SAN DIEGO -- Ninety percent of California's wetlands are gone, and the movement to restore them has taken on added urgency in light of the climate crisis.

A recent report by the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center encouraged California to restore and expand the natural carbon sinks up and down the coast.

James Holmquist, ecologist at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center and co-author of the report, said it maps out the best places for so-called "blue carbon" mitigation projects.

"They're one of the few ecosystems that can take carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and store it long term and lock it away in their soils," Holmquist pointed out.

Holmquist added plants in tidal marshes scrub carbon from the atmosphere and send it to their roots, which later die and add to the soil bed.

ReWild Mission Bay is a blue-carbon restoration project in San Diego that would like to see local marshes restored. The City of San Diego is about to release a new land-use plan, which could require a campground built on marshland decades ago to relocate.

Andrew Meyer, conservation director at the San Diego Audubon Society, said the project would rebuild tidal wetlands that lock away carbon.

"The priority for this space should be the blue carbon benefits we can get from wetland restoration," Meyer asserted. "Our park uses can fit in the banks of a restored, vibrant wetland. This is the best place for wetland restoration in Mission Bay; in all of San Diego."

The Coastal Carbon Network is working on releasing more data on blue carbon from other areas of the state, including Bodega Bay, Bolinas Lagoon, Humboldt Bay, Morro Bay, Newport Bay, Point Mugu, Seal Beach and Tijuana Estuary.

Support for this reporting was provided by The Pew Charitable Trusts.

Warmer winters and prolonged drought have turned Colorado forests into a budworm and beetle buffet, according to a new report from Colorado State University, and the thousands of acres of dead and dying trees left in their wake pose wildfire risks.

Dan West, entomologist for the Colorado State Forest Service, said four of the last five years have seen below-average precipitation, which is a problem because trees need water to produce resin, which they use to fight off insects.

"When we have significantly below or below-average precipitation, you couple that with warmer than average temperatures, it's really hard to be a tree in Colorado," West explained. "A lot of these bark beetles are just taking advantage of that."

Between 2023 and 2024, western spruce budworms increased their feasting grounds to 217,000 acres, up 15,000 acres from the previous year. The mountain pine beetle population continues to grow along the Front Range, in Gunnison County and in the southwest corner of the state. Bark beetles, the state's deadliest because they kill entire trees, have devoured 27,000 acres in places such as Rocky Mountain National Park and the San Juan and San Isabel national forests.

Warmer winters due to the burning of fossil fuels have taken away a key tree defense: deep freezes. West noted Colorado has not seen below-average winter temperatures in more than three decades.

"Maybe in my parents' generation or grandparents' generation, we used to calculate in overwinter mortality of bark beetles," West pointed out. "We pretty much don't do that anymore. The temperatures really never reach that overwintering cold temperature that can cause bark beetle mortality."

West added trees and insects naturally coexist in ecosystems and bark beetles act as sanitizers of the forest by recycling nutrients but with entire forests weakened, trees become low-hanging fruit.

"As these outbreaks continue over a number of years, we've got a lot of standing dead trees," West observed. "A cigarette, a campfire, a lightning strike -- whatever the spark may be -- that then has a lot of fuel to be able to burn through."

The Comanche 3 coal-fired power plant in Pueblo, Colo., is set to close in just six years -- and community leaders, regulators, and Xcel are considering plans to replace the unit's energy and economic contributions.

A new Energy Innovation report suggests that an industrial-scale energy park that harnesses wind, solar, and battery storage would check all the boxes.

Michelle Solomon, electricity policy manager with the nonpartisan think tank Energy Innovation, said the energy park would create some 300 permanent, high-paying jobs in plant operations, engineering, and more.

"The energy park could generate up to $40 million in annual tax revenue for Pueblo," said Solomon, "which is really important because they depend on this tax revenue that they're getting from Comanche right now -- for things like schools and libraries, things that the community can't afford to lose."

Comanche's connection to the power grid would allow the energy park to meet rising demand locally and in places like Colorado Springs and Denver.

A separate proposal calls for replacing Comanche with a small modular nuclear reactor, an energy source that does not emit carbon but remains controversial.

Tribal lands have been repeatedly targeted as radioactive waste dumps, and many still remember nuclear disasters at Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and Fukushima.

Wind and solar are now the cheapest source for electricity - and Solomon said unlike nuclear-reactor or natural-gas plant projects, ratepayers would share startup costs with onsite manufacturers, who get guaranteed low-cost energy to produce fertilizer, hydrogen, and more.

"That could be used at any type of industry that's using heat," said Solomon. "So, that could be a steel plant, a cement plant, anything that's using heat for manufacturing."

Solomon said speed is also important for getting economic benefits flowing back into the community. The energy park could break ground before 2030, years earlier than other options.

"They are also the types of resources that can come online more quickly," said Solomon. "When the coal plant retires, the community can't wait a decade for a new resource to come online."

Trenton is set to become home to the region's largest battery storage facility but federal policy changes might change how it's funded.

The DTE Trenton Channel Energy Center would use clean energy tax credits from the Inflation Reduction Act but proposed federal cuts threaten the tax credits.

The plant is expected to store enough energy to power 40,000 homes for a day, create union jobs and help offset the area's economic loss from the 2022 closure of the Trenton Channel Power Plant.

James Harrison, director of renewable energies for the Utility Workers Union of America, said he has three generations of family history at the Trenton plant and is concerned about the potential effects of the proposed cuts.

"They're going to probably move forward with projects," Harrison explained. "The difference is going to be whether or not ratepayers are going to be on the hook to pay for that, or whether or not there's an opportunity to utilize tax credits to offset the cost to ratepayers."

In Michigan alone, more than 100 utility-scale projects are in development which could use the tax incentives. Those who want to eliminate the tax credits said the energy sector should compete without federal aid, arguing tax breaks add to the national debt and unfairly favor certain industries.

The Trenton facility is expected to start operations in mid-2026. The battery storage facility is also expected to generate more tax revenue than the former coal plant, which would benefit schools and public services in the Trenton/Wayne County area.

Harrison shared how his family history at the plant site colors his personal feelings about the new facility.

"I've been in the power industry almost 50 years," Harrison noted. "It's nice to see that the very first power plant that I worked at is being repurposed with modern technology to do the very same kind of job that original plant had provided to the community."

Some Republican lawmakers support keeping certain clean energy tax credits, citing their benefits for jobs and local economies. The Trenton project is also expected to contribute to Michigan's efforts to meet its renewable energy targets of using 60% clean energy by 2030, and 100% by 2040.


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