February 16, 2011 Vernonia, Oregon – The Pinchot Institute for Conservation, in cooperation with Portland-based Regence BlueCross BlueShield, has announced the launch of an innovative Forest Health- Human Health Initiative that links forest carbon projects with affordable health care opportunities for forest landowners. With major support from Oregon’s Kelley Family Foundation, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Pinchot Institute, Regence BlueCross BlueShield, and the Corvallis-based engineering firm Mater Ltd., the Forest Health-Human Health Initiative will help family forest owners pay for health care with carbon credits instead of dollars.

This creative twist on carbon markets provides forest landowners with greater financial security, helping to keep forest land in the family, even if a catastrophic health event should occur. "We are a threegeneration forestland owner family here in Vernonia" said Sharon Bernals, a longtime Vernonia resident and forestland owner. "The Pinchot Institute’s Forest Health-Human Health Initiative gives us forestland owners the first concrete innovative option for ensuring our family forests can stay in family hands and support the community we’ve been born and raised in."

A Pinchot Institute study found that one of the greatest sources of financial pressure on region’s family forest owners is an unexpected major medical bill, and that this can result in families needing to sell or develop land that they otherwise would have maintained as family forest. Regence Blue Cross Blue Shield took an interest in developing new health care options for family forest owners to help address this situation. A growing focus on sustainability at Regence led them to also suggest that these health care options might be paid for not with dollars, but with carbon credits earned by family forest owners, just by conserving and managing their forests well.

According to Mohan Nair, Chief Innovation Officer at Regence BlueCross BlueShield, this program represents a return to their roots as well. “Regence was started many years ago by families working in Pacific Northwest forests that pooled their resources to provide health care for one another. We appreciate that this Pinchot Institute initiative seeks to use those same forests to help make health care more affordable and sustainable for forest landowners and their families.”

In cooperation with Oregon State University, the next phase of the Forest Health-Human Health Initiative will evaluate whether new forest biomass scanning technology can be upgraded to include carbon scanning. "This single-pass process could reduce monitoring costs to participating FH-HH landowners by up to 30 percent," said Catherine Mater, president of Mater Ltd. and a senior fellow with the Pinchot Institute. "This is critical, since the cost of monitoring is can make the difference for family landowners hoping to participate."

The community within which the project is occurring, is just as innovative as the concept itself. After being devastated by two major floods, the Rebuild Vernonia campaign has made sustainability a central platform. A new "green building certified" K-12 school is being constructed on higher ground and will no longer be heated with fossil fuels, but with locally produced wood biomass. A study conducted by the Pinchot Institute and Mater Ltd. found that local forests could supply the school and another public building complex with wood biomass.

Dr. Ken Cox, Superintendent of Vernonia Public Schools, says this project will provide many valuable opportunities for the schools and for the community itself. "This will create a living laboratory for sustainability throughout our entire community," said Cox. "The lessons learned from this Forest Health-Human Health Initiative will be incorporated into our teaching curriculum for all our children in the community."

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About the Pinchot Institute for Conservation

The Pinchot Institute for Conservation (http://www.pinchot.org) is to advance conservation and sustainable natural resource management by developing innovative, practical, and broadly-supported solutions to conservation challenges and opportunities. The Pinchot Institute accomplishes this through nonpartisan research, education and technical assistance on key issues influencing the future of conservation and sustainable natural resource development.