Credit sales from forests begin to offset carbon

An Arkansas company using long-term forestry practices to offset carbon emissions had its first project in Louisiana verified for the sale of carbon credits and has already begun making sales, company officials said.

NativState’s project sets aside 20,000 acres of hardwood bottomland forests inside the Mississippi River Delta of northeastern Louisiana and western Mississippi for the program to offset emissions of greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change, officials added.

Home to black bears, alligators and a variety of other wildlife, the woodlands in the “Bottomland Forests of Louisiana Plains’’ project are part of the Mississippi Flyway, one of the nation’s primary routes for migratory birds.