Maine Agriculture

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Maine Agriculture Forest GHG Inventory

• Maine Agriculture and Forest Working Group
• January 29, 2004
• CCAP

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Meeting Goals

• Understand current agriculture and forest carbon
  inventory data, methods and assumptions
• Clarify existing information
• Understand steps for refinement of inventory and
  baseline
• Recommend updates for next meeting
• Understand underlying causes for changes in
  greenhouse gases (carbon stocks and flows for
  forestry)
• Identify promising mitigation options for carbon
  savings

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Maine NESCAUM Inventory (12/17)
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Maine Agriculture Inventory
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Maine Agriculture Baseline
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Maine Agriculture Data Sources

• Inventory
• EPA State GHG Inventory Tool
• EIIP (1999) EIIP Volume VIII, Estimating
  Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Emission Inventory
  Improvement Program, Technical Report Series,
  October 1999.
• EPA (2001) Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas
  Emissions and Sinks 1990-1999. U.S.
  Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC,
  EPA 236-R-01-001, April 2001.
• EPA (2002) Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas
  Emissions and Sinks 1990-2000. U.S.
  Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC,
  EPA 430-R-02-003, April 2002.
• EPA (2003, In production) Inventory of U.S.
  Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks 1990-2001.
  U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington,
  DC, EPA.

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Maine Agriculture Data Sources

• Inventory
• EPA State GHG Inventory Tool (continued)
• IPCC (1997) Revised 1996 IPCC Guidelines for
  National Greenhouse Gas Inventories Reference
  Manual, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
  Change. United Kingdom, 1997.
• Schueneman, Thomas, Agricultural Extension Agent
  for Palm Beach County, Florida. [phone].
• USDA (2001), Published Estimates Database. U.S.
  Department of Agriculture, National Agriculture
  Statistics Service, Washington, DC,
  lthttp//www.nass.usda.gov81/ipedb/gt.
• Baseline
• Historical 1990-2000 trend projected to 2020

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Maine Agriculture Estimation Methods

• Carbon Accounts and Carbon Coefficients
• Agricultural Soils
• Manure Management
• Enteric Fermentation
• Agricultural Residue Burning
• Direct calculations of potential actions

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Maine Agriculture Assumptions

• No change in land use or land cover trends from
  1990-2000 period
• No significant change in technology trends
• No new federal policies
• No change in rates or types of management
  practices
• No change in productivity from climate impacts

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Maine Forest Inventory
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Maine Forest Inventory Data Sources

• USFS Forest Inventory Assessment (FIA) for Maine
  Forest Service
• Several thousand permanent sample plots in Maine
• 1983, 1995, 2001 (partial)
• Data now on five year collection cycle
• Forest area, composition and volume
• Growth, removals and mortality

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Maine Forest Inventory Estimation Methods

• FORCARB model developed by USFS
• Carbon Accounts and Carbon Coefficients
• Tree Biomass
• Understory Biomass
• Forest Floor
• Coarse Woody Debris
• Soil
• Wood Products

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Maine Forest Baseline Estimation Methods

• Advanced modeling of forest systems and uses
• FORCARB forest system (with Maine data)
• UFOREM urban forests (with Maine data)
• HARVCARB wood products (with Maine data)
• Simplified methods
• Linear extrapolation of inventory
• Educated guesses and technical consensus

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Maine Forest Inventory Empirical Assumptions

• FORCARB1 (Birdsey and Heath 2003) and FORCARB2
  (Heath, et al. 2003)
• Differences between Carbon Accounts (carbon
  pools)
• Tree biomass, understory biomass, forest floor,
  coarse woody debris, soil, wood products
• Carbon Coefficients for each
• Options for refinement with local data and
  assumptions

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Tree Biomass

• Birdsey and Heath, 2003
• Used FIA standard biomass equations (Cost et al.
  1990)
• Live and dead trees combined
• Root ratios for softwoods and hardwoods
• Volume-to-carbon conversion factors by region and
  forest type
• Historical estimates from conversion of RPA
  volume estimates to mass

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Tree Biomass

• Heath, et al. 2003
• Used nationally consistent biomass equations
  (Jenkins et al. 2002)
• Live and dead trees separate
• Root ratios for 10 species groups
• Volume-to-carbon conversion factors by region,
  species, and size class (Smith et al. 2002)
• Historical estimates from conversion of RPA
  volume estimates to mass

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Tree Biomass
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Tree Biomass

• Options for Refinement
• If tree biomass equations are available for
  Maine, they can be substituted

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Understory Biomass

• Birdsey and Heath, 2003
• Percent of overstory biomass by forest type and
  age class
• Heath, et al. 2003
• Percent of overstory biomass by forest type and
  age class
• Options for refinement
• If understory biomass equations are available for
  Maine, they can be substituted

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Understory Biomass
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Forest Floor and Coarse Woody Debris

• Birdsey and Heath, 2003
• Forest floor and coarse woody debris combined
• Used data in Vogt et al. (1986)
• Single estimate by region and forest type,
  weighted by age class distribution
• Simple dynamics for harvesting and land-use
  change
• CWD decay functions from Turner et al. 1995 (used
  to explicitly estimate logging debris)
• Historical estimates calculated as a function of
  RPA volume

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Forest Floor

• Heath, et. al 2003
• Developed equations by region, forest type, and
  age class (Smith and Heath 2002)
• Data from a comprehensive literature review
  (Smith and Heath 2002)
• Historical estimates calculated as a function of
  region and forest type

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Coarse Woody Debris

• Heath, et. al 2003
• Simulated ratio of woody residue to live tree C
  from growth, management, and harvest (Chojnacky
  and Heath 2002)
• Data from research studies
• Separate relationships by region, forest type,
  and owner
• CWD decay functions from Turner et al. (1995)
• Historical estimates calculated as a function of
  region and forest type

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Forest Floor and Coarse Woody Debris
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Forest Floor and Coarse Woody Debris

• Options for Refinement
• Depends on availability of data for Maine
• Possible sources include Forest Health Monitoring
  data and Heath and Chojnacky (2001)

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Soil

• Birdsey and Heath, 2003
• Multiple regression procedure to estimate soil C
  as a function of temp, precip data from Post et
  al. (1982)
• Type shifts affect soil C in projections only
• Assumed clearcut affected soil C in the South
• Simple dynamics for land-use change projections
  beginning in 1980 (1987)
• Assumptions for land-use change effects from
  Houghton et al. (1983, 1985)
• Soil C changes deducted for land-use change

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Soil

• Heath, et. al 2003
• Soil C based on U.S. soil map with GIS overlay of
  forest types
• Type shifts affect historical and projected soil
  C
• Assumed clearcut did not affect soil C anywhere
• Simple dynamics for land-use change beginning in
  1909
• Data for land-use change effects from Post and
  Kwon (2001)
• Soil C changes deducted for land-use change

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Soil
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Soil

• Options for Refinement
• Depends on availability of data for Maine
• Information on land-use-change is especially
  important for defining (1) transitions among
  forest types, and (2) movement of carbon in or
  out of the forest sector

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Wood Products

• Birdsey and Heath, 2003
• Used model results from Row and Phelps (1991)\
• Based on wood production from all domestic
  sources (by state)
• Historical data started in 1980 (1952)
• Heath, et. al 2003
• Used model results from Skog and Nicholson (1998)
• Based on wood production from all domestic
  sources
• Historical data started in 1900

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Wood Products
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Wood Products

• Options for Refinement
• Depends on availability of data for Maine

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Next Steps?

• Inventory
• Baselines
• Options
• Next WG meeting