Carbon and Resilience Webinar Series

Bridging the Gap Between Research and Practice

The Forest Owner Carbon and Climate Education (FOCCE) Program is hosting the Forest Carbon and Resilience Webinar Series this fall. This webinar series aims to bring together landowners, researchers and natural resource professionals as we explore emerging forest carbon research. The webinars will focus on translating emerging research and new technologies into practical, actionable information for landowners. Participants will gain practical insights that support informed and forward-looking management decisions to increase confidence in making decisions for their current forests and future forest health.

Sessions will showcase emerging tools and approaches, including

Artificial intelligence and remote sensing technologies for forest assessment

Economic strategies for maximizing returns from carbon markets

Mass timber and long-lived wood products

Emerging markets for biochar and forest residues.

When: The Fall Webinar Series begins on Tuesday, August 25th, 2026 at 12:00 pm EST. Webinars occur bi-weekly until the middle of December, with the last program being on Tuesday December 1st.

Session 1

August 25 @ 12 pm EST

Stacking Income Streams: Maximizing Economic Benefits while Enrolled in a Carbon Contract

Sarah Widderich Baker and Dr. Melissa Kreye, Penn State

For landowners who are interested in joining a carbon program there are a lot of factors that they need to consider ranging from legacy planning to personal management goals. One of the primary sticking points for landowners is understanding the financial incentives for entering a carbon program. They want to know if the program is a good investment for their land. This webinar aims to address this question by exploring other payment programs or benefits landowners are eligible for while enrolling in a carbon program.

Session 2

September 15 @ 12 pm EST

Managing Forests for Carbon, Resilience and Long-Term Climate Benefits

Dr. Margarita Fernandez

This webinar will present on the practical applications of Climate-Smart Forestry for private forest management under changing climate conditions. Integrating concepts from the policy brief and extension articles, the session will address carbon storage, biodiversity co-benefits, resilience to disturbance, and management trade-offs relevant to landowners and practitioners.

Session 3

September 22 @ 12 pm EST

Understanding Forest Carbon Residues in Pennsylvania

Marvellous Faluyi, Penn State

This webinar will explore practical utilization pathways for forest biomass. Participants will learn how forest residues and invasive trees can be converted into biochar, wood pellets, and other bioenergy products, and how each pathway influences carbon storage. This session will emphasize decision-making tools that help landowners choose management options aligned with both environmental and economic goals. The topics covered will include Carbon pathways, Bioenergy, Wood pellets, Biochar and Comparison of Carbon Outcomes.

Session 4

October 6 @ 12 pm EST

Mass Timber and Long-Lived Wood Products

Kiana Wilcher

Explore the carbon storage potential of long-lived wood products and mass timber construction in this webinar, the fourth in the “Forest Owner Carbon and Climate Education” Webinar Series. Learn how long-lived wood products are defined and used, how they can store carbon, and sustainable options for managing trees after a timber harvest. The series blends emerging research with practical applications to help landowners and professionals better understand evolving carbon markets and make informed decisions that support forest health and economic goals.

October 20 @ 12 pm EST

Utilizing AI and Remote Sensing to Understand
your Forests

Salem Ibrahim, Santosh Sapkota, Xintong Zou and MD Riaz Uddin

This is the fifth webinar in the Forest Carbon and Resilience webinar series. This webinar provides participants with an introduction to emerging forest measurement technologies, including remote sensing and AI based tools. Landowners will learn how these tools can help support forest management and decision making and will provide landowners with the opportunity to interact with new technologies.

Session 5

Session 6

November 3 @ 12 pm EST

Economic Trade-offs in Timber Products Under Various Carbon Management Strategies for PA

Chad Papa, Michigan State University

This is the sixth webinar in the Forest Carbon and Resilience webinar series. Dr. Chad Papa will be presenting the findings from a recent research publication focused on the economic tradeoffs of carbon focused management practices in Pennsylvania. This study assessed management practices that reflect common practices in carbon contracts, including extended harvest rotations, restocking forests, reducing deforestation, controlled deer browse, timber stand improvement strategies (prescribed fire and thinning), silvopasture, no harvest, and a portfolio scenario that combined multiple management practices to estimate the profitability of alternative management scenarios in comparison with traditional management. This presentation will highlight the findings from this study helping participants to understand existing economic tradeoffs.

Session 7

November 17 @ 12 pm EST

Exploring the Forest Innovation Platform

Kendall DeLyser, American Forests

This webinar will introduce participants to the new Forest Innovation Platform (FIP), an open-source forestry data tool designed by American Forests. The FIP uses reliable data to illustrate forest vulnerability to elements such as wildfire, insects and disease in future projections, and to help provide landowners with areas of where to direct action to increase forest resilience. Dr. Kendall DeLyser Roney, the senior director of Forest Climate Science at American Forests will join us to walk participants through the background about the tool, including how it was designed, what data was used in the model and practical illustrations of how to interact with the FIP.

Session 8

December 1 @ 12 pm EST

FOCCE Scholars Presentations

TBA

The final webinar in the Forest Carbon and Resilience Webinar will highlight the projects of the 2026 FOCCE Scholars. The FOCCE Scholars are graduate students and young professionals who have taken extension training and received mentorship to produce their own extension product over the course of the past 6 months. This webinar will have students present their products using the Ignite presentation format, which means that students will each present for exactly 5 minutes providing an overview of their project. These flash presentations will allow participants to learn about a wide range of forest topics including, but not limited to understanding forest dynamics in the Northeast US, soil carbon sequestration and urban forestry.