About Us

About Our Project

Funded through a grant from the USDA Forest Service’s Landscape Scale Restoration grant program, the Securing Northeast Forest Carbon Program is a cooperative effort of the State Foresters of Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island and Vermont to secure as much of the private forest carbon in the northeast region as possible in a 3-year period ending 2024. The focus is on working forestland carbon. Each State Forester’s office has a forest carbon lead staffer for the Program and others will be trained as well in how to encourage private forest owners in the region to secure their forest carbon through carbon sales in the voluntary and compliance markets, conservation easements and through special management practices.

Links below for each state.

A leadership team for the Program with representatives from the 7-state region has been organized and includes:

Connecticut – Andrea Urbano, Service Forester, CT Dept. of Energy and Environmental Protection – Andrea.Urbano@ct.gov

Maine – Andy Whitman, Climate/Carbon Specialist, Maine Forest Service – andrew.whitman@maine.gov

Massachusetts – Christina McKeown, MA DCR Climate Forester –  Christina.MCKeown2@mass.gov

New Hampshire – Matt Kelly, Forestry Field Specialist, UNH Cooperative Extension – Matt.Kelly@unh.edu

New York – Molly Hassett, Climate Forestry and Carbon Section Leader, NY DEC, Division of Lands and Forests – Molly.Hassett@dec.ny.gov

Rhode Island – Nancy Stairs, Cooperative Forestry Program Supervisor, RI Dept of Environmental Management, Div. of Forest Environment – Nancy.Stairs@dem.ri.gov

Vermont – Al Freeman, Vermont Climate Forester, VT Dept. of Forests, Parks and Recreation – Al.Freeman@vermont.gov

Alexandra (Ali) Kosiba, Vermont’s Extension Forester (Alexandra.Kosiba@uvm.edu), has a special role in the Program, leading the training for the effort and also providing special counsel to the project.

The grant was awarded to the North East State Foresters Association (www.nefainfo.org), a non-profit of the State Foresters from these states.   Their executive director is Charles Levesque, President of the consulting firm Innovative Natural Resource Solutions, LLC (www.inrsllc.com).  He can be contacted at 603-588-3272 or levesque@inrsllc.com