The real trees behind fake corporate climate progress
Dec 20, 2020 Jack Branning is a prosperous Mississippi businessman, with commercial interests stretching from Hattiesburg to Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He’s seen a lot of deals in his 89 years, but few were as curious as the one he was offered back in 2013. That’s when a forester walked into his office in Vicksburg and inquired about 1,700 acres of former soybean fields he owned nearby. The man worked for GreenTrees LLC, a small company that says it combats climate change by reforesting thousands of acres of farmland along the lower Mississippi River. GreenTrees says it pays landown...