Caitlin Varian | US Nature4Climate

3 Steps to Reforest America for Climate

_{Photo Credit: Mark Godfrey ©} _{The Nature Conservancy}

Did you know that America’s forests already capture and store almost fifteen percent of our nation’s carbon emissions each year? There are many actions we must take to protect and build this natural carbon sink. But there is one forest-climate solution that surpasses them all: reforestation.

To understand the importance of reforestation, take a flight with me over America’s forests.

As we take off from the Pacific Coast, you see the millions of acres of western forests that have been devastated by climate-fueled wildfires burning so hot and extensively that in some places no forest can regrow without our help.

In the heartland, we fly over vast bottomlands along the Mississippi River and Lower Rio Grande River that were once cleared for agriculture, but now have large areas ready to be replanted into forest because climate change has rendered them too wet or too dry to grow crops.

As we land on the East Coast, you will see vast swaths of poorly reclaimed mine lands in the Central Appalachians that once grew precious white oak and red spruce forests, and now await our help to be restored to their former glory.

All across America we have lands like these that need to be reforested. On average, each tree we add to the land will sequester 1240 pounds of carbon dioxide!

*_{Photo Credit: Ruth Hoyt © American Forests}*

You on board? Here are three key steps to reforest America.

Reforest Public Lands. Many of the lands that are ready for reforestation are already yours and mine—public lands owned by federal, state and local government. According to the Reforestation Hub mapping tool developed by American Forests and The Nature Conservancy, there are already almost 20 million acres of public lands awaiting reforestation, if our governments will only spend the money to reforest them. This acreage in need will likely grow thanks to public lands to be acquired for the new federal “30×30” initiative to protect 30 percent of U.S. lands and waters by 2030. We can fully reforest our public lands by advocating for public policies like the REPLANT Act and the Climate Stewardship Act that would provide permanent, dedicated funding for this purpose.

Put Some Carbon in the Bank. More than half of America’s forests are in private hands, with the largest portion controlled by family landowners who own smaller properties. So how do we put all of these lands to work for climate? The Biden-Harris Administration has an emerging initiative to establish a Carbon Bank within the U.S. Department of Agriculture that would purchase carbon emissions reductions from private landowners. This Carbon Bank could offer much needed flexibility to get diverse forest-climate practices implemented on the ground while minimizing complex and expensive paperwork for landowners. This novel new approach will need strong public support to come to fruition.

Private Sector Pitches In: The private sector, from companies to non-profits, has quietly become a force in funding reforestation on public and private lands alike. Want proof? In August of 2020, the new U.S. Chapter of 1t.org was launched to bring together all of the diverse leaders in this movement, from governments to Girl Scouts, with the shared goal to help conserve, restore, and grow a trillion trees by 2030. In less than a year, we already have secured more than 40 pledges totaling over one billion trees, plus billions of dollars in supporting actions such as carbon finance, technology, and workforce development. This powerful new platform is actively recruiting new partners to step up and make a pledge, and rapidly building out a community of practice so the partners can learn from each other, innovate together, and partner in new ways. We need to keep pulling all hands on deck, and there is a place for you!

Taking these three steps to accelerate reforestation is not purely about environmental benefits. Research has shown each $1 million invested in forest restoration supports as many as 39.7 direct, indirect and induced jobs. The Biden-Harris Administration’s announcement of a new Civilian Climate Corps will help make sure we engage, train and employ the people who need these job opportunities most in the ongoing economic recovery from Covid-19.

Perhaps most importantly, taking these steps together to reforest America can also help address our profound and urgent need to reunite as a country. That is why American Forests has joined the U.S. Nature4Climate coalition, which is bringing together forest owners, farmers, businesses and environmental organizations – because we are stronger when we work together to solve our problems. Our forests have always been common ground, and the vision to build back better together can take root in this fertile soil. Let’s ramp up reforestation as “One Nation Under Trees”.

Jad Daley is the President & CEO of American Forests.

Reforesting the United States: Here’s Where We Can Put All Those Trees

A new mapping tool shows lowers costs and more feasible options for restoring forests in the U.S.

_{The author, Susan Cook-Patton examines a young sycamore seedling in Maryland. Photo Credit: John Park Smithsonian © Environmental Research Center}

This summer I stopped weeding out the tree seedlings that routinely pop up in the garden beds behind my Maryland home. During those weeks of stay-at-home orders, I let red buds and oaks, rather than tomatoes and flowers, stretch towards the sky. It was not laziness, but the birth of my second daughter that triggered the decision.

My day job is to worry about providing the best science for tackling climate change and my all-the-time job is to worry about my daughters’ future. During a year when many of us felt pretty helpless in the face of COVID-19, turning my postage stamp yard into a mini urban reforestation project represented something I could do. I could let those tree seedlings grow, pulling carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and helping to constrain our climate crisis so that my daughters, and all of our children, can inherit a world where both people and nature can thrive.

