Portland-based Ecotrust sells first carbon credits

A for-profit subsidiary of Portland-based Ecotrust has sold its first carbon credits from Washington forest land it owns.

The deal puts more than 3,000 acres from Washington's Olympic Peninsula into the market for credits designed to offset business and government greenhouse gas emissions.

The deal is part of Ecotrust Forest Management's long-term plan to purchase hundreds of thousands of formerly clear-cut acres from Alaska through Northern California using income from carbon credits and timber sales.

Ecotrust aims to improve habitat in its 13,000 acres of forest land and increase carbon storage to combat climate change.

The company also plans to keep sending logs to local mills through "patch cuts" and thinning. Jobs on its forest lands should eventually double the work created by industrial-style clear-cuts, said Bettina von Hagen, CEO of the forest management group.

Northwest forests "are a tremendous and unique carbon store" said von Hagen, a former banker. "We also believe very strongly that the Pacific Northwest is a great place to grow trees, and that wood is a great material for housing relative to other building materials like concrete or steel."

The Eco Products Fund, a private-equity group managed by Equator LLC and New Forests, will buy the credits from the Olympic Peninsula land, which Ecotrust purchased in 2005 from bankrupt Crown Pacific's lenders. Eco Products will sell the carbon credits to businesses and government agencies trying to offset the carbon emissions generated by their operations.

Critics of carbon credits question whether they're truly helping the environment or just giving polluters an easy alternative to cutting emissions. If carbon emissions are regulated by the government, big emitters like coal plants or paper mills would likely be allowed to offset a portion of their emissions by buying credits.

The going rate for credits under Europe's "cap-and-trade" carbon regulation ranges from $20 to $30 per metric ton of carbon dioxide equivalent, von Hagen said. In the voluntary U.S. market, prices generally range from $5 to $12.

Von Hagen said she can't disclose the contract price Ecotrust is getting for the credits. But the deal is expected to generate hundreds of thousand of credits over 100 years, she said.

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Information from: The Oregonian, http://www.oregonlive.com