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July 01, 2009 Technical Report

Terrestrial Field Validation Test Regional Technology Implementation Plan

As part of the PCOR Partnership Phase II Program, the Energy & Environmental Research Center; Ducks Unlimited, Inc.; the U.S. Geological Survey Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center; and North Dakota State University have demonstrated optimal practices for terrestrially sequestering CO2 at multiple sites located in the Prairie Pothole Region (PPR) of North America. A terrestrial field validation test was initiated to develop the technical capacity to systematically identify, develop, and apply alternate land use management practices to the Prairie Pothole ecosystem (at both local and regional scale) that results in net greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions and marketable carbon offsets. As part of this project, PCOR Partnership partners collected soil and gas samples from various age cohorts of restored grasslands, native prairie, cropland, and wetlands throughout Montana, North and South Dakota, Minnesota, and Iowa. In addition to carbon uptake and storage measurements, methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) gas fluxes were also measured to estimate the net GHG flux of each management practice. These data have been instrumental in advancing terrestrial carbon credits from the PCOR Partnership region into the marketplace. This Regional Technology Implementation Plan (RTIP) outlines the framework developed for full-scale deployment of grassland-based terrestrial carbon sequestration methods in the PPR. The plan includes methodologies for project development, characterization, comprehensive monitoring, and modeling methods for verification; regulatory, permitting, and accounting frameworks; and public outreach and education strategies. Also included in the RTIP are legal documents for purchasing GHG and carbon rights and for carbon ownership transfer from private landowners to an aggregation entity and from the aggregation entity to the investor, as well as a site management plan that specifies best management practices for carbon seq

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