Restoring Forests as a Natural Climate Solution

*_{There are up to 133 million acres of opportunity in the United States to restore forest cover for climate mitigation. © Mark Godfrey/TNC}*

I’m not the only one with trees on the brain. Enthusiasm for reforestation as a climate solution is growing, and for good reason. Forests represent a powerful opportunity to pull carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, helping to cool our planet, while also providing clean air, clean water, and habitat for wildlife. We are increasingly seeing reforestation commitments from nations, corporations, and individuals that are united by a desire to create a better future.

The science around reforestation as a climate solution is rapidly advancing – from a seminal study in 2017 that documented the high mitigation potential of global reforestation, to increasingly refined estimates of just how much carbon those forests might capture. But a key question remained – where on earth are we going to put all those trees?

The climate cooling power of reforestation depends heavily on how much new forest area we can gain. The greater the footprint of new forest, the greater the amount of carbon dioxide we can pull from the atmosphere. But we can’t just put trees any old place where forests used to be. Some of those places are cities and productive croplands.

*_{Reforestationhub.org is a web-based tool produced by TNC and American Forests maps out relatively low-cost and feasible options to restore forest across the contiguous U.S.}*

The Reforestation Hub: A Tool for Mapping New Forests

A new web-based tool called the Reforestation Hub maps out relatively low-cost and feasible options to restore forest across the contiguous U.S. Produced by The Nature Conservancy and American Forests, the hub captures different things we might care about. Such as:

Where did forests historically occur?
Who owns the land and how is it used?
Where might trees best control flood waters, improve the livability of our cities, or help wildlife adapt to climate change?
And how expensive is that land to reforest?

Once all those maps are stacked, it becomes possible to put a pin through all the locations that meet the criteria someone like you might care about.

There are many ways to slice and dice the data, but we focused on creating a menu of ten options that represent the less expensive and/or potentially more viable options among:

1. large open patches within forests;
2. shrublands;
3. protected areas;
4. post-burn landscapes;
5. pasture lands;
6. croplands with challenging soils;
7. urban areas;
8. floodplains;
9. streamsides;
10. and migration corridors for species trying to keep pace with climate changes.

Vast Opportunities to Restore Forests and Capture Carbon

*_{Reforesting appropriate areas in the contiguous U.S. with approximately 68 billion trees could capture 333 million tonnes of CO2 per year. © Erika Nortemann/TNC}*

The Restoration Hub identifies over 200,000 square miles of total opportunity for reforestation, an area the size of California and Maine put together, which could capture up to 333 million metric tons of carbon dioxide each year. That’s equivalent to the carbon pollution from all of California’s, New York’s, and Texas’s cars, combined! We also estimate that about half of the mitigation (and a third of the area) is possible at $20 per metric ton of carbon dioxide or less.

However, our main goal was not to put out a big number. It was to help people make the reforestation choices that best suit their community, state, and county.

Want to find the places with the greatest carbon capture per acre? The places that are lowest cost? The places on public lands? The Reforestation Hub tool answers these questions, and many more. In particular, the Reforestation Hub lets you explore the results and visualize the outcome for every single county in the contiguous United States.

More Healthy Forests for a Brighter Future

_{Reforestationhub.org provides resources to help landowners, organizations and agencies restore forests for the many benefits they provide, from natural climate solutions to clean water and air to recreation and habitat. © Patrick McDonald/TNC Photo Contest 2018}

Just like there is no single best location to re-establish forests, there is no single best way to get those trees growing. In some places, like my backyard, we may only need to step back and let the forest recover entirely on its own. Or we may offer a bit of help such as protecting the new trees from deer or invasive weeds.

But while letting forests regrow on their own can be a cheap and effective reforestation strategy, it may not always work. Sites that are highly degraded or far from seed sources, for example, may struggle to recover on their own. Planting trees can help to kickstart or speed recovery and can help establish the right species for current and future conditions. There is also something deeply satisfying about planting a tree, knowing that future generations will be able to clamber in the leaf boughs.

We have about a decade remaining to avoid the worst effects of climate change, but we are already feeling the negative consequences of rising temperatures associated with increasing flood risk and more severe wildfires.

Some days this feels pretty overwhelming, but this year has taught us that there are challenges we need to face, and can address, when we pull together to find solutions. Planting a tree is not the sole solution. We are absolutely going to need revolutions in our energy sector and massive reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. We need to keep forests as forests, improve our management of existing forests, and pursue the many promising options within our agricultural sector, grasslands, and wetlands. And new trees, with their air, water, and shade benefits, are also part of the solution.

