of Lyme Timber sold a 140-acre property located along the Clarion River in Jefferson County, Pennsylvania to the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy (WPC). The addition of this property to the 13,000 acres WPC has protected along the Clarion River since the 1970s will help protect the riparian area and water quality of the Clarion River stream, conserve forest resources, and provide for public recreation.

The equipment, a 2022 EMS Tractionline Winch Assist System, is the latest technology to further modernize the region’s forestry industry. The system includes specialized winches that maintain constant tension on cables attached to a machine that fells timber on steep slopes. The system reduces ground pressure, erosion and the need for dangerous hand felling on these same slopes.

The Inflation Reduction Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act have provided billions for wildfire risk reduction, including ambitious targets for thinning overstocked federal lands. To do this work, we will need to mobilize the logging industry, deploy mechanical thinning systems at an unprecedented scale, and utilize public-private partnerships to develop the logging workforce of the future.

“This segment was critical to them. They’ve been able to use it because the owner, Lyme Timber the prior owner, was nice enough to let them use it, but now it’s permanent. It’s a permanent connection. They can hike through and be comfortable it will be there for their kids and their kids, kids,” said Schmidt.

In partnership with Lyme Great Lakes Timberlands, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources has purchased nearly 103 miles of primarily snowmobile trail easements in Baraga and Marquette counties.

Pennsylvania’s Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) is developing 20-30 miles of new biking trails in Cameron County, Pennsylvania, of which at least 10 miles are planned on Sterling Run, the conservation and public access easement donated to the state by The Lyme Timber Company as part of a 2018
financing package with PENNVEST.

We are pleased that Bloomberg is reporting on the challenges and opportunities facing the market for forest carbon offsets.