The idea is a simple one, and it's been around for decades.

You plant or preserve trees as a way to offset the emission of carbon dioxide, which warms the planet.

You then create a market to buy and sell these offsets.

They're known as carbon credits.

Supporters say these markets are a key tool to address climate change, but carbon credits

have also been criticized for being opaque and not nearly reducing emissions enough.

Stephanie Syr reports on an effort to boost the integrity of carbon markets and to open

them up to small rural American landowners.

It's part of our ongoing series, Tipping Point.

What's nice to this section, though, is it has some nice trees in it, though.

On an unusually warm early spring morning, Wayne and Michelle Strader walked through the woods

with a forester.

We've got a good diversity of hardwoods here, exactly what we're looking for to enroll,

naturally regenerating hardwood forests.

The expertise Isaac Sloan brings in helping them manage their forest land is one of the reasons

the Straders chose to participate in the Family Forest Carbon Program.

For committing to defer harvesting most trees on their land,

they also receive an annual stipend

that's paying for the climate change causing carbon

their forests sequesters.

It was about what's doing right for the environment,

but also being able to utilize the land

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