Planting a tree, or simply letting seedlings grow in our own backyards, represents something we can do now to reignite our hope for a better future.

Susan Cook-Patton is the Senior Forest Restoration Scientist at The Nature Conservancy.

Six Habitat Improvements That Are Also Climate Solutions

*_{Colorado fisherman. Photo Credit: Russ Schnitzer/The Nature Conservancy}*

From extreme droughts, flooding, and fires to altered migration patterns and “hoot owl” fishing restrictions, America’s sportsmen and women have seen firsthand the impacts of a changing climate. If we are to protect and restore the habitats that support all the species we love to pursue, the hunting and fishing community must be part of climate change solutions.

There is no one silver bullet or single set of actions that will turn the tides entirely—climate change can only be addressed with a comprehensive strategy that involves all of us and all the tools we have. Thankfully, this includes habitat conservation measures already supported by sportsmen and women.

Here are six habitat improvement strategies that provide this win-win proposition: better hunting and fishing opportunities and fewer climate-change-driven impacts to fish and wildlife.

Improve Forest Management

The nation’s forests provide habitat for wildlife, shade to cool trout streams, and many convenient places to hang a tree stand, but they also store carbon—keeping carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere and warming the globe. In fact, across the world, forests store as much as one-third of all emissions from burning fossil fuels or about 2.6 billion tons of carbon each year.

Forests also draw additional carbon out of the atmosphere. Young, healthy growing forests mostly sequester carbon while older forests store it, which is why it helps to have diverse, well-managed forests. Unfortunately, decades of fire suppression and past management practices have left many public forests in poor health and vulnerable to uncharacteristically large wildfires. Poorly managed forests can alter the carbon storage and sequestration balance.

Hunters and anglers are already advocating for reforestation, active management of young stands, and conservation of late-successional forests, because these measures promote diverse habitat conditions, reduce fire risk, and filter polluted runoff that would otherwise harm trout and salmon streams. But these are also natural climate solutions. One of the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership’s s top priorities this year is pushing decision-makers to ensure that savings from the recent wildfire funding fix will go toward forest health and management. This is just one step toward securing more of the habitat and climate benefits of our national forests.

Reverse Grasslands Loss

Native grasslands are being lost at an alarming rate due to agricultural conversion, development, and other factors. Just like forests, degraded western rangelands and grasslands are less resilient to temperature and weather changes, and their carbon storage and sequestering benefits are altered as more habitat damage is done. Invasive species like cheatgrass now dominate many sagebrush landscapes and have dramatically altered this ecosystem’s productivity, stability, and fire regime.

But grasslands and shrub communities also absorb huge amounts of carbon.

Restoration and conservation of rangelands and grasslands will be an important component of a broad-scale, comprehensive habitat and climate resilience strategy. We need to stop converting these habitats and focus on restoring grasslands to increase their resilience and productivity.

Conserve and Restore Wetlands

_{Wetland Ducks. Photo Credit: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service}

Inland and coastal wetlands, marshes, estuaries, swamps, deltas, and floodplains are among nature’s most productive ecosystems—providing vital habitat for migratory waterfowl and both fresh and saltwater species of gamefish—that also store carbon.

Wetlands across the country already provide critical habitat, reduce erosion, improve water quality, and filter flood waters to protect our communities. But they are also being lost—drained, developed, converted to crops, or damaged beyond repair.

We are still fighting the rollback of Clean Water Act protections that has stripped wetlands and headwater streams of the safeguards that could prevent further wetlands loss.

Globally, wetlands may presently sequester as much as 700 billion tons of carbon each year. Once drained or partially dried, these areas may become a net source of methane and carbon dioxide entering the atmosphere. They are also particularly vulnerable to climate change. Rising temperatures and increased drought can convert permanent wetlands to semi-permanent or seasonal ones.

We need to protect our remaining wetlands and reverse the loss while restoring those that have been altered to help meet the nation’s goals for flood control, clean water, habitat, and carbon reduction.

Boost Farm Bill Conservation Programs

Roughly 40 percent of the United States is in agricultural production. This sector represents about 9 percent of all carbon emissions, but farmers and ranchers also contribute significantly to carbon storage and sequestration when they manage and preserve grasslands, wetlands, and forests.

Our community is already preparing to work with Congress on a 2023 Farm Bill with strong conservation funding, and this would give landowners more of a chance to contribute to climate change solutions, as well. Increasing Conservation Reserve Program acreage to 50 million acres, for example, would enhance the habitat benefits for whitetail and mule deer, prairie chickens, pheasants, quail, wild turkeys, waterfowl, and countless other species—not to mention provide better hunting and fishing experiences for the sportsmen and women who rely on CRP lands for access.

