Blog full width

E&S is leading the development of a suite of carbon credit decision-support tools to help Oregon’s small forest landowners evaluate carbon market opportunities. The project is supported by the Oregon Department of Forestry’s Natural and Working Lands Fund, with the Benton Soil and Water Conservation District (BSWCD) administering the funds and partnering on landowner outreach.

E&S is conducting a life cycle assessment across four crediting pathways — biochar production, avoided…

E&S is exploring possibilities for forest restoration projects designed to enhance carbon sequestration and ecological function through nature-based climate solutions such as enhanced rock weathering (ERW) and biochar production. Nature-based climate solutions can provide more energetically and economically efficient alternatives for carbon dioxide removal and storage relative to human-engineered carbon removal technologies by leveraging biotic and abiotic uptake and storage in aboveground biomass, soils, and drainage water. A primary…

E&S is collaborating with the Wild Salmon Center, NOAA, Karuk Tribe, Yurok Tribe, UC Berkeley, and Oregon State University on a project in the Lower Klamath River Basin in Northern California that seeks to enhance understanding of drivers of historical Chinook salmon populations and population dynamics. A portion of the work entails use of the S3 model to track the movement, growth, and survival of juvenile Chinook salmon during…

E&S conducted water quality sampling and analysis for cyanotoxins from reservoirs associated with the Lewis River Hydroelectric Project in Cowlitz County, WA. Sampling occurred at nine publicly accessible reservoir locations along the shorelines of either designated swim areas or areas most likely to host public access. Samples were analyzed for cyanotoxins along with microscopy to identify potentially toxigenic cyanobacteria species. In-situ water chemistry measurements were also taken. This work…

Stemming from previous research efforts for the National Park Service and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, E&S has expanded investigations into effects of expected increased air temperature on more than 1,000 understory plant species characteristic of vegetation communities within National Parks. Previously developed statistical models for each species were used in this project to model the effects of anticipated climate change and chronic exposure to air pollution (especially atmospheric nitrogen…

E&S recently developed a white paper documenting an exploratory analysis of drivers of tree growth and survival responses to climate-related variables and aspects of air pollution, among other drivers, with colleagues at EPA and partner Universities. The study utilized US Forest Service Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) data for more than 1,000,000 individual trees; with particular emphasis given to ten species, including quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides), red spruce (Picea…