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Renee Lertzman Tedtalk Screenshot

How to turn climate anxiety into action

Are you or your land trust looking for a way to connect climate change to action? I've watched this several times, and I think she's on to something.

It’s normal to feel anxious or overwhelmed by climate change, says psychologist Renée Lertzman. Can we turn those feelings into something productive?

In an affirming talk, Lertzman discusses the emotional effects of climate change and offers insights on how psychology can help us discover both the creativity and resilience needed to act on environmental issues. This approach could help with a wide variety of challenging issues…

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Vermont Forest Carbon
Vermont Forest Carbon Report

Quantifying carbon stocks on conserved land

Carbon market participation will not work for everyone or everywhere. It will work best through project aggregation of properties that are medium (several hundred acres) to large (>1,000 acres) in size, well-stocked, and managed—and where the potential to provide co-benefits that are attractive to buyers in the voluntary market is greatest. Your land trust may also benefit from tracking the development of "aggregated" lands to meet acreage requirements and see how you could replicate it in your area.

Carbon project development in Vermont is compatible with, and in fact would be aided by, participation in other forest stewardship programs. These include forest certification, cost-share by EQIP and the Forest Legacy Program, and Vermont’s Use Value Appraisal (UVA) Program (also known as Current Use).

All three major certification Vermont Forest Carbon: a market opportunity for forestland owners 4 systems in the U.S. (Forest Stewardship Council [FSC], Sustainable Forestry Initiative, and American Tree Farm System) can be employed to meet various requirements under CARB and the voluntary markets, such as the need to have a comprehensive forest management plan…

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Solar Panels
Evan Frost | MPR News

Pollinator-friendly solar energy becomes the norm in Minnesota

Your local land trust could share this with your supporters and let them know that pollinators are threatened and that this can help. Public perception is often shaped by those they trust, and as an organization they trust, you can help them understand that we need to think about solar in new ways.

The environmental benefits of Connexus Energy’s solar-plus-storage project are obvious enough, but this time of year, you’ll notice something more: prairie grasses and flowers planted under and around the sea of solar panels.

Pollinator-friendly plantings at large solar energy sites have become common in Minnesota in recent years. Not only do they provide habitat for the bee and butterfly populations people have been concerned about, but they also promote soil health and probably even boost the solar panels’ electricity output on warm days…

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Saddle Peak
Estes Valley Land Trust

Land trust breakfast focuses on climate change

This breakfast was last year—but it's a great idea for your land trust in the future (virtual or not). With Covid-19, virtual breakfasts are happening more—and that's allowing for personal conversations with people from all over the region.

The breakfast focused on the potential effects of climate change in the Rocky Mountain West.

The announcement stated: Are we experiencing a warming climate and if so, what affect will it have on extreme weather such as droughts and floods? Could warmer temperatures result in longer fire seasons and catastrophic wildfires? How will these disturbances affect our regional ecosystem?

“Our educational breakfasts allow land trust members up-close access to scientific professionals that can explain our complex Rocky Mountain environment,” said Jeffrey Boring, Executive Director of the Estes Valley Land Trust. “We’re thrilled to have Dr. Monique Rocca, Associate Professor, Colorado State University and Jeff Lukas, Associate Scientist, University of Colorado Boulder, as our keynote speakers.”

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Sustainable Solutions
Forterra

Sequestering carbon and enhancing our local landscapes

How are you working with local community groups, businesses, and partners to ramp up climate change impacts? You may have to restructure activities to meet social distancing and safety requirements until there is a Covid-19 vaccine, but land trusts are being creative.

Last year, almost 50 businesses and individuals offset their carbon footprints with ECC [Evergreen Carbon Capture] by planting 4,038 conifer trees, which will absorb 20,190 tons of CO2 over the next 100 years. Though only a drop in the bucket compared to what our native forests were once capable of, every tree planted and cared for provides a myriad of benefits like wildlife habitat, and improved water and air quality, which bring our landscapes one step closer to the ecological function of their pasts.

