Virginia Secretary of Agriculture and Forestry, GreenTrees Plant Seedlings to Launch Virginia’s First Reforestation Project for Generating Carbon Credits.
GreenTrees will plant 60,000 trees on 95 total acres in Fauquier and Shenandoah Counties to jump start Virginia’s participation in fast-growing environmental markets for combating climate change
THE PLAINS, Va., March 17, 2023 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ — Forestry leaders from the Commonwealth of Virginia government and representatives of GreenTrees, a global leader in reforestation to answer climate change and the largest reforestation program operator in the U.S., yesterday planted tree seedlings in Marshall and Delaplane, Va. to officially launch Virginia’s first-ever reforestation project that will generate carbon removal credits for sale on environmental markets. In the new project, GreenTrees will plant 60,000 trees on 95 total acres in Fauquier and Shenandoah Counties, planting five varieties of hardwood trees, including oak, yellow poplar and sycamore.
Virginia government representatives attending the planting of seedlings included Matthew Lohr, Virginia Secretary of Agriculture and Forestry, and Terry Lasher, Assistant State Forester, Virginia Department of Forestry. Representatives of GreenTrees included Dutch Van Voorhis, President and CEO, and Andrew Richards, Head of Virginia Enrollment Partnering.
“As policymakers and companies nationwide and in Virginia are banking on trees to play a critical role in reducing our carbon footprint, we’re excited to support the launch of Virginia’s very first reforestation project for generating carbon credits that help curb the impacts of climate change while delivering revenue to landowners,” said Secretary Lohr.
“This tree planting ceremony marks an excellent example of how landowners and the private sector can work together to create opportunities for environmentally friendly practices that will enhance and sustain our environment,” said Mary Leigh Daniel, Fauquier County Supervisor, Marshall District. “We who live and work in Fauquier County cherish our rural and agricultural lands, and I would like to thank everyone involved for their commitment to this project.”
GreenTrees provides the resources for individual landowners to change their land use to forests, measure the biomass growth annually and convert that annual growth into carbon credits. For the past 20 years, GreenTrees has pioneered reforestation in the U.S. and worked in public-private partnership with government entities to empower landowners to participate in a vibrant, voluntary carbon credit market. Carbon credits are auctioned by environmental markets to companies, which use carbon offsets to address emissions they cannot eliminate. Carbon credits generate revenue for landowners and ongoing forest management.
“Reforestation projects like the one we just launched in Virginia offer the largest and most immediate climate mitigation benefits, according to the National Academy of Sciences,” said Dutch Van Voorhis, president and CEO of GreenTrees. “Trees effectively pull carbon out of the Earth’s atmosphere, hence the term carbon removal, while delivering additional benefits of improved water quality, stabilizing soil erosion, generating new wildlife habitats, improving air quality and even potentially creating new jobs.”
GreenTrees plants forests in three primary areas within the United States: the Mississippi Alluvial Valley, the Commonwealth of Virginia and the U.S. southeastern region. To date, GreenTrees has engaged 600+ landowners ranging from 10 to 3,500+ acres and planted 130,000+ acres of forests that have removed more than six million metric tons of carbon from the Earth’s atmosphere.
About GreenTrees
GreenTrees is the market leader in reforestation and carbon removal in the U.S. A model land equity program for landowners, GreenTrees generates the largest number of forestry carbon removal credits in the U.S. The only carbon removal program open to both small and large landowners, GreenTrees engages individual landowners to plant forests, measure the growth annually and convert the annual growth into carbon credits. All carbon credits in GreenTrees’ projects undergo a rigorous verification process by the American Carbon Registry and are accepted by global environmental markets as the highest standard for quality in nature-based carbon removals. Wholly owned by ACRE Investment Management, LLC, GreenTrees has engaged 600+ landowners ranging from 10 to 3,500+ acres and planted 130,000+ acres of forests that have removed more than six million metric tons of carbon from the Earth’s atmosphere; these existing planted acres will remove a projected 30 million metric tons over the next 40 years; additional plantings will grow carbon removal capacity significantly as GreenTrees’ parent company’s affiliate platform company, ACRE IO, will accelerate planting velocity for GreenTrees and other independent projects. Fortune 500 companies trust GreenTrees’ carbon credits to meet sustainability goals and combat climate change. For more information about GreenTrees, visit https://www.green-trees.com/.