Boosting the CRP would also give landowners the option to conserve grasslands and wetlands that combat climate change. Expanding this and other conservation programs would be a great starting point for strengthening the role that private landowners play in the climate fight.

Continue the Gulf Coast Comeback

*_{Whiskey Island. Photo Credit: Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority}*

Rising seas have already destroyed thousands of miles of coastline and hundreds of thousands of acres of coastal salt marshes and seagrass beds that are vital to many sportfish and waterfowl. Louisiana’s more seasoned duck hunters can likely point to actual ground they once hunted that has now been lost.

The good news is that building coastal infrastructure is a viable solution to fight these catastrophic losses.

Reparation funds from the BP oil spill have already helped to rebuild habitat health beyond what was damaged in the environmental disaster and recover some of what has been lost to subsidence, erosion, and sea-level rise.

The continued conservation and restoration of these habitats can help save lives and protect coastal communities, while providing healthier fisheries, cleaner water, and enhancing resilience to climate change. We need to ensure federal programs and funding are available to identify areas for protection, restoration, or management and to develop effective strategies to sustain the natural benefits of coastal habitats.

Shore Up Streambanks

One of the most obvious impacts of climate change for America’s anglers is rising water temperatures that threaten coldwater trout species. This is compounded in places where streams have been degraded by major floods, wildfires, dam construction and land-use changes. Many conservation volunteers cut their teeth on projects aimed at restoring healthy stream flows, reducing streambank erosion, and ultimately lowering water temperatures, but they may not realize riparian areas have an underappreciated ability to store carbon, both in vegetation and the soil itself.

At the federal level, we will need to invest in numerous solutions to build resilient river systems and ensure our lakes, rivers, and streams are able to function as productive carbon sinks while also supporting the fish and wildlife we love to pursue. Programs and policies emphasizing water conservation, water efficiency, nutrient reductions, and riparian zone protection and restoration will be critical.

Let Habitat Work

Any national climate strategy must include land- and water-based solutions that harness the power of our natural systems. But, as you can see, these habitat improvements are already on our wish list as a conservation community.

It’s important to note that these actions will not only benefit fish and wildlife, enhance soil quality, and create cleaner water—they will also create jobs and strengthen rural economies. But there is no time to waste, whether we’re talking about implementing natural climate solutions, reversing habitat loss and wildlife species declines, or putting Americans back to work through conservation. We have to stop debating about resolving climate change and get to work on implementing these straightforward natural solutions. Let’s allow habitat to contribute all it can to the climate fight.

Ed Arnett is the Chief Scientist at Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership.

An Audacious and Timely Conservation Challenge

We should all applaud President Biden’s executive order calling for conservation of 30% of the U.S. land base by 2030. This bold “30×30” vision is firmly rooted in science, given that protected land is key to a healthy and secure future for all Americans. It provides pure drinking water, healthy food, clean air, habitat for wildlife, and places for people to reflect, recreate, hunt and fish. Conserved land also provides protection from natural disasters, such as floods and droughts, and absorbs and keeps carbon from the Earth’s atmosphere.

The president’s vision also recognizes that land conservation is not keeping pace with growing threats to our lands, waters, wildlife and ways of life. Every 30 seconds, the United States loses a football field of natural lands to roads, houses, pipelines and other development. Since 1970, North America has lost 3 billion birds — 29% of its avian population. Forty acres of farmland in the United States are lost to development every hour.

Given these facts, the audaciousness of the president’s conservation goal is right for this moment. And this “moon shot” for nature is necessary for more than just environmental reasons: Land — and the public’s desire to conserve it — provides one of the few opportunities to reduce political polarization and build social cohesion among a deeply splintered American populace. This was demonstrated most recently in the strong bipartisan consensus last Congress that led to the permanent reauthorization and full funding of the Land and Water Conservation Fund.

In particular, land conservation that takes place outside of the government sphere — through community-based, nonprofit organizations known as land trusts — provides a means for Americans of all backgrounds to save the places they need and love through personal initiative, landowner empowerment and charity. By finding common ground around these core American values and the lands we cherish, we can regain a sense of shared purpose and help heal a fractured nation. To put it in terms used by President Biden in his inaugural address, America’s farms and forests, its rivers and coasts and its mountains and meadows are “common objects of our love.” Conserving these places through citizen-led community efforts can bring us back together.

Most Americans are unaware that land trusts — powered by more than 200,000 volunteers and almost 5 million members of all political stripes — are working in almost every community in the United States to protect important lands. Likewise, few know that the nation’s land trust community has conserved approximately 60 million acres over the past 40 years — an area larger than all the land contained in America’s National Parks.

President Biden’s executive order tacitly acknowledged that to reach the 30×30 goal, we must rely on and bolster this community of nonprofits.

