Promoting healthy watersheds through sustainable land management
Our West Texas ranching operations work in partnership with Audubon’s Conservation Ranching program to raise cattle in a way that’s also beneficial to grassland bird species. Audubon has been building this program and developing more ways to deliver beef raised under this certification to the consumer.
Blue Nest Beef is a subscription-based delivery service that is now offering Audubon-Certified beef. Click for more information.
Dr. Richard Teague is one of the voices featured in this recent article about using good grazing management to address large-scale issues. This article helps explain the interactions between animals, plants, soil health, and carbon levels in the atmosphere. Adaptive Multi-Paddock Grazing practices, similar to those utilized by the Dixon Water Foundation ranches, are highlighted in this article about potential solutions to address climate concerns.
Grassland birds are declining rapidly across North America. Habitat loss has made it especially tough on several species of sparrows. Research is underway from Canada to Mexico to find out how to save the disappearing grasslands and the tiny songbirds that call them home. This research is being done in conjunction with the Borderlands Research Institute at Sul Ross State University in Alpine, Texas, Bird Conservancy of the Rockies, and the Dixon Water Foundation. Find out more about Grassland Sparrows at:
https://bri.sulross.edu/ Bird Conservancy of the Rockies at: https://birdconservancy.org/
Feb 19, 8:00 AM CST – Feb 20, 4:00 PM CST Tenroc Ranch, 5471 Thomas Arnold Rd, Salado, TX 76571
Soil Regen, LLC, is happy to announce this special event with leaders in the regenerative grazing movement! Learn about the principles of grazing for the restoration of ecosystems, soil health, profitability, and carbon storage.
For more information and registration, click HERE
Strategies to Regenerate our Food Production Systems
You will learn how to take a future-focused approach to land management, growing healthy food, and creating robust ecosystems!
About this Event
In partnership with NCAT, Soil for Water and the Hill Country Alliance, ROAM Ranch is excited to host this 2-day workshop with Nicole Masters, agroecologist, soil expert and Director at Integrity Soils. This workshop is geared towards land managers, ranchers, farmers, gardeners, environmentalists, and anyone else interested in improving the health of Texas soil and making our lands more resilient to the dynamic and sometimes unforgiving climates of Texas.
Nicole will address the following topics:
– Building soil structure and improving water and mineral cycles
– The role of soil microbes on pasture quality and resiliency
– What weeds are telling you about your soils
– How to manage for weeds, disease and insects
– How to shift from invasive grasses to native grasses
– Adaptive multi-paddock grazing
– Monitoring strategies to ensure you are meeting your goals
– Reducing the need for chemical inputs without reducing yields
You will learn how to take a future-focused approach to land management, growing healthy food, and creating robust ecosystems!
This event will also include other experienced local farmers, ranchers and producers and will be an opportunity to network and learn from others in the field.
Tickets include 2 days of lecture and outdoor field study is $130 and includes lunch and refreshments both days. NO REFUNDS AVAILABLE 2 WEEKS PRIOR TO THE EVENT (AFTER DECEMBER 27TH).
This conference is the preeminent statewide meeting for anyone working in the field of land and water conservation, private landowners interested in conserving their land, government, business and NGO agency partners, and any person interested in learning more about these important issues in Texas.
HOUSTON — (Dec. 3, 2019) – Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy has initiated a working group to develop a United States protocol for paying ranchers and farmers to store carbon in their soil. The current system for voluntary carbon transactions is broken and needs to be fixed, group founders said.
The group is co-led by attorney Jim Blackburn, a professor in the practice of environmental law at Rice, Baker Institute Rice Faculty Scholar and co-director of the university’s Severe Storm Prediction, Education and Evacuation from Disasters Center (SSPEED), and Kenneth Medlock, the James A. Baker III and Susan G. Baker Fellow in Energy and Resource Economics and senior director of the Center for Energy Studies at the Baker Institute. Robin Rather, CEO of Austin-based Collective Strength, is the group’s facilitator.
Most accepted carbon transactions in the world today occur based on standards that originated from the Clean Development Mechanism of the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. These standards impose significant and unnecessary impediments to U.S. landowners, so few or no transactions actually happen, Blackburn said.
“We formed this group out of necessity,” Blackburn said. “While there are specifics of the existing standards that are useful, an overall new approach is needed, and the Baker Institute was willing to act as our host in convening this working group. We have assembled a diverse group that I feel sure will develop an excellent, defensible concept.”
There are many ranchers and farmers in the southwestern and central U.S. whose land has substantial potential to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, according to the working group. However, they are being kept from participating by the current standards for voluntary carbon trading — standards that were not developed to optimize carbon storage in the soil, the group said. The need for a defensible new standard has led to the formation of the group, Blackburn said.
“This protocol is intended to enable a market system for the voluntary trading of carbon removal and storage in the soil,” Medlock said. “This is an exciting idea that has the potential to add a scalable alternative into the portfolio of companies looking to reduce their carbon footprint.”
