Project Experience Highlights

The following is a sampling of forest carbon projects on which Finite Carbon forestry experts—Scott Nissenbaum, Sterling Griffin, Sean Carney, Tim McAbee and Matt Smith– worked before and after helping found Finite Carbon:

Brimstone Forest Project

The Finite Carbon team of forest carbon experts, in partnership with The Lyme Brimstone Forest Company, is working to develop only the second listed Improved Forest Management (IFM) project outside of California under the Climate Action Reserve. The project involves more than 4,300 acres located in eastern Tennessee in the Cumberland Mountains near Oak Ridge. It is expected to generate several hundred thousand carbon offsets over the next 100 years.

Groton Plantation

In 2010, Finite Carbon began development for the privately owned Groton Land Company, in Luray, South Carolina involving 4,700 acres of mature forest that is part of the 23,000-acre Groton Plantation. Once registered and approved, it will be expected to generate more than 500,000 carbon offsets during the project life.

Hersey Mountain Wilderness

New England Forestry Foundation, a recognized leader in conserving working forests, collaborated with Finite Carbon to develop a forest carbon project on 2,100 acres of the Hersey Mountain Forest in New Hampton and Sanbornton, New Hampshire. Once it is listed, it will be expected to generate more than 30,000 carbon offsets in a 10-year period.

Van Eck Forest Project

Sterling was the California Climate Action Registry (CCAR) verifier responsible for assessing project eligibility, inventory procedures, baseline and project characterization, methods of calculating carbon stock change and emission reductions for the 2006 Van Eck conservation-based forest management project on the northern California coast in Humboldt County. By protecting 2,100 acres of redwood forest, the project will prevent 500,000 tons of CO₂ emissions in a 100-year period.

COFUSA Managed Forest Project

Sterling was the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX) verifier responsible for assessing project eligibility, inventory procedures, baseline and project characterization, methods of calculating carbon stock change, and emission reductions for the COFUSA managed forest project. COFUSA is a forestry company in Uruguay that manufactures and markets high-quality Eucalyptus grandis timber (2008).

Imagetree and the Conservation Fund Project

Matt combined LiDAR imagery data with growth modeling and carbon accounting in order to create the first CCX approved remote sensing inventory method for forests in the U.S.

VW Forest Project

For the Carbon Neutral Project by Volkswagen and Carbonfund.org, Sean conducted due diligence and structured project financing for the reforestation of 1,100 acres of bottomland hardwood forest in northeast Louisiana's Lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley. The VW Forest is part of a larger reforestation project that was the first in North America to be validated to the Climate, Community, and Biodiversity Standard (gold level) and the Voluntary Carbon Standard (2009).

Garcia River Forest Climate Action Project

Sterling was the CCAR verifier responsible for assessing project eligibility, inventory procedures, baseline and project characterization, methods of calculating carbon stock change and emission reductions for the Garcia River conservation-based forest climate action project (2008). CCAR certified the 23,780-acre Garcia River Forest as a source of carbon credits. The Nature Conservancy estimates that some 4.2 million metric tons of CO₂ will be absorbed and stored in a 100-year period, by ensuring high forest growth rates and the development of larger and denser stands of redwood and Douglas fir.

Paso Pacifico / Carbonfund.org “The Nicaragua Return to Forest” Project

As an employee of Carbonfund.org, Sean managed the design, finance and implementation of the Return to Forest Project in conjunction with Paso Pacifico, a nonprofit organization dedicated to restoring endangered tropical forests. In addition, Matt worked as a consultant on the project to analyze inventory data and provide growth projections and contributed to the Project Design Document. The Return to Forest Project, which resulted in the reforestation of more than 1,000 acres of tropical dry forest and will sequester more than 150,000 tons of CO₂, was the third reforestation project in the world to be validated to the Climate, Community, and Biodiversity Standard (gold level, 2008).

Commonwealth Forest Investments Project

The Commonwealth Forest Investments Project consisted of over 20,000 acres of managed forest in northwest PA and southwest NY. This project was the first of its kind in PA and the largest forest carbon offset on the CCX at the date of registration. Matt worked with the landowner to inventory, model, report, verify, and register the tons from the project.

Big River/ Salmon Creek Forest Project

Sterling was the CCAR verifier responsible for assessing project eligibility, inventory procedures, baseline and project characterization, methods of calculating carbon stock change and emission reductions for California’s Big River/Salmon Creek Forest project. Through a partnership between The Conservation Fund, the California Water Resources Control Board, Coastal Conservancy and Wildlife Conservation Board, and with support from ACE Group and Dallas-based Centex, some 16,000 acres of redwood and Douglas fir forests were permanently protected from fragmentation, development and conversion to non-forest uses.

GMO Portfolio Carbon Analysis Project

Matt was involved with the analysis and quantification of forest carbon stocks on all domestically held timberlands. Forest inventories, management plans and growth projections were considered in terms of carbon flux and net salable carbon from forest management on over 2 million acres in the U.S.