July 16, 2008

Atlanta, Ga

For Immediate Release

Major League Baseball Players Contributing to Clean Air!

In July of 2008, Ryan Klesko and John Smoltz received a letter from the Georgia
Forestry Commission’s Carbon Registry, www.gacarbon.org, confirming that their
1600 Acre Big “K” Tree Farm is the first forest carbon sequestration project to be
registered on the Georgia Carbon Registry. “This is an exciting time for forest
owners. There is a new rapidly emerging Carbon Market and those of you who
own sustainable forests are positioned to generate revenue from the sale of
Carbon Credits,” says Ryan Klesko.

The Big “K” Farm is one of only a few landholdings recognized as a Certified
Outstanding Forest Steward by the Georgia Forestry Commission’s Stewardship
Program and is enrolled in the GROWS (Georgia Recognizes Our Woodland Stewards)
Program www.gagrows.com.

A member of The Georgia Forestry Association and National Tree Farm Program,
Big K was chosen 2006 Georgia Tree Farm of the Year and was a finalist for
National Tree Farm in 2007.

Lynn Hooven, registered forester and retired Chief of Forest Management of
the Georgia Forestry Commission, has been managing the forests of the Big “K”
Farm since 2001.  Mr. Hooven states that “the objective since
the beginning has been to encourage multiuse management of the farm’s
resources—timber, wildlife, soil, and water--for conservation, recreation,
education and aesthetics.” The owners and management of the farm are strong
advocates of sustainable forest management and demonstrate this quality by
conducting educational workshops for teachers and students. The farm frequently
opens its gates for the purpose of educating people with an up-close and
personal look at forestland management in its finest form. The goal of Big K is
to “lead and promote progressive thinking when it comes to forestland ownership,”
says Hooven.

Now that the Big “K” Farm is approved into the Georgia Carbon Registry, the owners
have contracted with Carbon Offset Originators, LLC (CO2, LLC, www.CO2org.com),
“whose mission is to help tree farmers maximize the value of their environmental attributes.” 
CO2, LLC markets the credits to investors, brokers, and corporations who have made
a commitment to their customers to offset the fossil fuel used in their businesses.

Environmental attributes, such as wetlands
mitigation credits, Renewable Energy Certificates and Carbon Credits are a
market-based program that requires public and private companies that negatively
impact the environment to purchase Carbon Credits from operations (like tree farms)
that positively impact the environment. -Ryan Klesko

Carbon dioxide is a major greenhouse gas (GHG) and can easily be reduced and
eliminated by increasing and sustaining living forests. “Forest owners in the
Southeast US have been fighting cost increases in everything from diesel fuel to
fertilizers; the only thing not going up is what we are paid for timber,” says
Klesko’s Financial Manager, Richard Spear. “Meanwhile owners are under
increasing pressure to sell out to developers or to harvest their pine prematurely
to make ends meet.”

It takes a great deal of money to maintain a tree farm. “Management plans and stewardship
programs have to be followed, roads must be maintained and improved upon, soil
and water programs need to be followed and wildlife habitats must be expanded.
These are programs we’ve committed to complete; we don’t just do these things
when markets for our trees are good. That’s why we are excited about these
Carbon Credits; these represent a new source of revenue for the landowners,
even in bad economic times. If you properly maintain your trees and follow an
approved management plan it will produce Carbon Credits that are sold to large
companies to balance the amount of energy they use that comes from fossil fuels
like coal, oil and natural gas,” says Klesko.

The yellow pine trees in the Southeast consume more carbon dioxide through
photosynthesis and release more oxygen than almost any other type of tree. The
more healthy trees you have that are consuming CO₂ the better it is
for the environment. Pine tree farms help reduce the level of GHG’s in the atmosphere
through capturing and storing CO₂ in soil and trees. This process is
called “carbon sequestration.”  What's more, most tree
farmers can benefit by selling carbon credits, and profit from the
implementation of conservation practices that promote carbon sequestration on
their land.

 Using the Georgia Carbon Sequestration
Protocol, developed at the University of Georgia Warnell School of Forestry and
Natural Resources, yellow pine species in the Southeast such as loblolly,
longleaf and slash, are calculated to store between three and six tons of carbon
per acre / per year.  Because of the tree
farms and biomass being grown in the Southeast, it is one of the greatest
Carbon Storage (or Carbon Sinks) in the US. 
Similar protocols will be developed for conservation tillage and urban
forestry in the future. For more information see the following website, http://www.gfc.state.ga.us/ForestMarketing/CarbonRegistryDocs.cfm