Today I learned that our small town is carbon neutral. We could increase our population by a third and remain so.
Here’s the quote from page 9 of the draft Town Plan approved by the Planning Commission:
The mature trees on these forest lands perform critical ecosystem services including absorbing and sequestering carbon dioxide — a greenhouse gas. Data gathered by the US Energy Information Administration tracks annual carbon dioxide emission by state, which shows that each Vermonter produces approximately 10.6 tons of carbon dioxide per year. Based on research by the University of Massachusetts, Amherst this individual carbon dioxide load could be offset by approximately 3.7 acres of healthy forest. The combined area of the mapped forest blocks in the resource protection area is 17,202 acres. Therefore, mapped forest blocks can offset the carbon dioxide load of up to 4,650 residents. There is also considerably more forested land in other areas of town.
Below is the complete text of part 2.6 of the Town Plan:
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