Officials Planning Studies of Carbon Sequestration

Article from The Jamestown Sun, Tuesday, April 1, 2003

By DAVID MAACK, Sun Staff Writer

It could be a way to reduce carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and a relatively easy method for farmers and ranchers to get extra money simply by changing farming practices.

But carbon sequestration still involves many unanswered questions, U.S. Geological Survey Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center experts said Saturday in a meeting here with Congressman Earl Pomeroy, D-N.D., and North Dakota Agriculture Commissioner Roger Johnson.

The idea is to remove one greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide, a byproduct of some manufacturing processes, from the atmosphere and put it in the soil, paying farmers for the privilege. Wetlands provide the best method of removing carbon because of the lush vegetation.

People, animals and many manufacturing processes release carbon dioxide. Plants pull carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and into their root system. The carbon remains in the soil when the plant dies unless the soil is disturbed, as in farming. It then returns to the atmosphere as gas. Stored carbon can't be seen or weighed, but it can be measured through statistical sampling, said Chip Euliss, Geological Survey research biologist, Jamestown.

He said one unanswered question is how much carbon can be extracted from the atmosphere and stored in the ground?

Another is, how much is it worth to have farmers switch to no-till farming practices and re-establish wetlands?

"Much of this is being driven by the Kyoto agreement, which the United States has not signed on to yet," Johnson said. "Canada has, and the trade is well advanced there."

Boards have been setup similar to stock exchanges to trade in carbon sequestration, he said.

In essence, a company which can't reduce its carbon dioxide emissions to meet standards can trade its excess carbon dioxide to a company that is below standards, or it could pay a farmer to change his practices to store more carbon, Euliss said.

He said research indicates more carbon is stored during a wet season than during a dry season, wetlands store more than conservation reserve program acres, and both store more than farmed acres. No-till acres store more than plowed acres.

Still in the research stage, the Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center will monitor Tom Wiley's farm near Montpelier for the next several years. Wiley is involved in numerous conservation practices.

Research work is also planned in the Devils Lake Basin to determine what effect restoring wetlands will have and how much carbon can be stored there.

Robert Gleason, a Geological Survey research biologist in Jamestown, said the first objective is to determine the proper procedure to sample carbon in wetlands, and to determine how much carbon and trace-gases methane and nitrous oxide are in restored wetlands and associated grasslands buffer.

"There are some standardized methods of soil testing," Euliss said. "We will be looking for innovative methods."

He said the research must be done in collaboration with the market. The goal is to find a compromise that is economically beneficial to both the farmers and the companies, Euliss said.

Another objective is to evaluate various methods of measuring carbon sequestration for the most accurate and cost-effective method available, Gleason said. This will help establish a stable market.

As part of the wetland restoration and creation of grass buffers around the wetlands, the savings in fossil fuel will need to be analyzed as part of the reduction in carbon dioxide emissions, Gleason said.

Research will also identify floodwater mitigation, water quality benefits, biodiversity and other social values created by efforts to promote carbon sequestration in the Devils Lake Basin, Gleason added.

Marketing is obviously important, said Sharon Clancy, Devils Lake, project coordinator for agricultural conservation, North Dakota Natural Resources Trust.

The fifth purpose of the studies is to determine a fair price for carbon to the farmer, how to develop a carbon pool, disengaging from the pool, the process of entering and exiting a pool and setting up a carbon recordkeeping system.

Various landowner concerns will need to be addressed, she said, and legal issues must also be considered.

The market for verified carbon credits will also have to be established, Clancy said.

Another objective is to determine a method of distributing the results of the research, Gleason said.

"I'm very impressed with the breadth of work being done," Pomeroy said at the end of the meeting. "There's a lot of moving parts on this thing."

"If someone wanted me to sign on to this ... I'd have to say there's a little more smoke than reality at this time."

Johnson had a slightly different take on it.

"Most of what we're talking about here is yield," Johnson said. "The bushel you put in the truck is what you get paid for. The question is, what is this stuff worth? We're just in the infancy of this program. We have to figure out what it's going to cost us."

Another meeting is at 10 a.m. Monday at the North Dakota Farmers Union State Office, Jamestown.

Permission to reprint this article obtained from The Jamestown Sun, Jamestown, ND (http://www.jamestownsun.com).