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Understanding carbon markets workshop
Chad Kruger will be a featured speaker at the “Understanding Carbon Markets” workshop at Malo, Wash., on April 24. The workshop will be sponsored by WSU Ferry County Extension, Ferry County Commissioners and the Malo Grange.
The complexities of emerging carbon markets for farmers, ranchers and forest owners will be the focus.
“The buzz about carbon sequestration, greenhouse gas emissions and carbon markets is growing louder, but often lacks clarity,” said Emily Burt, extension educator in Ferry County.
“This workshop will help give landowners and managers an opportunity to learn about the realities of emerging carbon markets and how carbon sequestration and greenhouse gas emissions relate to their property.”
Presenters will cover a variety of topics, including how to keep carbon on the farm, rangeland or forest to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases, as well as the economics of carbon market policies such as cap and trade carbon credits.
One session, “Selling Carbon Credits from Your Forest, A Real World Example,” will feature the experiences of a landowner in marketing and selling carbon credits.
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The right combination of agricultural practices and definitive government policies could go a long way toward increasing carbon sequestration on the farm, according to WSU researchers.
Chad Kruger, interim director for WSU’s Center for Sustaining Agriculture and Natural Resources, who coordinated the Climate Friendly Farming Project, says three basic changes in traditional agricultural practices could dramatically improve farmers’ ability to keep carbon.
“We need to reduce disturbance of the soil, produce more biomass and make sure that biomass and plant residue make it into the soil,” he said.
Low-till or no-till production minimizes carbon oxidation and erosion – especially important in the dryland farming areas of the Palouse and elsewhere in the state, Kruger said.
“We don’t know everything about the fate of carbon in erosion, but we definitely know we’re better off if the soil stays on the hillside,” he said.
That isn’t the only factor in carbon sequestration, though.
“The most important factor is getting more carbon into the soil,” Kruger said.
One way is to make sure plant residue from crops stays in the field, he said.
“Field burning, tillage that oxidizes carbon, baling of residue – all reduce the available carbon inputs.”
Another way to increase carbon in the soil is to increase the amount of biomass produced.
“Farmers are thinking differently about the types of crops we can grow,” Kruger said. “Our dryland options are limited by rainfall, but in an irrigated system we have a lot of options.”
One of those options is cover cropping, which entails growing a “sacrifice” crop that will be mowed or tilled in, which in turn provides longer-term carbon storage.
Kruger offers one caveat to that option – increasing carbon input might also increase nitrogen, and nitrous oxide, in the system. Nitrogen management is an environmental issue challenging many growers.
Another option is to bring organically based amendments to the soil.
“We need to look beyond traditional amendments such as manure,” Kruger said. “We need to look at compost, paper, municipal solid waste and biochar to increase carbon sequestration. The possibilities are really wide open, and not a lot of research has been done yet.”