UtiliTree Carbon Company and ESI to Restore Lower Mississippi River Valley Bottomland Hardwood Forest.

The UtiliTree Carbon Company has selected Environmental Synergy, Inc. (ESI) to reforest 500 acres in the Lower Mississippi River Valley. The marginal farmland will be restored with a mixture of indigenous bottomland hardwood trees.  The restoration project is located at the St. Catherine Creek National Wildlife Refuge in Southwest Mississippi.  This refuge is one of more than 500 national wildlife refuges managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

In addition to sequestering significant amounts of carbon dioxide over the 70-year project life, this project will provide valuable wildlife habitat for resident and migratory species, including neotropical migrant songbirds, whitetail deer, and the threatened Louisiana Black Bear.

The nonprofit UtiliTree Carbon Company, managed by the Edison Electric Institute, is a partnership of 40 investor-owned electric utilities sponsoring a portfolio of forestry projects that manage carbon dioxide.  Currently, there are nine UtiliTree projects consisting of a diverse mix of rural tree planting, forest preservation, forest management, and research efforts at both domestic and international sites.  The UtiliTree Carbon Company has committed more than $3 million to reduce about 3 million tons of CO₂ through these projects. 

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