The Bethlehem Authority, The Nature Conservancy, Carbon and Monroe counties will be recipients of the 25th annual Environmental Partnership Awards during the 25th annual Evening for Northeast Pennsylvania’s Environment, to be held later this month.
The recipients earned the award for their partnership on the Working Woodlands project, an innovative forest conservation program that brings together the conservancy’s land conservation and sustainable forest-management experience with emerging markers for sustainable wood products and carbon credits. The conservancy partnered with Blue Source LLC, a firm that specializes in developing carbon-offset projects, and the Bethlehem Authority, which was considering its options for maximizing the use and protection of its watershed lands. The Bethlehem Authority and the Nature Conservancy’s Working Woodland project leverages land conservation at a large scale for minimal cost by taking advantage of opportunities in the carbon market. The partners protected 22,000 acres of forested watershed land in Carbon and Monroe counties, making it the largest private conservation project in Pennsylvania history.