In short, we cannot achieve the 30×30 goal only by adding to the federal estate; we must empower private landowners to conserve their natural and working lands at a much greater pace and scale. Land trusts are uniquely qualified to make that happen and, importantly, they can do so in an inclusive and equitable way.

On behalf of the 1,000 land trusts my organization represents, I pledge that we will conserve at least another 60 million acres by the end of this decade. To do so, we need the help of the federal government. I call on President Biden and leaders in Congress to provide increased support to land trusts and the private landowners with whom they work. This includes protecting the integrity of the federal tax incentive for conservation easement donations; increasing mandatory funding for Farm Bill conservation programs that maintain viable working farms, ranches and forests; and creating mechanisms to compensate landowners when they increase the capacity of their lands to absorb and store carbon.

Through his executive order, President Biden adds credibility to the 30×30 goal, reveals the urgency we face in saving America’s undeveloped lands, and gives us a vision that can inspire and challenge us. Let us find a way to unite around this cause, garner the necessary resources both inside and outside government and get on with the essential task of conserving our natural heritage for the benefit of all Americans. The health of both our environment and our body politic depends on it.

This post was originally written for the Land Trust Alliance’s blog, The Dirt.

Andrew Bowman is president & CEO of the Land Trust Alliance.

Addressing Climate Change One Beer At A Time

*_{Kernza®, a wheat-like grain being developed as a perennial cereal crop by The Land Institute, a nonprofit research organization based at Salina, Kansas, ripens in a breeding plot.}* *_{Photo Credit: The Land Institute}*

Think about the foods and beverages you consume every day. Perhaps you start the morning off with a bowl of cereal, have a sandwich or salad for lunch and a big bowl of spaghetti and meatballs for dinner – capped off by a cold, refreshing beer. The grains, vegetables and meats that are used to produce these foods all have a carbon footprint. According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, agricultural lands are responsible for just under 10% of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.

Now let’s focus on that cold beer you’re holding in your hand. In addition to the carbon generated by growing the crops needed to make beer, producing, packaging, shipping and selling the product also generates carbon. The State of Oregon estimated that beer consumption in just the Beaver State generates more than 200,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide a year – the same amount emitted by 42,800 vehicles.

There are a lot of things that can be done to make beer more sustainable, from more energy efficient manufacturing and shipping to improved crop management. However, one innovative partnership on the West Coast decided to get to the very root of the problem – and the results taste great.

What is a climate-friendly beer?

_{Long Root Ale. Photo Credit: Hopworks Urban Brewery}

I don’t claim to be an expert on rating and reviewing beer. I know I’m not a fan of pale ales, but I enjoy a witbier after a bike ride on a warm summer day. I’ll drink any stout you put in front of me, and one can often find a hearty Belgian-style ale in my refrigerator. I even make my own beer on occasion, with decent enough results. I also have the good fortune to live in Portland, Oregon – a mecca for the craft brewing industry.

I like trying interesting beers produced by the countless craft breweries that have popped up around the country. The proliferation of beer flavors and styles over the last few decades has been astounding. When I read that Patagonia Provisions partnered with Portland’s Hopworks Urban Brewery and The Land Institute to create climate-friendly beer, I was intrigued – both professionally and as a beer lover.

My professional interest in this product is rooted in my role as the project manager for U.S. Nature4Climate – a coalition of 10 environmental NGOs and organizations dedicated to sustainable agriculture, forestry and business practices that are working together to ensure our forests, farms, ranches, grasslands and wetlands are an important part of our strategy to combat climate change.

Part of my job is to identify and share “solutions in action” – case studies that highlight innovative and practical actions that farmers, forest owners, corporations and non-profit organizations have taken that can serve as examples for future climate action. Simply put, we want to tell the stories of those who have developed more climate-friendly ways to grow crops, plant trees, protect land – and make beer.

The simple fact is that ours is a beer-loving nation. According to the National Beer Wholesalers Association, the average American over 21 drank nearly 26 gallons of beer in 2019. Figuring out how to make beer in a more sustainable way has the potential to have a meaningful impact on climate change. Moreover, a successful climate-friendly beer could help spur the development of other climate-friendly products, like bread and cereal. There is growing demand in this realm -for example, food producer General Mills, has pledged to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 30% and advance regenerative farming techniques on 1 million acres of farmland by 2030.

How can beer help the environment?

