From the Ground Up: Voices of the Carbon Market

When Alisha Logue was gifted her grandmother's farmland it was a dream come true, "but then it became a financial burden." She had to figure out how she would pay the taxes, ultimately enrolling in a program run by the American Forest Foundation. "It came down to them saying they would pay me to plant trees," Logue said. While it seemed to good too be true, everything unfolded according to plan. "We're just watching the trees grow."

Wayne Wiltshire remembers when, in the 1990s, an oil man came to town and convinced his parents to let him drill on their farmland, and then disappeared. Recently, Wiltshire let Tradewater plug and cap those wells, and is relieved that they're no longer a hazard. "The person that drilled that well is responsible for clean up afterwards. That wasn't happening," he said, "and it's quite a common problem all across the United States."

Greg and Tricia Monier come out to their cabin to hunt, fish, cook, eat and camp with family. When the neighboring property went up for sale, they worried about what type of development would come in, and were relieved when Chestnut Carbon bought it. "We share the same principles in preservation of our forestlands," Greg Monier said. "It's an added plus that they are improving the climate regime."