ECC offers the unique opportunity for partners to join our tree planting efforts at volunteer work parties. This year our field partners from Adopt-a-Stream FoundationDirt CorpsForterraFriends of the Burke Gilman TrailGreen Kirkland PartnershipGreen Redmond PartnershipGreen River CoalitionGreen Seattle Partnership, and Stewardship Partners led 11 events for 367 volunteers to plant trees throughout the Puget Sound region, from Auburn to Marysville….

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Campaign Video Screengrab
screenshot

Regenerative agriculture: Campaign for Jalama

The land trust is launching a campaign to acquire Jalama Canyon Ranch where they will create a critical center for regenerative agriculture…leading to a healthier food system, drawing carbon from the atmosphere, increasing biodiversity, strengthening communities, and improving farmer and rancher livelihoods.

Jalama Canyon Ranch will model regenerative agriculture at scale in a financially viable way; serving as a center for education and training, scientific research, and removing the barriers to rapid and broad adoption of regenerative agriculture locally, regionally and globally.

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Marquee Closed Sign
Yale Climate Connections

Michael Moore’s ‘Planet of the Humans’ documentary peddles dangerous climate denial

If you have heard about the film Planet of the Humans, please be aware of how much misinformation is being conveyed. It's alarming that when we need to come together and save the land and water, by reducing climate change, a film would come out that is so factually skewed and outdated. The fossil fuel folks are loving it. The climate scientists and climate/conservationists are trying to sound the alarm and convey the truth.

Environmentalists and renewable energy advocates have long been allies in the fight to keep unchecked industrial growth from irreversibly ruining Earth’s climate and threatening the future of human civilization. In their new YouTube documentary “Planet of the Humans,” director Jeff Gibbs and producer Michael Moore argue for splitting the two sides. Their misleading, outdated, and scientifically sophomoric dismissal of renewable energy is perhaps the most dangerous form of climate denial, eroding support for renewable energy as a critical climate solution.

“Planet of the Humans” by the end of April had more than 4.7 million views and fairly high scores at the movie critic review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. The documentary has received glowing reviews from numerous climate “deniers” whose names are familiar to those in the climate community, including Steve Milloy, Marc Morano, and James Delingpole. Some environmentalists who have seen the movie are beginning to oppose wind and solar projects that are absolutely necessary to slow climate change…

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Pumpjacks
Creative Commons

Meet the new flack for oil and gas: Michael Moore

If you have heard about the film Planet of the Humans, please be aware of how much misinformation is being conveyed. It's alarming that when we need to come together and save the land and water, by reducing climate change, a film would come out that is so factually skewed and outdated. The fossil fuel folks are loving it. The climate scientists and climate/conservationists are trying to sound the alarm and convey the truth.

Planet of the Humans is wildly unscientific, outdated, full of falsehoods, and benefits fossil fuel industry promoters and climate deniers…

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© Ron Leonetti

A natural path for U.S. climate action

When it comes to the impact and potential of land management on global warming, everything really is bigger in Texas. Unless you’re talking about agricultural lands—then everything is bigger in Iowa. Or if you’re talking about the impact of urban trees, that’s biggest in Florida—though it’s also pretty big in Texas.

Across the United States, in fact, land management can have a really big effect on the climate. A new study examines the country’s potential to implement natural solutions—such as growing taller trees, improving soil health, protecting grasslands and restoring coastal wetlands—to increase carbon storage and reduce greenhouse gas pollution.  Essentially, turbo-charging nature to address global warming, while also providing natural benefits for people, water and wildlife…

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Covid Concert On Cell Phone
Screenshot nytimes.com

Concert for one

I bet you've noticed that people are looking for images of beautiful landscapes, a sense of calm, humor, hopeful stories, and ways to connect with others who care. Stories about music bringing compassion to patients on ventilators...

A New York I.C.U. doctor brings classical music to coronavirus patients…

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