_{Kernza® scientist Lee DeHaan records field data on a portable computer. With him is his son, Malachi DeHaan, a summer employee who here is measuring plant height.} *_{Photo Credit: The Land Institute}*

The partnership between Patagonia Provisions, Hopworks and The Land Institute has produced two new beers, called “Long Root Pale Ale” and “Long Root Wit.” Both beers are made using a long-rooted perennial grain called Kernza that uses less water, requires less tilling, prevents soil erosion and stores more carbon in the ground than conventional grains. “The ecological promises of perennial grains are robust,” explains Rachel Stroer, the Acting President of The Land Institute. “This new technology, perenniality, represents the closest grain agriculture can come to functioning like natural ecosystems and our best shot, in my opinion, at sustaining human life on this planet for generations to come.”

According to the CarbonShot report recently released by the World Resources Institute (WRI), enhancing the root systems of major U.S. crops to add carbon to the soil at the same rate as perennial grasses has the potential to improve soil quality and reduce erosion of valuable topsoil. If widely adopted, this practice would sequester up to 185 million tons of carbon dioxide a year. That’s equivalent to removing more than 36 million cars off the road for a year.

However, implementing this climate solution at a large scale will require extensive work. WRI’s report classed enhanced root crops as a “speculative bet,” meaning that significant investment in overcoming technical and economic barriers is necessary before this solution can be counted on to sequester game-changing amounts of CO₂. As noted in the report, widespread use of enhanced crops will require advancements in breeding processes that produce consistent crop yields on par with what conventional crops are able to produce, while also maintaining flavor and other characteristics that consumers expect.

“More investment is needed for research and development to better understand the feasible potential of this approach and expand efforts to other crop species, and then to accelerate development of those that provide climate benefits,” explains Katie Lebling, an Associate with WRI’s Climate Program.

The creation of “Long Root” beer shows that this research and development process is already underway. The Land Institute and numerous research collaborators (including my alma mater, the University of Wisconsin-Madison) have spent nearly two decades developing the Kernza grain. Now that the research team has developed the grain, they are working with restaurants, bakeries and breweries to integrate Kernza into food and beverages. “Thanks in part to the tenacity of our donor base and our scientists, employees, and partners, we’ve really proven that this idea that we can have high-yielding grain crops with deep perennial root systems that sequester carbon and steward water is biologically possible, notes The Land Institute’s Rachel Stroer. “And now we see our first perennial grain crops on the landscape in production and on plates.”

Why are partnerships like this important?

*_{Intern Madeline DeBois selects Kernza® heads for harvest in a breeding plot at The Land Institute. The Institute is developing the wheat-like Kernza® as a perennial grain crop.}* *_{Photo Credit: The Land Institute}*

Transforming a climate-friendly crop like Kernza into everyday consumer products requires strong partnerships with companies dedicated to developing more sustainable foods. Patagonia Provisions and Hopworks Urban Brewery recognized the potential to leverage beer’s popularity to demonstrate practical and scalable uses for the crop. As Birgit Cameron, the head of Patagonia Provisions notes:

“Beer holds a critical role in society and history. It is the center of many tables, uniting us with its common language. With its wonderful tradition and history of bringing people together, Patagonia Provisions saw an opportunity to use such a widely influential product to tell the story of regenerative organic agriculture, via Kernza, to a wide swath of people with a product we can all enjoy and get behind. All it takes is a small tweak in the way we make our beer to effect big change – we are hoping this message reaches the big brewers of the world.”

Christian Ettinger, the Founder & Brewmaster of Hopworks Urban Brewery hopes that the introduction of products like “Long Root” beer can help encourage greater focus on sustainable solutions to climate change and other environmental problems.

*_{The author enjoyed a Long Root Wit while writing this article. Photo Credit: Nathan Henry}*

“We’re constantly working to brew more sustainably, whether it’s reducing and treating wastewater, partnering with Patagonia Provisions and The Land Institute, or supporting our local nonprofit partners focused on the environment! What better way to inspire grassroots change than through a discussion over beer! Beer’s job is to get people together and we hope the Long Root beers will inspire many fun discussions over the campfire.”

But how does the beer taste?

Simply put, Long Root Wit was a delicious beer – it was light, refreshing, and hit the spot after a long autumn bike ride. If you poured me a glass of it without telling me that the beer was made using Kernza, I never would have known. There were no awkward flavor notes that would suggest that I was drinking something “different.” This beer shows that you can make a climate-friendly beer without sacrificing flavor. If that’s not a climate solution in action, I don’t know what is.

Nathan Henry is the Project Manager for U.S. Nature4Climate.

New California Roadmap: A Natural Path to Climate Solutions

*_{Coastline at The Nature Conservancy’s Jack and Laura Dangermond Preserve in central California. Photo Credit: Brandon Flint © The Nature Conservancy}*

California has long been a place that set trends. From celebrities to surfing, the nation has long looked West to follow California’s lead. And, of course, California has also been a global leader in attacking climate change.

