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Merle Parise is the owner of MJP Forestry in Newcastle.
Mainers have a deep connection to and appreciation of nature and the outdoors. From providing endless opportunities for recreation to supporting our state’s economy, our precious natural resources are fundamental to our way of life.
I’d venture to say that’s why most Mainers would be supportive of policies that protect our environment and address the impact our changing climate is having on it and communities statewide — from increasingly erratic weather patterns to rising sea levels.
Having built my career around working with Maine’s natural resources, I am particularly grateful to Sen. Susan Collins for her efforts to support legislation that advances carbon-reduction efforts while supporting a vital sector of Maine’s economy: agriculture and forestry. Her work to advance the bipartisan Growing Climate Solutions Act should not go unnoticed.
The Growing Climate Solutions Act would give Maine farmers and foresters the tools and resources they need to learn about and integrate carbon-reducing agriculture practices into their daily routines. This bill would create a program within the U.S. Department of Agriculture that would not only provide vital information about how to best adopt these practices, but also connect Maine farmers and foresters to certified third-party organizations looking to purchase the carbon credits they would accrue from doing so.
In that respect, this program would provide an invaluable economic lifeline to our state’s agricultural community while helping reduce emissions here and across the country. By taking this approach, the Growing Climate Solutions Act would help us reach a lower-carbon future sooner without risking the economic strength of the entire agricultural industry. That is especially critical as we work to rebuild a stronger, more resilient post-pandemic economy.
Farmers and foresters are more impacted by our changing climate than members of perhaps any other industry. Yet, carbon credits have been elusive to farmers and foresters because of the lack of a comprehensive framework to help them develop systems that would qualify for carbon credits. This bill will be broadly representative of the agriculture and private forest sectors and include socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers and other historically underserved farmers, ranchers, or private forest landowners. These private landowners and managers have an outsized role to play in developing and advancing solutions to address climate change, and the Growing Climate Solutions Act is the perfect way to bring them to the table in a voluntary, pro-growth way.
As natural carbon “sinks,” forests in particular already play a critical role in sequestering and storing carbon. Incentivizing the continued strengthening and adoption of carbon sequestration techniques will help increase our ability to sequester carbon and other potentially harmful greenhouse gas emissions from increasing in our atmosphere. Not only that, but carbon sequestration can be increased by strengthening the fungal network which is known to increase the sequestration of carbon and improve soil quality, creating an added incentive for farmers and foresters alike.
The Growing Climate Solutions Act is just smart policy, plain and simple. That’s why it has such broad bipartisan support — it already passed the Senate by a 92-8 vote — and has won the seal of approval from major national environmental, agricultural, and business groups. Now, it’s time for Congress to get this bill across the finish line.
As a Mainer, I’m proud of all the hard work Collins has put in to reach across the aisle and work with her colleagues to pass smart legislation that would advance carbon-reduction efforts, protect Maine’s natural resources, and strengthen a key sector of our economy. She should keep pressing her colleagues in the House to take up and pass this much-needed legislation.