This year’s Common Ground Alliance (CGA) Forum was held on July 15 in Long Lake.  Most of the day was devoted to workgroup activity around 9 topics, one of which was the region’s response to climate change, which we led.  Fourteen people participated in our workgroup and we had very productive and creative discussions.  The summary report on our discussions is available here.

Of particular note was the “fantasy stretch goal” that we were challenged to come up with by the Forum organizers.  Our group put forth the idea that we should set ourselves the goal of doing better than net zero with respect to emissions.  We should have net negative emissions.  This would come about by the combination of dramatically reducing our emissions, in line with what everyone should be doing to combat climate change, and strengthening the health and carbon storage capabilities of our forests and soils through the latest forest management and agricultural practices.  That’s a strategy that we can sign up for!