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Global awareness of human effects on climate hasincreased in the past two decades and has led to international and regional, political, and economic efforts to reduce or offset greenhouse-gas emissions. Typically, offsets are achieved through afforestation and reforesta-tion (Schulze et al. 2000; IPCC 2006; CCAR 2007) and require landowners to establish a carbon (C) baseline to quantify the amount of C stored on a given unit of forest land (IPCC 2006; CCAR 2007). As trees grow, C is sequestered, and these additional tons of C can be used to offset emissions in other sectors. In fire-prone forests, however, tree-based C storage may lead to large releases of C if trees are killed and partially consumed by a high-severity fire (Breshears and Allen 2002; Hurtt et al. 2002; Kashian et al. 2006; Hurteau et al. 2008). Beginning in the mid-1900s, US forested lands becam