Green Diamond Resource Company Lazier Reforestation

The Climate Trust is partnering with Green Diamond Resource Company (GDRC) to implement a 902-acre reforestation project supporting the restoration of GDRC’s fee-title forestland in Montana impacted by severe wildfire. Forest cover at this site was devastated by the Lazier fire in 2017. Immediately following the fire, Green Diamond conducted a salvage harvest of the burned area to remove dead and dying trees and reduce the risk of future fires. The majority of acres across this site have not naturally regenerated, and active reforestation efforts are needed to prevent further degradation of the ecosystem, to restore wildlife habitat, and to provide for future timber production. Financing through a carbon project is key due to the high costs of reforesting this site and the loss of timber revenue following the fire. GDRC is eager to partner with TCT to develop an effective project.

Through The Climate Trust’s Traceable Reforestation for America’s Carbon and Timber (TRACT) program in partnership with the USDA, TCT will fund a variety of activities within the Lazier project, including site preparation, planting materials and labor, and post-planting competition treatments as needed. TCT staff will collaborate with GDRC operations and sustainability teams to design and implement a resilient forest re-establishment plan, leveraging the significant in-house expertise present at GDRC, a sixth-generation family-owned forestry company.

Following planting activities in 2027, the project will be listed with ACR, and developed under the ACR methodology for Afforestation and Reforestation of Degraded Lands, version 1.2. This project may later be expanded through the Programmatic Development Approach (PDA) to include additional eligible lands within the same landscape.

This material is based upon work supported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), under agreement number NR233A750004G020.