A charity based in Sackville is buying an old-growth forest in Cambridge-Narrows that has been in environmentalist Robena Weatherly's family for generations.

Community Forest International bought the 350-acre property (about 141 hectares) through its carbon offset program.

Weatherly still has the original land grant given to her great-great-great-grandfather, neatly written on yellowed paper. It's dated 1812.

Since her family took ownership, she said, a small section has been cleared for pasture, but otherwise few trees have been cut and harvested over the years.

Over the years, she's been approached many times by people hoping to harvest the forest.

"I have never been tempted," she said.

Megan de Graaf said of carbon offsetting: 'In real world terms, this means that we have to keep trees standing on that property.' (Zach Melanson/Submitted)

But when Community Forest International asked about purchasing the land, she put more thought into the proposal.

"The idea that they were interested in the property for something other than its commercial value to just cut it down, appealed to me, to my ethic."

CFI is a non-profit that works to protect forests. It developed a carbon offsetting program that essentially sees businesses pay the group to preserve old-growth forests.

Carbon offsetting

Mature forests like Weatherby's storing tons of carbon. Many, if not most, of the things humans do release carbon into the atmosphere.

CFI's program calculates how much carbon a business emits through things such as employee driving and air travel and heating buildings. The company can buy that amount of carbon stored in mature trees on CFI's preserved land.

"We are on the hook for maintaining a certain amount of carbon," Megan de Graaf, forest ecologist at CFI, explained. "What that translates into in real world terms, this means that we have to keep trees standing on that property."

'It's the right thing to do'

De Graaf said the group has used the program to preserve more than 1,000 acres (about 405 hectares) in New Brunswick.

Greg Hemmings, CEO at Hemmings House Pictures, along with Dialog, an architecture firm in Toronto and Acre Architects in Saint John, is buying carbon offsets from the Weatherly family's land.

Hemmings said he did it because, "it's the right thing to do."

He said it was about five years ago when he started to look around for ways to reduce the company's carbon footprint.

"We want to make sure that we are enjoying the successes of our business but not at the cost of our environment."

CFI asked detailed questions about the company's operations, and Hemmings said it was established that the business emits 300 tonnes of carbon a year.

"I think it was less than $4,000, so we're talking relatively minor amount of money considering how much we actually have in creating carbon."

"It's not cost-prohibitive."

Margins can be tight for a small business, but it's all about making decisions, he said.

"How much money do I really need to support my family? How much money do I want to pocket, and how much money do I want to reinvest into the world I live in? The community that I live in?"

Members of Community Forest International walk in Robinson forest with Robena Weatherly. (Zach Melanson/Submitted)

De Graaf said the province could easily capitalize on a similar model.

"In fact, kind of scale up to more than just New Brunswick and be engaged in even bigger contracts outside of New Brunswick to take on big emissions reductions and offsets using the Acadian forest here at home."

Robinson Conservation Forest

De Graaf said the land, named the Robinson Conservation Forest, is on two parcels, both of which will be owned by CFI by January. She wouldn't reveal how much it was purchased for but said the land was appraised and the group paid fair market value.

Weatherly said she discussed the sale with her family before the deal was signed, and everyone agreed it was the right thing to do. Even if it was a difficult decision.

"Well, maybe my age has something to do with it. It seemed a good idea to have some kind of a plan."

Greg Hemmings, a client of CFI, said he wanted to offset his company's carbon footprint. (Submitted)

Weatherly estimates some of the older trees could be from 250 to 300 years old. She would know. She was one of the country's first female pathologists, contributing to research on the mountain pine beetle in the 1950s, before the pest was considered an epidemic.

Weatherly understands its value to a healthy ecosystem, but she also has close ties to the land. She recognizes many of the older trees from her childhood and remembers the year one particular tree was struck by lightning.

Selling her property is a leap of faith, but she said she trusts the people at CFI.

De Graaf said the group plans to put a "working land conservation easement" on the property.

She said it's a legal tool that dictates what can be done on a property, no matter whose name is on the deed.