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tulips
Creative Commons

Cultivating communities where people and nature thrive together

This is an interesting organization that is using an integrated farm project as a tool for change and action. Land trusts across the country could emulate and incorporate some of these ideas into their partnerships and land conservation strategies.

The Community Ecology Institute (CEI’)s Climate of Hope project includes three innovation areas, described below: 1) Climate Aware Agriculture featuring Renewable Energy Integration; 2) Cultivating Climate Victory Gardens; and 3) Community Climate Change Education…

Climate of Hope will offer accessible, science-based, action-focused climate change education for the community. [They] offer eight community events at [their] farm on a range of topics from climate victory gardening (and the associated carbon-capturing practices), to composting, energy efficiency, community solar, and more.

[They] also offer customized offsite presentations to eight diverse community organizations including HOAs, faith organizations, school groups, and businesses. These events will be designed to inspire participants and provide strategies and tools for sustained positive climate action.

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Sustainable Solutions
Creative Commons

Our energy future

Land trusts are recognizing that energy production, and transitioning off fossil fuels, is a key aspect of de-carboning our energy needs; which, in turn, is central to ensuring that the lands and waters we conserve survive for generations to come. That often means new, innovative partnerships.

Driftless Area Land Conservancy [DALC] along with dedicated area activists has created Iowa County CLEA-N, Clean Local Energy Alliance—Now. CLEA-N’s mission is to explore options for and engage in initiatives to advance the local ownership and control of a clean energy future in Iowa County, and to lay the groundwork for the creation of an Energy District through which the vision of that future can be realized.

CLEA-N & DALC—Working Hand-in-Hand on Common Goals

Climate disruption affects every aspect of the work at DALC. CLEA-N’s efforts to lower fossil fuel emissions and to sequester excess atmospheric carbon supports DALC’s land conservation work. As this new organization gets off the ground, DALC will be a significant stabilizing and guiding partner…

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Trees From Below
Judy Anderson

Corporate partnerships in the Family Forest carbon program

The Family Forest Carbon Program, a program created by the American Forest Foundation and The Nature Conservancy, brings together rural family forest owners and companies to address climate change.

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Birds Eye View
© Ian Patterson

Family forests: An untapped powerhouse in climate change mitigation

Natural climate solutions can currently play an important role in slowing down climate change. Yet, too many landowners haven't been part of the financial benefits of participating in carbon forest management. TNC and others are working to change this.

[T]he American Forest Foundation and TNC have partnered to develop the Family Forest Carbon Program (FFCP) to remove the barriers smaller landowners often face—carbon market access, lack of forest management expertise, and cost—to help them optimize the carbon storage potential of the 290 million acres of privately-owned U.S. forestland.

Meeting that potential requires helping those individuals and families adopt a science-based approach to take advantage of incentives for specific forest management practices that measurably enhance carbon sequestration. It requires engaging local foresters who have decades of experience working with private landowners.

Through sustainable management, landowners can reduce their expenses by as much as 75 percent…

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Art As Activism
Creative Commons

How art can inspire viewers toward climate action

One way to authentically lead in the climate change solution conversation is to consider what people care about—and how they might address climate change on a personal level. Certainly, voting is part of the solution. And, art can help make a case for what's at stake and ideas for action.

Land trusts have long worked with artists to elevate the importance of land and water, and to connect with their community. Current examples abound from local art sales, like the Agricultural Stewardship Association’s art show featuring farms and area landscapes, to the New Canaan Sculpture Trail.

Increasingly, with the growing realization of how climate change is the greatest threat to conservation we have yet seen, land trusts are now working with artists to inspire change and action.

One example is the D&R Greenway Land Trust. Back in 2016, the D&R Greenway Land Trust was in its 27th year of preserving and protecting natural lands, farmlands, and open spaces throughout central and southern New Jersey. Their art partnership was focused on raising the profile of climate change on the lands and waters people love—and the need for action.

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Cows

Healthy Soils Grant

There are opportunities to help position farmers and ranchers as part of the climate solution. If your local land trust works with agriculture, now's the time to start thinking about this.

A $2 million grant from the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) has been awarded to the Vermont Land Trust to help farmers implement practices that enhance the health of their soils. The Conservation Innovation Grant (CIG) Program and the On-Farm Trials of NRCS stimulate the adoption and evolution of innovative conservation approaches in partnership with farmers.

The Vermont Land Trust, Biological Capital, and the University of Vermont Extension will work with approximately 25 conserved farms to create, implement, and evaluate practices that enhance the health of soil, including its ability to store carbon. This is the only Vermont-based project to receive CIG funding…

The Vermont Land Trust will provide project oversight, work directly with farmers, and manage…

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Vote
Creative Commons

How important is climate change to voters in the 2020 election?

As Election Day nears, a majority of registered voters in the United States say climate change will be a very (42%) or somewhat (26%) important issue in making their decision about whom to vote for in the presidential election, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted July 27–August 2…

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Creative Commons

100% renewable energy: what we can do in 10 years

This push for energy conservation and energy use is a logical extension of our land conservation efforts, given that climate change is the greatest threat to conservation we have ever faced. Partnerships with other organizations can help land trusts be part of the larger solution and help their constituencies recognize the benefits. It is also likely to attract new people who care about climate change to land trusts.

It will take at least three decades to completely leave behind fossil fuels. But we can do it. And the first step is to start with the easy stuff…

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Colt
Pixabay

Fracking linked to rare birth defect in horses: study

Natural gas, via fracking, is often cited as a clean (or transition) fuel in the face of climate change. Yet the data are stacking up that it has significant impacts on water, health, and communities. Renewables—while not perfect—will need to be prioritized over fossil fuels for both climate change and our health.

This is believed to be the first study to find fracking chemicals in farm water linked to birth defects in farm animals.

In 2014, veterinarians at the Cornell University Hospital for Animals in Ithaca, New York, realized that they’d diagnosed five out of 10 foals born on one farm in Pennsylvania with the same rare birth defect…

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accolades

Kiss the Ground

Regenerative agriculture, sometimes called conservation agriculture, is part of the climate solution—and the food solution. I find the farmer who leads much of the discussion to be a very credible messenger.

A cure for climate change starts with a simple solution right under our feet. Kiss The Ground is now streaming on Netflix, and the exclusive, live Q&A with Gisele Bündchen, Woody Harrelson, and Ian Somerhalder, plus the filmmakers, farmers, and activists behind the regenerative movement, is right here.

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