Thread by @carbonplanorg

As the #BootlegFire burns out of control in Oregon — with critical implications for public safety, air quality, and forest health — we can report that another large forest offset project appears to be on fire. (1/10)

The #BootlegFire is currently at 201,923 acres and growing, approximately 11 miles northeast of the town of Sprague River, Oregon. (2/10)
inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/7609/

The project impacted by the #BootlegFire, ACR273, is a 400,000 acre forest project that was recently harvested for timber and has earned more than 950,000 offset credits from California’s climate regulator as it regrows. (3/10)
acr2.apx.com/mymodule/reg/p…

This isn’t the first time fire has hit a large forest offset project. Last year @claudherb spotted another Oregon fire burning a forest credited in California’s offsets program. Here’s her eagle-eyed thread from Sept. 2020. (4/10)

https://twitter.com/claudherb/status/1305957626824466433

Together with @claudherb, we wrote about the likely impacts from that fire and its implications for California’s forest carbon “buffer pool” — an insurance-like mechanism that sets aside a share of each project’s credits in case of disaster. (5/10)
carbonplan.org/research/offse…

But as @emilypont and @shannonosaka wrote for @grist, even last year’s large fire raised questions about the adequacy of carbon offset buffer pools. (6/10)
grist.org/climate/this-o…

Unfortunately, the risk of forest fires will only get worse with climate change. In recent work with @scientistoriana we projected escalating future risks to western forests. Here’s the regional projection under different emissions scenarios. (7/10) carbonplan.org/research/fores…

Major fires aren’t just a problem for local and downwind communities. As @Sammy_Roth wrote for the @latimes, the #BootlegFire also caused major disruptions on the regional electricity grid. (8/10)
latimes.com/business/story…

Those looking to support local communities affected by the fire can donate to the nearby Klamath Food Bank or Red Cross Oregon. (9/10)
klamathfoodbank.org
redcross.org/local/oregon.h…

As the #BootlegFire is live and growing fast, we’ll continue to update this thread as more information becomes available. Meanwhile, we’ll be thinking of the firefighters and communities affected by evacuations and smoke. (10/10)