Carbon Management on Public Lands
An Interdisciplinary Approach to Position CU-Boulder as a Leader in Adaptive Biogeochemical Management of Federal Rangelands and Forests
Working with the San Juan Public Lands Center, Jason Neff and others have developed a carbon research plan intended to make Southwest Colorado a demonstration site for potential federal carbon management policy. The project’s goal is to initiate a joint federal/CU effort to design protocols for, and evaluate the implications of, emerging carbon management plans. As part of the larger demonstration project aimed at evaluating C stocks on federal lands in Southwest Colorado, Lisa Dilling is collaborating with Jana Milford and Mickey Ellenwood, an undergraduate, to examine the tradeoffs that land managers on the ground may face when contemplating incorporating carbon into a suite of multiple use objectives. Interviews of many land managers have been conducted and combined with expected carbon impacts of various actions (e.g. grazing, timber harvest, biomass use) to inform land managers and understand how carbon management might be undertaken in the future.
