PS 29-153 - Carbon in the details – Best Management Practices as a framework for managing forests for multiple ecosystem services

Abstract: Natural climate solutions – land management strategies to increase carbon sequestration or avoid emissions – are receiving international science and policy attention as potential tools for addressing climate change and biodiversity loss. While forests have been at the center of this discourse, little practical (i.e., forest-level) and operational (i.e., stand-level) guidance exists in applying climate-friendly forest management. Yet, practitioners in forestry in many forested regions across the US already have a resource that is used in guiding management decisions; Best Management Practices (also known as Best Management Guidelines). Best Management Guidelines (BMPs) are typically voluntary and provide a means to achieve outcomes often required by legislation and must address needs related to local or regional context, jurisdictional compatibility with regulations, issues of temporal and spatial scale, and incorporation of appropriate scientific information. In forest management, a comprehensive review of existing management guidelines can offer an opportunity to develop new guidance for managing for multiple forest ecosystem benefits, including carbon. While assessment of BMPs have been done in an international context for biomass harvesting guidelines and sustainable management guidance and for their efficacy in watershed protection in the US, previous research has not examined existing BMPs in the US for their guidance in managing forest biomass for carbon and fuel. In response, this synthesis reviews existing forest management guidance across the US (incl. Best Management Practices).

After reviewing more than 60 existing local, regional, and state-wide forestry related BMPs available in the US and Canada, we present the preliminary findings on this study, including 1) what type of forest management are BMPs designed for, 2) for what other ecosystem considerations do the guidance list, and finally, 3) what the regulatory expectations and implications of BMPs are.