The University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture (UTIA) and The Nature Conservancy (TNC) partnered in 2019 to conserve 11,425 acres of university lands. Located on four tracts near UT’s Knoxville campus, this carbon offset project includes some of the highest conservation priority forests within the Southern Appalachians, watersheds supplying millions of consumers with clean water, and forests that serve as major education and outreach centers. In addition to protecting this important academic and community resource, the TNC-UTIA forest carbon project enhances the forest’s health and carbon sequestration and storage potential in the face of a rapidly changing climate.
The co-benefits of this work also include improved air and water quality, cutting-edge research, and an innovative forest inventory, as well as UTIA’s first comprehensive forest management plan developed by TNC’s ecologists and foresters. In this geographical area, it is common forestry practice to harvest native forests using clearcutting or high-grading (take the best, leave the rest) for revenue generation. Forestry Best Management Practices guidelines, aimed at reducing sedimentation, the primary source of pollution, continue to be voluntary in Tennessee.
The TNC-UTIA forest carbon project operates under TNC’s Forest Stewardship Council® (FSC®-C008922) certification, the gold standard for forest certification, which reflects high standards that require sustainably harvesting and managing these forests instead of pursuing intense harvesting and other resource extraction practices.