Driven, in part, by record-breaking floods and fire seasons, the world’s fifth-largest economy has adopted numerous policies to curb emissions. In 2006, California adopted its first economy-wide greenhouse gas reduction goal to reduce emissions to 1990 levels by 2020, which it has achieved. That initial action has been followed by other policies, including setting a low carbon fuel standard, sustainable communities strategies, a renewable energy portfolio, and mobilizing state agencies in the effort to reach a carbon-neutral economy by 2045.

California is also well-known for its greenhouse gas emissions trading program, which places a declining emissions cap on major-emitting facilities and allows these facilities to trade emissions permits and invest in a limited amount of emissions offsets to meet reductions goals.

But what is California’s next climate action milestone? Using California’s world-class nature to help address climate change.

That’s why we just published Nature-based Climate Solutions: A Roadmap to Accelerate Action in California, to highlight key strategies that will help California achieve this outcome.

*_{Redwoods at Del Norte Coast Redwoods State Park in California in United States, North America. Photo Credit: Sandra Howard}* *_{© The Nature Conservancy}*

For California to successfully and effectively integrate nature-based strategies into its goal to be carbon neutral, we need to understand their potential contribution to greenhouse gas reductions across the state. We also need to understand and identify the various policy pathways and incentives, beyond offsets, that could be pursued to support these reductions. The Roadmap shows how we can accomplish just that.

Pulling together the science analyses published by The Nature Conservancy and colleagues, we estimate the statewide greenhouse gas reduction potential of thirteen different nature-based climate strategies, ranging from agricultural management practices, to improved forest management and wetland restoration to fire risk reduction and urban reforestation. We present this in a spatially explicit way that also identifies the opportunities to achieve additional benefits through these actions, including habitat for species, groundwater recharge, and benefits to underserved communities, among others. We then highlight case studies and a policy discussion by region across the state to highlight a number of different policies and incentives that could be scaled up across the state to accelerate nature-based climate strategies.

While we acknowledge that increased funding for nature-based strategies is critical, we make it a point to highlight additional “non-monetary” strategies that are important to accelerate action, including:

Improvements to permitting processes to restore wetlands and reduce fire risk,
Land use and conservation policies that could be adjusted to support both avoided emissions from land conversion and reductions in transportation emissions, and
Public-private partnerships between public agencies and utilities that could fund urban reforestation at larger scale and reduce the tree canopy gap in underserved communities

As discussions regarding how California can reach its carbon neutrality goals continue in the California legislature and Administration, we will continue to use this report to reframe the discussion on the role and importance of nature-based climate solutions, underscore their importance in achieving carbon neutrality, and highlight how we can get there. While the focus of this report is on California, the issues we face here, and their relevance can extend to other jurisdictions in the United States and globally.

Michelle Passero is the Director of California Climate Program for The Nature Conservancy.

Partners in Action: The Nature Conservancy Joins Powerful Coalition to Boost Natural Climate Solutions

The USN4C Blog will regularly feature blog posts written by members of the U.S. Nature4Climate Steering Committee highlighting the reasons their organization chose to join the U.S. Nature4Climate coalition. This month’s post is written by Cathy Macdonald, The Nature Conservancy’s North America Director of Natural Climate Solutions and the Chair of the USN4C Steering Committee.

*_{Cathy Macdonald, North America Director of Natural Climate Solutions at The Nature Conservancy, Chair of U.S. Nature4Climate Steering Committee}*

Growing up in Oregon, I developed a lifelong love of natural and working lands – from exploring Oregon’s coastal estuaries, rafting Oregon’s many rivers, and climbing Oregon’s iconic Cascade Mountains, to picking strawberries and cherries in summers to earn my first paychecks, and planting trees to help the Tillamook State Forest heal from major wildfires. Working for The Nature Conservancy, I have been able to carry my passion for the outdoors into my career. And in my time working for The Nature Conservancy, I have learned two important lessons.

First and foremost, I know the natural places I cherished as child and have worked to protect these past decades are at increasing risk to due to climate change. The Nature Conservancy (TNC) has long recognized the enormous impact climate change will have on our mission – to conserve the lands and waters on which all life depends. That is why we support strong, comprehensive action to address the climate challenge.

There is no question that, to avoid the irrecoverable impacts of climate change we need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions across all energy and industrial sectors. But we won’t ultimately succeed unless we also unlock the power of our forests, farms, grasslands and wetlands to naturally remove carbon from the atmosphere and store it in plants and soils.

*_{Evening paddlers on Sparks Lake along the beautiful Cascade Lakes Scenic Byway in Bend, Oregon. Photo credit: Paul Carew}*

Our country’s natural and working lands already reduce total U.S. emissions by 11 percent. By increasing our investment in the protection and restoration of native habitats and managing our country’s forests and farms in ways that store more carbon, we could more than double the contribution natural and working lands make to address climate change.

