This paper examines the key issues surrounding the development and application of forest-based offset projects in the southern region of the United States and provides the Southern Group of State Foresters’ (SGSF) recommendations for how these issues should be addressed in federal climate policy, should legislation be enacted.

The SGSF Water Resources Committee developed this general guidance document to assist Environmental Protection Agency and other federal regulatory agency representatives in making field level distinctions between ongoing silviculture for bottomland hardwood and cypress swamps and other land uses that may have similar operational aspects.