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Committee On Land Trust Hearing Frank San Nicolas PDN
Frank San Nicolas/PDN

Politics: What’s Allowed?

“Can land trusts do advocacy?

Yes! Land trusts can advocate for policies that support conservation — and it’s one of our most important jobs. Think about it. Our elected representatives make decisions about conservation that can open huge opportunities — or shut them down. So, land trusts need to be just as good at building relationships with our elected officials as we are at building relationships with major donors and landowners.

People in land trusts often question whether it’s legal to get involved in politics. The answer is YES, you can advocate on issues, legislation, and ballot measures. But you do need to follow some relatively simple rules. Here’s an overview of the law…”

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Ranchers Discuss By A Tractor

Get behind the bipartisan effort to confront climate change

Land trusts have an opportunity to take action and join those who recognize that land conservation won’t be enough to slow down climate change fast enough, or with enough impact. As part of their pledge to conserve the living things upon the rocks, that comprise the land they protect, slowing down climate change is central to their missions.

The latest polling from the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication indicates that 77% of Americans support regulating carbon dioxide as a pollutant and that 68% support taxing fossil fuel companies while equally reducing other taxes.

There is growing bipartisan support. Your representatives could use some support and encouragement, just like they do for the Land and Water Conservation Fund. As the Land Trust Alliance points out, land trusts can advocate. It’s a matter of what’s important to your work and mission…

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Monarchs Drink From Petridish
LSU

It’s an Ecological Trap: Global warming can turn Monarch Butterflies’ favorite food into poison

“LSU researchers have discovered a new relationship between climate change, monarch butterflies and milkweed plants. It turns out that warming temperatures don’t just affect the monarch, Danaus plexippus, directly, but also affect this butterfly by potentially turning its favorite plant food into a poison.

Bret Elderd, associate professor in the LSU Department of Biological Sciences, and Mattnew Faldyn, a Ph.D. student in Elderd’s lab from Katy, Texas, published their findings today with coauthor Mark Hunter of the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and School of Natural Resources and Environment at the University of Michigan. This study is published in Ecology, a leading journal in this field…”

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HARVEST PRACTICES SUCH AS THIS THINNING TO RELEASE FUTURE CROP TREES FROM COMPETITION CAN LEAD TO GREATER CARBON STORAGE IN FORESTS AND FOREST PRODUCTS OVER THE LONG TERM
JOHN GUNN/UNH

UNH research finds Maine forest management hampering ability of forests to reap climate benefits

Over the last 20 years, Maine’s forests have become younger and less dense. As a result, forests are not providing the most climate benefits that they could through carbon sequestration and storage.

However, more carbon could be stored over the next 100 years with less frequent harvests of smaller amounts of wood from each acre, according to new research from the New Hampshire Agricultural Experiment Station at the University of New Hampshire.

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Fire Fighter
Pacific Forest Trust

Connecting the dots…climate change action and conservation

The Pacific Forest Trust was one of the leaders in the land trust community in talking about climate change. Their focus on forests, why they matter, and how they are impacted by climate change hasn’t slowed down as they step up to lead, again, in calling for climate change action.

Check out their recent newsletter that brings the reality home and includes steps on what they are doing.

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Aerial View
Getty Images

Climate change is becoming a top threat to biodiversity

Warming rivals habitat loss and land degradation as a threat to global wildlife. Climate change will be the fastest-growing cause of species loss in the Americas by midcentury, according to a new set of reports from the leading global organization on ecosystems and biodiversity.

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Neighborhood Sun Invite

Neighborhood Sun to host free event at Eastern Shore Conservation Center

Increasingly, land trusts are finding ways to help their community connect the dots on why solar is related to their conservation work and how to sign up for local, often community, solar.

This past summer, the Eastern Shore Land Conservancy hosted a program with a local solar provider at their office. You can see their announcement here. Perhaps your local land trust could do this as well.

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Students In Mohave Desert
Brandy Dyess

Students tracking climate change through the Joshua tree

The Joshua tree sweep is part of larger vegetation surveys looking at the entire plant community as well as the lizard population in each plot. They will return to each one over the coming years to track changes.

Dedicated crews of local volunteers act as citizen scientists, doing the monitoring once or twice a week. Some drive all the way from Los Angeles to take part. High school and college groups have been involved since 2016…

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Flooded Farm
Nature's Path Organic

Climate change is here, and it’s becoming harder to farm successfully

Your average farmer may not want to hear about climate change (do any of us, really?) or global warming, but their livelihood puts farmers smack in the crosshairs of the weather, and many of them are already being affected.

Changes in the timing of rains, the frequency and intensity of droughts, floods, heat waves, intense winter blizzards, hurricanes, and tornadoes, as well as the spread of previously unfaced pests and diseases are now become daily and yearly challenges for farmers in many areas around the world.

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Carbon Farming Cycle
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)

Carbon farming: good for farmers, ranchers, and climate

Marin Agricultural Land Trust is part of a community of scientists, ranchers, agencies and policymakers in and around Marin County, California that is working to develop and advance climate-friendly land use practices, known as carbon farming, that could help make food production part of the climate solution.

Carbon farming is a set of practices that reduce or reverse a farm or ranch’s greenhouse gas emissions. Ranchers and farmers can actually improve their land’s ability to remove carbon from the air—where it contributes to climate change—and instead store it in the soil, where it’s not only harmless but also beneficial to plants.

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