Natural Climate Solutions

Natural Climate Solutions

Three big ways to better enable nature to capture and store carbon dioxide emerged in the study as having the most potential in supporting the state’s net-zero goal:

1. Deferred timber harvest—logging is delayed so that trees can grow bigger and capture and store more carbon.

2. Cropland management—the use of cover crops, no-till practices, and nutrient management in agricultural practices.

3. Avoiding forest conversion—avoiding cutting down forests for urban, suburban and/or rural development.

Not only do natural climate solutions help address the climate crisis, they also often provide many other benefits to people, communities, economies, and nature itself. These “co-benefits” are particularly relevant for communities adapting to, and persisting through, climate change. For example, improved cropland management practices could reduce the use of nitrogen-based fertilizers, in turn reducing nitrates seeping into and contaminating groundwater (nitrate-contaminated water has been directly linked to high cancer rates, low fertility rates, increased water treatment costs and devaluation of property). Reduced use of those fertilizers would also benefit marine, freshwater and soil environments. And, if multiple NCS strategies are employed in combination with each other, the co-benefits are similarly amplified.

Major Natural Climate Solutions Drivers in Washington State Highlighted clusters show where the highest-potential counties of the three highest-potential NCS strategies provide approximately half of each of those strategies’ emissions reductions in 2050. These strategies include: deferred timber harvest in Stevens, Klickitat, Cowlitz, Lewis, Pacific, and Grays Harbor counties; cropland management in Grant, Lincoln, Adams, and Whitman counties; avoided forest conversion in Snohomish, Kitsap, King, Pierce, and Thurston counties.

• For more information on the study’s findings, consult the blog post on The Nature Conservancy of Washington website or read the full article here.

False Solutions

• Hoodwinked in the Hothouse. A website and publication by ClimateFalseSolutions.org that explains in-depth what are false solutions. It includes curriculum, podcast, and other resources in different languages.