In addition to their climate benefits, these “Natural Climate Solutions” help enhance soil health and agricultural productivity, improve water and air quality and provide landowners and surrounding communities with jobs and new sources of income. These practices also help preserve our nation’s rich biological diversity. In short, Natural Climate Solutions help The Nature Conservancy fulfill our vision of a world where people and nature thrive.

The second thing I have learned during my career with TNC is that the best solutions to conservation challenges happen when diverse stakeholders work together. That’s why The Nature Conservancy joined forces with environmental, agricultural, conservation and sustainable business organizations to create the U.S. Nature4Climate Coalition.

The purpose of our coalition is to elevate the role Natural Climate Solutions can play as a critical component of a comprehensive climate action plan for the U.S.

Despite the enormous contribution Natural Climate Solutions can make to improve our environment, our livelihoods and our climate outlook, the power of natural and working lands are too often overlooked.

Through the U.S. Nature4Climate coalition we can share the best information on the role that natural and working lands can play and use our extended networks to educate others involved in addressing climate change about the untapped potential of Natural Climate Solutions. Our coalition serves as a force multiplier in our efforts to marshal nature in efforts to slow climate change.

If you are interested in learning more about our coalition, please sign up for our monthly newsletter.

Catherine Macdonald is the North America Director of Natural Climate Solutions at The Nature Conservancy and the Chair of the USN4C Steering Committee.

Podcasts Highlight Growing Support for Natural Climate Solutions

U.S. Farmers & Ranchers in Action “Food Farm Facts” Podcast

In November 2020, U.S. Nature4Climate was proud to participate in U.S. Farmers and Ranchers in Action’s “Food Farm Facts” podcast, which is dedicated to bringing together sustainability thought leaders in the food and agriculture sector, with special attention paid to the farmers and ranchers who are taking action to make U.S. agriculture more sustainable.

The podcast discussed the work U.S. Nature4Climate is doing to facilitate cross-sectoral collaboration to increase support for Natural Climate Solutions. The episode also featured the perspectives of small forest-owner Rebecca Tuuk and Maryland farmer and Chair of U.S. Farmers & Ranchers in Action Chip Bowling, who discussed how forest owners, farmers, corporations and non-profit organizations are working together to share lessons learned and adopt best practices as landowners.

During the episode, Cathy Macdonald, the Chair of U.S. Nature4Climate Coalition’s Steering Committee, spoke about the un-tapped potential of Natural Climate Solutions to play a key role in efforts to rein in climate change.

“Unfortunately, natural and working lands are not often thought about by the people that are focused on advancing climate mitigation. Investments in Natural Climate Solutions have been much lower than investments and other important climate mitigation strategies. By being able to pull together a diverse set of organizations and great networks like U.S. Farmers and Ranchers in Action, we’re hoping we can do more to kind of elevate the importance of natural and working lands,” Macdonald said.

Bowling highlighted why they chose to become involved in the U.S. Nature4Climate coalition: “We knew as an organization and as a board that someone had to take the lead on climate change and how we’re going to change it as agriculture.”

Bowling sounded a hopeful note about U.S. agriculture’s future role in addressing climate change. “I think [in five years] we’re in a better place than where we are now because we’re doing practices that are making a difference. We understand now that what we’re doing, we have the data and science tells the truth that how we’re farming and where we’re farming does make a difference.”

Outdoor Industry Association’s “Climate Klatch” Podcast

Another recently launched podcast, the Outdoor Industry Association’s “Climate Klatch,” highlighted the Outdoor Industry Association’s support for Natural Climate Solutions as part of our overall strategy to address climate change. The podcast featured Amy Horton, OIA’s Sustainable Market Innovation, who highlighted the outdoor recreation industry’s support for natural climate solutions as a key climate strategy.

“We support [carbon] sequestration as part of a comprehensive solution to climate change that also includes reducing emissions,” Horton said. “We’re asking Congress and federal agencies to protect and preserve our country’s lands and waters as Natural Climate Solutions, so the forests, farms, wetlands, grasslands have the potential to absorb more than 20% of greenhouse gas pollution in the United States – equivalent to the emissions from all U.S. vehicles.”

These podcasts highlighted the diverse and growing coalition supporting Natural Climate Solutions – a coalition that includes environmental organizations, farmers, forest owners, sustainability-focused businesses and the outdoor recreation industry.

“There are also some really unique coalitions forming that we in the outdoor industry are participating in alongside your traditional conservation and land groups, the hunting and fishing community, farming and ranchers. We’re all coming together to promote what are called natural climate solutions,” Horton said, mentioning U.S. Nature4Climate and Conservations for Climate Solutions as two examples.

Nathan Henry is the Project Manager for U.S. Nature4Climate.