Last year, the global carbon offset market hit a record $851 billion, according to analysts at Refinitiv. But in the U.S., there are millions of acres that haven’t been available for carbon projects — located on federal and state land. Indeed, there are currently only two carbon projects generating carbon credits on state land; there are none on federal land. In Michigan, the Big Wild Forest Carbon Project, started in spring 2021, became the first state land generating credits. Those have been promised to the Detroit-based energy company DTE. The pilot program by project developer Bluesource is on 100,000 acres of land in Pigeon River Country State Forest. It is generating the credits by switching the parcel to sustainable forest management techniques. According to the developer, that new plan harvests 35 percent less timber than the baseline management plan would have allowed over the next 40 years.