ABSTRACT
The opportunity for growing forests to sequester carbon dioxide from the atmosphere has received considerable attention and has figured in United States policy recommendations to mitigate climate change. Supply schedules for forests planted on marginal agricultural lands are used to simulate a national carbon sequestration program. This chapter employs total discounted costs and current total carbon ratios to evaluate a specific carbon sequestration program similar to other successful environmentally motivated programs designed to change land use. A supply schedule is derived for carbon sequestered in trees planted on marginal agricultural lands in the US The schedule is used to develop criteria for enrolling lands in a national carbon sequestration program modeled after the Conservation Reserve Program. Programs simulated using enrollment based on least government cost per ton and least government cost per acre are compared using total discounted cost and carbon sequestered.
