The Trail to Tomorrow is a loop located on the outskirts of Grand Lake Stream, a plantation in Washington County that sits a 45-minute drive west of Calais. The nonprofit Downeast Lakes Land Trust built the 0.6 mile educational nature trail, which includes signs naming tree species and explaining local wildlife, on a 22,000-acre parcel the group bought with the help of roughly $4 million it earned from growing trees.
That $4 million didn’t come from paper mills or the timber industry that turns trees into products. Instead, giant corporations operating on the other side of the country spent millions of dollars to make sure these trees stay standing, growing and pulling carbon out of the atmosphere.
But as more and more companies pay Maine organizations such as the Downeast Lakes Land Trust to grow trees that store atmospheric carbon, the debate is intensifying over whether carbon offsets are truly helping mitigate climate change. How the debate plays out will shape how the world tackles global warming. It will also determine how much money from large polluting corporations will flow to Maine landowners.
There is evidence that the benefits of carbon offsets to the climate are overstated and that carbon markets allow large polluting companies to avoid making the tough choices needed to reduce their carbon emissions.
Proponents, meanwhile, point out that offsets are protecting nature and are part of a number of solutions to limit climate change. And Maine stands to benefit from them financially.
