The University of Alaska unveiled a proposal last month to designate most of its Chilkat Valley land as part of a new statewide carbon credit program.
That means about 7,600 acres of forest owned by the university could be left unlogged and sold as credits to companies trying to offset their carbon footprints. Trees suck carbon out of the atmosphere and store it; carbon credits, which were first created about two decades ago as a way to mitigate climate change, generate revenue for landowners who leave trees in the ground.
The land in the university’s proposal includes 4,000 acres at the base of the Chilkat Mountains, between the Takhini and Kicking Horse rivers, and 2,200 acres in the Porcupine area, south of the bridge at 26 Mile Haines Highway, according to a map released by the university in late December.
Also included in the proposal is all of the university’s land in Mud Bay – totaling more than 500 acres – as well as 180 acres at the bottom of Mt. Ripinsky and 150 acres just north of Wells Bridge.
About 5,400 acres of university-owned land in the Haines area would not be included in the program and might be designated for small-scale timber projects, university spokesperson Kirsten Henning said. Among the parcels not to be set aside are tracts of forest on the south bank of the Klehini River west of the 26 Mile bridge and on Four Winds mountain.
The Chilkat Valley makes up a third of the acreage proposed for the university’s carbon credit program statewide. Land near Fairbanks, Talkeetna, Petersburg, Ketchikan and on the Kenai Peninsula also could be part of the program, according to a public notice published by the university last month.
“Development of parcels included in the carbon credit program will be limited until the carbon credit program matures,” the Dec. 20 notice said. “This disposal will be completed through a competitive bidding process at or above fair market value and will not convey land or mineral estates out of university ownership; only those interests relating to carbon credits will be transferred for the term of the credit.”
Under the program, the university would agree to keep a certain amount of old-growth timber stands uncut, according to an August CVN report after university representatives visited Haines to meet with residents. A university spokesperson did not respond by press time this week to a question about how much timber harvest, if any, would be allowed on land entered into the program.
“All other details of the carbon credit program (such as potential buyer, the length of time, etc.) are yet to be determined. After the public comment period, the UA Land team will look for a carbon credit program broker/developer to research the best options,” Henning wrote in an email to the CVN this week. (The public comment period ended Jan. 19.)
The carbon credit program signals a shift in management of the university’s land in the Chilkat Valley, which is just 8% of the 150,000 acres managed by the university statewide. In 2019, the university suspended its plan for a timber sale of 6,000 acres near Haines when tariffs rendered it unprofitable amid a trade war between the U.S. and China.
The university’s change in approach also followed Sealaska Corporation’s move away from large-scale logging in 2018, when it began protecting forest in exchange for carbon credits. It has collected more than $100 million on 165,000 acres of timber stands that it has promised to preserve for a century, according to several media reports and the corporation’s website.
As a result of a “shifting economic landscape” and “serious disruptions” to Southeast Alaska’s timber industry caused by the tariffs, and Sealaska and the U.S. Forest Service’s departure from old-growth logging, the university has officially been re-evaluating its land management policies since November 2021.
Gov. Mike Dunleavy announced earlier this month that he plans to propose legislation that would implement a statewide carbon management program. That includes carbon credit projects as well as carbon capture and sequestration — a not-yet-perfected technology that involves capturing carbon emitted from sources like oil and gas facilities and injecting it back into the ground.
The university was granted land in 1915 and profits from it in various ways — timber harvests, oil and gas development, subdivisions and land sales. The revenue, about $7 million a year, supports the top 10% of Alaska high school students through the UA Scholars program.