Carbon and Easements: an Update on the Development of NSWWT

It’s hard to believe that our vision to develop a working forest land trust to serve responsible small private woodlot owners has now been in the works for over 3 years. During this time we debated launching our public outreach campaign, but decided to wait until the organization was formally established.

Recently, the NSWWT was part of a successful proposal to the NS Forestry Innovation Transition Trust in partnership with the Family Forest Network and other private woodlot owner groups, awarding nearly $10M to advance ecological forestry on private lands. With this proposal, NSWWT now has the financial backing to take the next step in launching the organization - recruiting woodlot owners. Our proposal is multi-faceted and ambitious, with hopes to place easements on 10,000 acres worth of private woodlands by 2025.

This is when we ask you, the small private woodlot owner, if you’d consider placing a legally-binding easement on your property that will protect your stewardship legacy in perpetuity? All the while providing the assurance that your woodlands will remain as forests forever, incorporating annual monitoring and stewardship no matter who owns it? What if we told you we can help make this happen at no cost? NSWWT can now make this happen, with a little help from carbon.

Although carbon has become a bit of a pie-in-the-sky idea in NS, we are working with a carbon developer who is ready to purchase our forest carbon credits now. All we need is to develop a pool of landowners that collectively own 10,000 acres - a small fraction of private woodlots in southwestern NS.

We think that woodlot owners are worried about the future of their forests, that they hope their kids will take an interest in management but instead have moved to the city. Or perhaps they are comfortable with their successional planning but want to make sure if their property changes hands, their legacy won’t be affected.

We are currently looking for properties over 50 acres that have a special stewardship value, with a high component of mature forest. If you think your woodlot might qualify, we invite to reach out to us, and we can share more insights on the process of entering into an easement.

We look forward to making the NSWWT real, and creating a new path forward in working land conservation.