Microsoft has signed a carbon removal deal in California.
Climate solutions provider 3Degrees this week announced a deal with Microsoft to purchase more than 80,000 metric tons of carbon removals from Western Rivers Conservancy's (WRC) Blue Creek Improved Forest Management Project, located in Northern California.
"Microsoft's investment in the Blue Creek Improved Forest Management Project highlights its commitment to impactful carbon removals and emphasizes the critical role these projects play in enhancing global climate efforts," said Jennifer Cohn, associate director of business partnerships at 3Degrees. "We are thrilled that Microsoft has chosen to support this project as it not only protects vital habitats but also supports the local community through sustainable land management."
Managed by WRC, the project enhances forest carbon stocks in North America and provides funding to create the Blue Creek Forest and Salmon Sanctuary.
Nearly 15,000 acres are being conserved as a Salmon Sanctuary to protect the entire lower half of the Blue Creek watershed, keeping the Klamath River healthy for fish including salmon and steelhead. The project also provides a habitat for rare animals such as the marbled murrelet, northern spotted owl, California condor, and Humboldt marten.
“We are pleased that 3Degrees is providing carbon removals that meet our quality criteria," said Brian Marrs, senior director of energy and carbon removal at Microsoft. “Microsoft's purchase of carbon removal credits from this project supports our near-term climate goals via a diversified portfolio of carbon removal.”
The Klamath was once the third largest producer of salmon on the West Coast, but numbers have reduced due to hydropower dams, irrigation projects, and overfishing. Higher water temperatures are also impacting the fish.
Western Rivers Conservancy created a salmon sanctuary at Blue Creek in 2018 – buying an initial 10,000 acres. California’s Yurok Tribe manages the lands.
The project is part of a larger effort to conserve 47,000 acres of temperate rainforest by repatriating the land to the Yurok Tribe. The revenue generated from the sale of carbon credits has helped enable WRC to purchase the Yurok's ancestral lands and return them to the Tribe.
WRC and the Yurok Tribe established a long-term partnership to buy 47,097 acres along the lower Klamath and Blue Creek from Green Diamond Resource Company. Once fully complete, 14,790 acres will be protected as a salmon sanctuary and 32,307 acres will be managed as a community forest.
Microsoft is aiming to be carbon-negative by 2030 and is supporting a range of projects in pursuit of this goal. It is signing renewable energy contracts en masse to power its operations, and investing in carbon capture and removal projects as it seeks to remove its historical emissions.
Other forestry projects backed by the company include a forest management initiative in the US, an agroforestry project in Kenya, a reforestation project in Panama, and two additional forestry projects in Brazil, and others elsewhere in Latin America. It has also signed a carbon deal for a soil enrichment project.
