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Thanks to a local entrepreneur, Kapuskasing will likely be the first community in Canada to be involved in a plan to sell carbon credits.
The emerging carbon credit system allows companies involved in industries that put carbon into the atmosphere through their operation to offset that environmental impact by funding something that removes carbon from the atmosphere — tree planting for instance.
The company can offset the specific amount of carbon they produce by purchasing a specific amount of carbon credits.
Trees For Clean Air, which is owned and operated by Julie Culverhouse, has a contract for a pilot project to plant 132,000 jack pine and black spruce on 150 acres of agricultural land in Kapuskasing.
It is proposed that under a 100-year lease just over 99,000 of those trees be planted on 110 acres of municipal land on Clear Lake Road on the wellhead protection area where the town draws its water.
About a dozen people attended a public meeting on Jan. 12 to learn more about the project.
“We’re not looking at the asset for its monetary value — this is just a good fit for this type of land, and council thought it important to give the public the opportunity to comment,” Mayor Alan Spacek said.
“It’s a sound project, environmentally responsible …we just want to ensure that we heard from everyone.”
None of the people in attendance expressed any opposition to the project, though there were many questions about the nature of Trees For Clean Air Inc., carbon credits and the impact such an enterprise might have on the municipality’s water source — there would be none, Culverhouse said, she is simply planting trees.
No pesticides or herbicides will be used.
“I want to do something to help out the community and do something productive,” Culverhouse, an engineer at the Agrium phosphate mine by day, said.
The trees will be purchased from Northern Clonal Forestry Centre in Moonbeam, and more than two dozen people will be employed planting, fencing and caring for the trees at various times in the set up of the project.
There is no cost to the municipality.
One carbon credit is worth one tonne of carbon, Culverhouse explained. The average Canadian family produces about 15 tonnes of carbon a year.
Right now purchasing credits is voluntary, but she sees the day coming when polluters will be required to purchase credits to offset their environmental impact.
The way the system works now, companies can purchase credits from a credit broker, which then contracts a firm like Trees For Clean Air Inc. to plant the required number of trees.
Anyone with 50 acres or more of available land for the purpose of planting trees should contact the municipality at 337-4252.
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