WASHINGTON (February 13, 2008) - The Natural Resources Council of America (NRCA), a coalition of environmental organizations based in Washington, D.C., today presented The Wilderness Society (TWS) with its national award for the Best Publication or Media Project on Climate Change. The award recognized TWS for the report, U.S. Forest Carbon and Climate Change: Controversies and Win-Win Policy Approaches, by TWS staff member and forest economist Ann Ingerson of Craftsbury Common, Vermont. The award was presented to Linda Lance, TWS' Vice President of Public Policy, at NRCA's annual awards banquet. Ingerson, citing TWS' organization-wide commitment to reducing its own carbon footprint, declined to fly to Washington to accept the award.
The report documents the important role of forests in storing carbon, and seeks to clear up possible misunderstandings about how forest offsets might be measured and credited to ensure that they do not inadvertently cause environmental harm. Ingerson reviewed data on carbon stored in and moving through forest ecosystems, and then identified and evaluated policy options to promote the role of forests in carbon sequestration. The report was peer reviewed by a number of experts in the forest carbon field.
"Although investments in energy efficiency and clean energy will provide the only permanent solutions to climate change, forest sequestration can buy us time to develop those alternatives," said Bill Meadows, President of The Wilderness Society. "Ann Ingerson's research presents persuasive evidence about the challenges inherent in many current policy proposals, and suggests winning policy solutions that can bring diverse interests together to solve the climate problem that threatens us all."
Ingerson joined the TWS staff in 1999 as an economics research associate in the organization's Eastern Forests Program. Her report is one of several scientific studies on climate change and U.S. public lands by members of TWS' Ecology and Economics Research Department. Ingerson currently is working on an analysis of Forest Service methods for measuring forest carbon.
The Wilderness Society, which has more than 310,000 members and supporters, is a nonprofit organization founded in 1935. The mission of The Wilderness Society is to protect wilderness and inspire Americans to care for our wild places.
