BANGOR — Maine is the most forested state in the country by percentage of land base. Some 17.5 million acres of Maine’s 21-plus million acres are forested. Maine’s North Woods are the largest block of undeveloped forestland east of the Mississippi River and are regionally and even globally significant for their ecological values.

We are familiar with these and other unique attributes of the great forests in our state. But less well known is that Maine’s forests currently accumulate more carbon than they release, and that annual accumulation is about equal to 60 percent of Maine’s annual fossil fuel emissions. This is a tremendous fact with important ramifications.

I’ve been fortunate to participate in the Natural and Working Lands Group of the Maine Climate Council formed by Gov. Mills. For months, this group has been meeting, learning information about the significance of forests and farms for climate resiliency and hearing ideas about how to encourage their owners and managers to adopt practices that are beneficial for carbon sequestration.

One idea that has emerged is for Maine to develop a Maine forest carbon storage program. The concept is that forest landowners who wish to manage their woodlots in a manner that promotes carbon sequestration, and who are willing to commit to doing so for decades – such as 25 to 30 years – would receive payments for this commitment. There are national carbon markets, regulatory and voluntary, where landowners can sell carbon credits and receive payments for long-term forest management that sequesters carbon. However, these programs are complex and expensive and not typically available for small-forestland owners. Why not create a Maine program for small-forestland owners who would not otherwise be able to participate in one of the national carbon markets?

After much discussion and public input, the Natural and Working Lands Group has recommended to the Maine Climate Council that Maine establish a stakeholder process to develop a voluntary, incentive-based Maine forest carbon program. The purpose of the program would be to increase carbon storage on Maine forestland and reduce atmospheric greenhouse-gas concentrations (primarily carbon dioxide) over time. The program would be initially geared for woodland owners of 10 to 5,000 acres, would be voluntary and in addition to sequestering carbon, would help keep forests as forests while maintaining current statewide harvest levels.

The Natural and Working Lands Group has proposed five important recommendations, which include protecting and conserving working and natural lands and waters through a dedicated, sustained funding source and providing technical assistance on natural climate solutions to landowners, land managers and agricultural producers, among others. The recommendation that suggests a stakeholder group to explore a forest carbon program for landowners is appropriate for a state like Maine, with abundant forests that are already sequestering carbon that lessen the negative climate impacts of fossil fuel emissions. By encouraging, through incentives, specific types of forest management we can benefit even more from the amazing capacity of Maine’s woodlands to sequester and store carbon.