Colorado firm launches carbon-credit funded peatland restoration in North Carolina
Pantheon Regeneration is blocking historic drainage ditches on a 23-square-mile peatland in North Carolina to rewet the soil, cut invasive plants and sell carbon credits to fund the effort.
Scientists and investors have converged on a 23-square-mile peatland in North Carolina’s Inner Banks to halt its carbon emissions, which total roughly 130,000 tons per year after decades of drainage. Pantheon Regeneration intends to seal the old ditches, raise the water table, eradicate invasive flora and re-establish native grasses and trees, following restoration models used at the adjacent Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge.
The company will generate income by selling high-quality carbon credits to corporations seeking offsets, with early backing from Microsoft. Those funds are earmarked to acquire and permanently protect up to a million acres of peatland from Virginia to northern Florida within a decade. Researchers note that intact peat stores one-third of global carbon despite covering only 3% of land, making the effort a critical climate solution. The initiative also aims to revive habitats for migratory birds, red wolves and other endangered species threatened by past drainage and fire events.
