PISGAH, Maryland —A major player in credit markets has made one of the largest U.S. timberland purchases in years, laying Wall Street’s biggest wager yet on forest carbon markets. Oak Hill Advisors LP, a subsidiary of T. Rowe Price Group that manages $56 billion and is best known as a corporate-debt investor, said that it led a consortium to pay about $1.8 billion for 1.7 million acres of forest. The properties spread over 17 eastern states and will be overseen by Anew Climate LLC. Oak Hill last year joined with Anew’s subsidiary Bluesource Sustainable Forests to acquire and manage timberland to maximize how much carbon is stored in the standing trees rather than how much wood is produced from cutting them down. …Anew plans to throttle back logging. It expects just 10% to 20% of revenue from the properties will come from harvesting wood, compared with 80% to 90% of the top line under the previous owner. …The 56 properties are mainly hardwood forest. [to access the full story a WSJ subscription is required]