The Forest Carbon Inventory report, released today, provides detailed estimates of the carbon captured, stored and released by Colorado’s forests. They hold a substantial amount of carbon, but in recent years, Colorado’s forests have released more carbon each year than they have added. Forest carbon trends vary among types of forests and geographic areas across the state.
“Coloradans are adapting to the challenges associated with a warming climate and rapidly growing populations, and we need to ground our decisions in the best available information,” said Matt McCombs, state forester and director of the Colorado State Forest Service. “This report provides a baseline for understanding how much carbon is stored in our forests and how these amounts change over time. The results will inform strategies for forest and carbon management, helping us understand our forests’ potential to lessen the impacts of climate change, make our communities more resilient and meet Colorado’s bold climate goals.”
As part of HB22-1012, the Colorado General Assembly directed the Colorado State Forest Service to develop a statewide carbon accounting framework. The resulting inventory released today shows that Colorado’s forest carbon stocks are higher and emissions are lower than previously estimated. The study period for this inventory is from 2002-2019, and the study authors expect the magnitude of the carbon source to increase as data reflecting Colorado’s 2020 wildfire season and subsequent disturbances become available.
“The 2020 Forest Action Plan identified the need for a detailed analysis of forest carbon to fully understand how Colorado’s forested lands affect carbon sequestration,” said Amanda West Fordham, Ph.D., associate director of science and data at the CSFS and co-author. “This inventory provides crucial data to inform future forest policy decisions in Colorado, and it also serves as a blueprint that other Rocky Mountain states can adopt to determine their forest carbon inventory.”
A team of researchers from the CSFS and the Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory (NREL), both part of Colorado State University, calculated the amount of carbon stored in various parts of forests, including trees, roots and soil, as well as the carbon stored in harvested wood products, such as lumber.
“To complete this study, we adopted a carbon inventory framework developed by California, Oregon and Washington. We used mill surveys to estimate carbon stocks and changes in harvested wood products as well as data from Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA), a nationwide program run by the U.S. Forest Service, to assess carbon dynamics in forests,” said Ashley Prentice, co-author and forest carbon specialist at the CSFS. “The FIA program is staffed by CSFS field crews who measure plots in Colorado every 10 years. The consistent inventory cycle ensures the collection of high-quality data, providing the long-term information needed to track forest carbon over time and maintain the forest carbon inventory framework.”
This framework can be repeated regularly to monitor how conditions shift as forests change. The resulting information can help inform policy at state or landscape levels, but the impacts of specific forest management projects on forest carbon is an area of active research.
“This study provides detailed information about the carbon balance of Colorado’s forests and the influence of growth, disturbances like wildfire and bark beetles, and forest management. While carbon is a critical consideration for forest managers, it’s just one aspect of the forest that has to be balanced with many others, such as wildlife, resilience, recreation, wildfire risk and economics,” said Tony Vorster, Ph.D., lead author and research scientist at NREL.
Learn more about the Forest Carbon Inventory and explore supporting information, including a data dashboard, podcast, frequently asked questions and key definitions.