Ray Aycock

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has approximately ten years of carbon sequestration reforestation history in the Southeast Region, particularly in the Lower Mississippi Valley.  Reforestation of marginal farm lands on National Wildlife Refuges with bottomland hardwoods has been the goal of the Service since the early 1980s, when the Service found itself the owner of over 50,000 acres of un-needed farmland.  Unfortunately, with the addition of dozens of new refuges, no funding was provided to restore this potentially valuable habitat.

The fortunate thing about these new refuges was that they offered the opportunity for the Service to examine the chance to restore some important habitat for migratory birds as well as endangered species.  The Lower Mississippi Valley is one of the most radically changed ecosystems in the country, having suffered the loss of some 17,000,000 acres of bottomland hardwood forest.  At least five species of wildlife (Red wolf, Eastern cougar, Carolina parakeet, Passenger pigeon, and Ivory billed woodpecker) were extirpated during the conversion from forest to agriculture, much of which occurred during a 30 year span in the last century. 

Service foresters and biologists in concert with the U.S. Forest Service Bottomlands Hardwoods Laboratory in Stoneville, Mississippi were forced to experiment with seedling and seed reforestation restoration on thousands of acres of marginal farmland.

Even though restoration was minimal, a great deal of knowledge was gained in reforestation that proved vital to later large scale attempts via USDA Conservation programs and partnerships with utility companies interested in carbon sequestration through reforestation on national wildlife refuges.    

In 1997, The Service began a partnership with utility companies and others, particularly Environmental Synergy Inc. that has led to the reforestation of well over 50,000 acres.  This reforestation effort was designed to sequester carbon as part of a volunteer effort to positively impact climate change by off-setting carbon emissions.  The entire reforestation effort was financed by the partners in hopes that might get credit for sequestered carbon.  In addition to sequestering carbon, water quality was improved, wildlife habitat was created and additional outdoor recreation was provided to the public.