State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry
OP-2: Greenhouse Gas Emissions

As a college of Forestry for over 100 years, ESF in the unique position of managing 25,000 acres of College forest properties across New York State that sequester carbon from the atmosphere in the form of standing biomass (trees) in the forest and below ground biomass (roots and soil carbon). ESF's forest properties serve as a teaching and research laboratory for faculty and students, and produce timber, maple syrup, firewood, recreation opportunities, and other goods and services. In 2009, to meet the carbon neutrality goal of the ACUPCC commitment and climate action plan, ESF forest properties staff members and forestry faculty/researchers identified two properties for official designation as sequestration initiatives and set forth management plans for these areas in-line with forest GHG accounting protocols to ensure that sites are sustainably managed so that growth in carbon stocks exceeds harvest. The 2009 climate action plan designated 2,181 acres of the Pack Demonstration Forest in Warrensburg, NY, and 1,486 acres of Heiberg Memorial Forest in Tully, NY to these activities and calculated a combined sequestration rate for these two parcels of approximately 7,000 MTCO2e per year.

ESF's forest properties exist in eight locations, mostly in central New York and the Adirondack region of the state. The total annual aboveground carbon sequestration of all College forests is about two times ESF’s baseline carbon footprint, so ESF forests are sequestering far more GHGs from the atmosphere every year than the College emits. With sustainable forest management, forests can continue to grow, sequester additional carbon in standing biomass and wood products, while also providing a range of ecosystem services and opportunities for teaching and research. In total, the College's forest properties sequester around 24,000 MTCO2e annually, about twice the College's 2007 baseline carbon footprint of 12,145 MTCO2e. According to AASHE STARS reporting guidelines, the 7,000 MTCO2e per year from designated sequestration initiatives in the 2009 climate action plan is accounted for as "Institution-catalyzed carbon offsets generated." This is considered an internally designated, verified, and managed sequestration initiative. The balance of annual sequestration across all ESF forest properties (24,000 - 7,000 = 17,000 MTCO2e) is accounted for under "Carbon storage from non-additional sequestration" under the AASHE reporting frame work.

The inventorying of forest standing biomass to inform carbon sequestration rates has been ongoing through the monitoring of a series of Continuous Forestry Inventory (CFI) plots on the College's forest properties since the 1980’s. ESF forestry faculty/researchers and forest properties staff members train students in hands-on forestry skills to measure the forest plots and contribute to the ongoing data set each summer. CFI data is archived and publicly available on the web. The data has been used in numerous studies by ESF faculty and students, and in several studies in collaboration with colleagues from other institutions. The GHG emissions, or metric tons of CO2 equivalent (MTCO2e), sequestered in standing forest biomass is calculated by ESF forestry faculty for comparison with institutional GHG emissions. Active research funded by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation is contributing to more robust analyses of carbon stocks on ESF forest properties, in parallel with studies of forest carbon stock and fluxes at the statewide landscape scale. A summary of the continuous forest inventory methods used to monitor carbon stocks and sequestration rates on ESF forest properties is below:

ESF maintains a series of Continuous Forest Inventory (CFI) permanent plots on its forest properties. ESF has over 700 CFI plots located on five different properties--four properties in the Adirondack Mountains of northern New York and one property south of Syracuse, in central New York. Plots cover northern hardwood species including sugar maple, red maple, yellow birch, beech, white ash, and red oak, as well as softwood species such as white pine, hemlock, red spruce, balsam fir and pine/softwood plantations of various species. Data is collected at ten year intervals on each property starting from initial plot establishment. Plot information collected includes: location information, slope, aspect, forest type, cutting history, and photo of plot. Tree information/measurements include (in general, trees greater than 3.6 inches diameter at breast height): tree tag number, species, tree history, diameter at breast height, sawlog height, bole height, total height, crown vigor, crown class, tree location, and tree notes. Data is collected/field checked/edited according to detailed written procedures by ESF professional forest management staff with assistance of students. Data is collected to monitor general forest health, growth rates, mortality, and overall forest metrics. Data is used to calculate standing volumes, stocking of forest trees, carbon stocking in addition to other information. (Breitmeyer, B.W., M.K. Gooden, M.J. Appleby, R. Ash, and J. Rahn. 2019. Continuous Forest Inventory (CFI), 1970-2017, Long-term Forest Property Monitoring by State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry, New York, USA ver 1. Environmental Data Initiative.)

Former President Cornelius Murphy made SUNY a charter signatory of The American College and Universities President's Climate Commitment (ACUPCC) in 2007 and committed to use fiscal year 2007 as the baseline for ESF's carbon footprint and mitigation strategies.

Weighted campus user calculations are from 2018-2019 which is the reporting period for our GHG inventory emissions. These values will differ slightly from PRE-5 due to a different performance year. The FY 19 year was chosen for GHG reporting because those data are the most recent pre-COVID data available.