Once threatened by development, 37 acres of urban forest on Cincinnati’s north side are now protected public green space through Cardinal Land Conservancy’s carbon credit program.
The organization recently acquired the properties in Winton Hills and Springfield Township, which it calls the Winton Nature Preserve and Westmark Woods.
“It is a green space in an area that does not have many green spaces open to the public,” said Jack Stenger, director of conservation.
The preserves are filled with century-old maple, oak, hickory, sycamore and beech trees that improve air quality and actively sequester climate-warming carbon dioxide.
“We’re looking at ways that we can combine all of those aspects to protect more land, and that is what brought us to carbon credits, because it is just another way to fund green space protection and management,” Stenger said.
So, the conservancy got deed restrictions to ensure the property remains forested, and enrolled the land in a carbon credit registry with City Forest Credits. The nonprofit calculates the amount of carbon stored in trees, then issues credits that companies can buy to “offset” their carbon emissions.
The Winton and Westmark Woods Forest Preservation Project was issued 3,612 credits for the 3,612 metric tons of carbon its trees sequester. The credits are currently for sale.
Voluntary carbon credit projects like this have been popping up around the U.S. and the world. The market is predicted to grow as climate change progresses and more companies take steps to meet their net-zero emissions pledges, according to a report from the MSCI finance company.
Stenger says the programs benefit all parties.
“We are getting money to do these green space protection projects. They are getting the added benefit of meeting their carbon goals. It’s a win-win situation for everybody,” Stenger said.
The conservancy will use the profits to manage the local forests’ health, remove invasive species like honeysuckle and maintain trails.
The properties will be open to the public by 2026.
Carbon credit controversy
In recent years, people have questioned the effectiveness of forest carbon offsets in mitigating the impacts of climate change. Studies have revealed “phantom credits” that don’t actually represent carbon reductions or provide benefits to the environment, according to a 2023 Guardian article.
Brent Sohngen is a professor of environmental and natural resource economics at Ohio State University. He says for carbon crediting projects to be beneficial, they have to demonstrate additionality and permanence.
Stenger says the Winton and Westmark Woods Forest Preservation Project hit those criteria.
The properties would have been deforested and developed, releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, if the conservancy didn’t acquire them. And, they will remain carbon-sequestering forests because Cardinal got deed restrictions to support long-term protection.
The project’s impact can also be verified by local carbon credit buyers.
“[They] can come walk through our preserve that’s going to be open to the public, see what their carbon credit purchase is doing, verify that forest is there, it’s storing carbon and is providing all the other environment benefits that we say it will,” Stenger said.
