It's an ambitious plan that forestry experts say is scientifically sound, but which nonetheless must leap several steep hurdles, including obtaining provincial permission to cut trees in protected areas.

Half a century ago, many of the creeks and forests near Old Massett, B.C., were clearcut. The land, denuded of the soaring cedars and hemlocks that form the area's temperate rainforest, did not stay bare for long. It soon filled in with numerous alder trees.

All growing plants absorb carbon dioxide -- a greenhouse gas of primary concern under the Kyoto Protocol since it is the main byproduct of burning fossil fuels -- from the atmosphere. But Haida Gwaii's old-growth conifers, which can grow as much as 50 metres in a half-century, are far more efficient carbon sponges than alders.

Within seven years of being planted, a hectare of cedars and hemlocks will absorb more carbon than a hectare of alder, said John Disney, the economic development officer for Old Massett.

He has spearheaded the town's plan to sell that difference to polluting companies eager to balance their carbon output, an idea he said could easily be replicated by aboriginal groups along the entire coast of B.C.

"You've got a guy in Europe making tires and he's pumping one million tonnes of carbon in the air. It might cost him $1-billion to fix his plant so that now it isn't pumping carbon in to the air. So he has to go back and say to his workers, 'You can't get a bonus for the next 10 years,' " said Mr. Disney. "Or he says, 'We got a guy there in Canada who will suck up our million tonnes of carbon and that will buy us time. Then I can spread the refurbishing of this plant over the next 10 years. And [the carbon credits] will cost maybe $50-million'."

The project would be monitored by the town itself for 10 years to ensure the trees reached a "free-to-grow" state, and could develop regardless of Canada's adherence to Kyoto, since carbon is an international market much like other commodities.

For example, last month, the EU chopped its emissions allowances for 10 member states by 7%, a move that will quicken the demand for global carbon trading as countries seek to squeeze under increasingly rigid caps.

As that system grows and becomes more lucrative, it could undermine the entire forest industry in B.C., said University of British Columbia forestry professor David Cohen. He compared the carbonmarket today to the Internet in 1992, before the first Web browser had been developed.

"Fifteen years ago, if you said, 'I'm thinking of this inter-connected Internet where everybody can talk to each other over the computer,' people would have called you crazy. ?But look at the impact it's had," Mr. Cohen said.

"In 2020, if we're going to manage our forest lands in B.C. for the maximum return to the province it's going to be for environmental services. Wood will be an offshoot."

John Allan, president of the Council of Forest Industries, disagrees. Forestry currently accounts for $3.3-billion in annual revenues to the provincial government, a sum that will be hard to replace with carbon credits, he said.

Besides, he added, forestry and carbon credits can co-exist. "We leave 99%-plus of the trees standing every year, so I guess what I'm saying is we can have our cake and eat it too," he said.

Old Massett has spent $262,000 over four years in staff and feasibility study costs to develop the plan, which they hope to pilot on a 1,000-hectare plot within the next few months. Clearing alder from that area will cost about $4.5-million, but computer modelling has shown that each hectare will produce about 2,000 carbon credits 35 years out -- the date on which selling certificates will be based.

Each credit is equivalent to one tonne of sequestered carbon, and over the past year credits have traded at anywhere from $40 to under $10. At the current $10.50 market, credits from the pilot project could be worth $21-million.

Mr. Disney said one of his partners was called to an audience with Pope Benedict XVI to discuss the project, and numerous companies have expressed interest in buying the credits.

Still, the project faces one key obstacle: the only way to guarantee that new trees will continue sequestering carbon far into the future is to run the program in areas where logging is banned. Haida Gwaii currently has 15,000 hectares of protected land suitable for the reforestation, but Old Massett has not yet succeeded in convincing the province to let them onto protected lands.

nvanderklippe@nationalpost.