By KEVIN WALKER
Michigan Correspondent

CHICAGO, Ill. — Landowners in Michigan who want to be a part of a carbon credit trading system still have a bit of time to apply before being made to go to the back of the line.

Although the official cutoff date, Sept. 15, has come and gone, the time has unofficially been extended to the end of the month, according to the Associate Director of the Delta Institute, William Schleizer. Starting in October, however, people who apply to enroll their land in the carbon credit trading program will become part of a later pool of applicants.

“It would be better for them to enroll now,” Schleizer said.
The Delta Institute, a Chicago-based nonprofit, acts as an “aggregator” to pool small amounts of the credits collected from participating landowners, primarily in Illinois and Michigan. Landowners from about 10 other states, including Indiana, also participate using the Delta Institute. Land now enrolled in the program includes about 300,000 acres and 1,300 landowners altogether.

The Delta Institute is the only aggregator connected to Michigan’s program, called the Michigan Conservation and Climate Initiative (MCCI). This is the third enrollment for Michigan, and it’s the fifth for Illinois. The primary purpose of the program is to sequester or harness carbon dioxide that would otherwise be released into the atmosphere, but the program is also designed to improve the state’s water quality and wildlife habitat.

The aggregator is needed because 12,500 metric tons of carbon offset credits are needed as a minimum to trade on the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX). That many offset credits would be large for one landowner. The aggregator also helps take care of much of the paperwork that would otherwise fall on the individual. Other aggregators include the Iowa Farm Bureau and the North Dakota Farmers Union.

A landowner can earn between $2-$12 per acre each year, depending on the conservation practice. Landowners sign a contract and commit to maintain the conservation practice for a certain period of time.

Judy Durfy, a resident of Wayne County, Mich., owns 10 acres of undeveloped land about 65 miles west of Detroit. She was so excited about the program, she was getting ready to give a talk about it to the local beekeepers club. She said she’s been planting a mix of prairie grasses on her property.

“I can actually earn money every year on my land,” she said. “It’s free money out there for anybody who owns land.”

Durfy added it’s an especially good opportunity for beekeepers, many of whom use their undeveloped property to keep bee colonies and not much else.

Schleizer cautioned that the program involves a significant amount of conservation work and that the practices have to be verified. “It’s pretty dense grassland that you would have to be putting up,” he said. “It’s a pretty involved program.”

After a landowner puts in an application, it gets sent to the verifier, which in this case is the Michigan Assoc. of Conservation Districts. That group verifies that the land is eligible and sends a report back to the Delta Institute. If everything is okay, the land is then registered.

The program involves four kinds of conservation practices. The first is “no-till, strip-till” agricultural practice. The second is establishment of permanent grasslands. In this case, grassland has to have been planted after 1999.

The third type of practice is reforestation on agricultural land or degraded land. This has to have been started after 1990. The fourth type is sustainable management of existing forest, which has no back date.

Landowners may participate in MCCI along with the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) and the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP). More information is available at http://michiganclimate.org