Natural photosynthesis removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and stores it in the wood of trees and the soil of the country’s prairies and coastal marshes and soils of agricultural lands. “In the United States, the potential exists for the removal of 1 to 2 billion tons of carbon dioxide or more by these natural systems, yet to our knowledge, only one grassland project has been approved in the U.S. for carbon sales,” Blackburn said. “As we move toward attempting to avoid, minimize and remove the U.S.’s 7-billion-ton carbon dioxide footprint from the atmosphere, we are going to need a range of alternatives that remove and store carbon.”
Through carbon farming, farmers and ranchers could reap an additional source of cash flow, one that also would help restore native ecological systems that would generate fish and wildlife benefits, according to the working group. Additionally, industries and businesses that emit carbon dioxide will be provided with a scalable and affordable carbon dioxide removal process. “If enabled, this system will be a win-win on many levels,” Blackburn said.
Over the next several months, the working group will convene to discuss topics such as general principles of eligibility, measurement protocols and buyer needs. The goal is to develop a set of principles for these transactions that will be endorsed by the diverse group of 45 stakeholders from nongovernmental organizations, governmental entities, Native American nations, corporations, universities and consulting firms.
The 45 stakeholders include but are not limited to experts from Gensler Inc., King Ranch Inc., the Nature Conservancy, Audubon Texas, Applied Ecological Services Inc., Texas Parks and Wildlife, the Texas Coastal Exchange, the New Mexico Department of Agriculture, GSI Environmental Inc., Texan By Nature, the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, the Lone Star Coastal Alliance, the Quivira Coalition, Sprint Waste Services, the Dixon Water Foundation, Climate Action Texas, the Cynthia and George Mitchell Foundation, Valero Energy Corp., the U.S. Business Council for Sustainable Development, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, America’s Wetland Foundation, the Soil Value Exchange, the Western Landowners Alliance, Batker Consulting, the Meadows Foundation and the Savory Institute, as well as the Baker Institute, the SSPEED Center, Rice’s Energy and Environment Initiative and Earth sciences department, and several subject matter experts.
When completed, the working group’s concept will be available and open to anyone who wants to buy or sell carbon.
Jeff Falk
713-348-6775
jfalk@rice.edu
Saving Working Lands: Preparing
Landowners for Energy Development
November 14th, 2019
10:30am-2:00pm
Espino Conference Center
Sul Ross State University, Alpine, Texas.
The Greater Big Bend region is projected to face new impacts from energy development in the upcoming years. Texas Agricultural Land Trust and Borderlands Research Institute host this seminar will provide information, strategies and tools for landowners who hope to minimize the impact of that development.
This two-day workshop will be filled with interactive sessions led by experienced graziers and educators. It is designed for those who already have some experience with holistic planned grazing and want to be inspired and prepared to take their management to a higher level.
www.txaglandtrust.org/bill-george-family-leaves-a-legacy-on-the-marfa-grasslands/
MARFA, TX. The Texas Agricultural Land Trust (TALT) is pleased to accept the donation of an agricultural conservation easement in Presidio County from the Bill George estate. At the bequest of Mr. George, the 5,117-acre George Ranch will remain undeveloped and open forever.
“Mr. George devoted 20 years to managing his ranch and stewarding his grassland pastures with great care. Enacting the conservation easement through his will creates a conservation legacy that will benefit all Texans,” says Blair Fitzsimons, CEO of the Texas Agricultural Land Trust.
A working cattle ranch, the George Ranch was once part of the neighboring Mimms Ranch. Both properties are now owned by the Dixon Water Foundation and are home to the famous Marfa grasslands which are rich in nutrients for cattle and wildlife alike. The proximity of the George Ranch, plus its pasture and paddock infrastructure, made it an attractive purchase for the Foundation, whose mission is to promote watershed health through sustainable land management and planned grazing.
Honoring Mr. George’s request, the Foundation worked with the George estate to ensure that a conservation easement was in place at closing.
“The ranch and the Texas Ag Land Trust easement are a natural fit for us. Both are in complete alignment with our mission,” said Robert Potts, CEO of the Dixon Water Foundation.
A conservation easement is a voluntary, perpetual restriction on future non-agricultural development. Each easement is individually tailored to meet the needs of the landowner and his or her goals for the property. To date, TALT has negotiated agricultural conservation easements on 233,000 acres throughout Texas, including 101,037 in the Greater Big Bend region.
The enactment of the George Ranch conservation easement comes at a time when the loss of agricultural lands is accelerating. According to a recent update of Texas A&M’s Land Trends study, Texas loses approximately one million acres of open space and agricultural lands every five years. This loss impacts not only food production, but rural economies, water and air quality, and wildlife habitats as well.
Thanks to the George family’s commitment to conservation, a piece of Texas’ wide open space, with its unique grasslands, is permanently conserved for future generations to enjoy. TALT is proud to partner with the George estate and the Dixon Water Foundation to keep Texas’ working lands productive for future generations.
