Fellow Story
Danks part of invasive earthworm project to determine carbon market connection
“Forest soil carbon is poorly understood and so it’s often not counted or even removed from some forest carbon protocols,” says Cecilia Danks, a social scientist in UVM’s Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources. “I’ve been brought in to this earthworm project to try to figure out: is there a carbon market connection? You don’t get credit in the market right now — for the most part — for forest soil carbon.” This research effort aims to move toward a better accounting of carbon in the Northern Forest, and, perhaps, Danks hopes, the chance for Vermont forestland owners to get a return on the carbon stored below their feet, even carbon passing through the bowel of an invasive earthworm.