Podcasts about land conservation

This month we are joined by Mr. Bob Bettger, a fifth-generation Nebraska landowner and producer, to tell his story – both the benefits and challenges – of integrating conservation practices into his operation.    Resources: Federal Conservation Programs (Farm Service Agency)   Dr. Andrew Little [academic profile, @awesmlabdoc] Nathan Pflueger [website] AWESM Lab [website, @awesmlab] Nebraska Pheasants Forever [website, @pheasants_quailforever_of_ne]   Watch these podcasts on YouTube If you enjoy this podcast, leave a rating and review so others can find us!   Music by Humans Win Produced and edited by Iris McFarlin  

About the Show:"We don't save land from people. We save land for people."Marson NanceAbout the Guest:Marson Nance is a dedicated environmentalist and Director of Philanthropy at the Northwest Arkansas Land Trust. He hails from western North Carolina and studied Environmental Science with a concentration in Ecology and Biology at the University of North Carolina at Asheville. Marson's career spans roles in environmental consulting with a focus on endangered species, particularly the desert tortoise in Nevada, and later as a lake manager in Florida. Since relocating to Northwest Arkansas, Marson has been actively involved in promoting land conservation and stewardship, driven by a personal commitment to maintaining the region's natural beauty.Episode Summary:Join Randy Wilburn, host of the I am Northwest Arkansas podcast, as he delves into the world of land conservation with Marson Nance from the Northwest Arkansas Land Trust. Recorded live from the Furman Garner Performance Studio, this episode explores Marson's journey in environmental stewardship from North Carolina to Arkansas. He reveals how his passion for nature and background in ecology and biology underpin his vision for preserving the unique landscapes of the Ozarks.In this engaging episode, Randy and Marson highlight the importance of land conservation in the rapidly growing region of Northwest Arkansas. With over 8,000 acres saved, the Northwest Arkansas Land Trust works with landowners to safeguard vital areas from overdevelopment through permanent conservation easements. Marson provides insights into the Trust's strategic objectives and inter-agency collaborations with the Nature Conservancy and the Buffalo River Foundation, emphasizing the critical need to protect water quality and wildlife habitat and preserve the natural beauty for future generations.Key Takeaways:The Northwest Arkansas Land Trust employs conservation easements to permanently protect land and prevent unsuitable development, working closely with voluntary landowners.Land conservation includes preserving wildlife habitats and historic sites, and ensuring sustainable water quality in the fast-developing region.Collaboration with organizations like the Nature Conservancy and Buffalo River Foundation bolsters efforts to maintain the ecological integrity of the Ozarks.Public engagement through donations, volunteering, and advocacy plays a crucial role in the Land Trust's ability to conserve the region's natural landscapes.The Trust aims to protect the natural backdrop and ecosystem for enhancing climate resiliency and quality of life in Northwest Arkansas.All this and more on this episode of the I Am Northwest Arkansas podcast.Important Links and Mentions on the Show*Email Marson NanceWebsite Northwest Arkansas Land TrustNorthwest Arkansas Land Trust on FacebookNorthwest Arkansas Land Trust on InstagramNorthwest Arkansas Land Trust on...

Discover the secrets of effective conservation and ecological restoration through the eyes of Kyle, a dedicated content creator who shifted from private forestry to social media advocacy. Learn about his strategic approach to simplifying complex ecological topics and the crucial role of private landowners in preserving local ecosystems amidst limited state and federal resources. Engage with the heated debates within the conservation community as Kyle recounts his experiences with controversial practices like herbicide use, prescribed burns, and tree cutting. Hear firsthand about the backlash from the permaculture community over his methods for managing invasive species, and delve into the complexities of balancing practicality and ecological integrity. Kyle illustrates these challenges with examples like autumn olive and hardy kiwi, highlighting the nuanced opinions and fierce discussions that shape conservation efforts. Finally, immerse yourself in the historical and contemporary significance of Alabama's prairie ecosystems. From the heart-wrenching destruction of biodiverse prairies to inspiring restoration projects such as the 40-acre Huntsville prairie, Kyle's stories underscore the urgency of preserving these precious habitats. Discover innovative strategies to engage corporations in sustainable development and learn about the emotional toll and ethical dilemmas faced by conservationists protecting endangered species. Join us for an episode that not only educates but also inspires collective action towards ecological stewardship. Check ut the Native Habitat Project at: https://www.nativehabitatproject.com/ For sources and to read more about this subject, visit: www.agroecologies.org To support this podcast, join our patreon for early episode access at https://www.patreon.com/poorprolesalmanac For PPA Writing Content, visit: www.agroecologies.org For PPA Restoration Content, visit: www.restorationagroecology.com For PPA Merch, visit: www.poorproles.com For PPA Native Plants, visit: www.nativenurseries.org To hear Tomorrow, Today, our sister podcast, visit: www.tomorrowtodaypodcast.org/ Key words: Conservation, Ecological Restoration, Private Forestry, Social Media Advocacy, ADHD, Simplifying Complex Topics, Private Landowners, State and Federal Resources, Controversial Practices, Herbicide Use, Prescribed Burns, Tree Cutting, Invasive Species, Permaculture Community, Autumn Olive, Hardy Kiwi, Alabama Prairie Ecosystems, Sustainable Development, Endangered Species, Grasslands, Huntsville Prairie, Corporate Engagement, Historical Narratives, Land Conservation, Seed Banks, Climate Change, Blue Star Plant, TikTok, Legal Responsibility, Ethical Duty, Hazelnuts, Q&A Panel, Self-Education

Alexandra Climent is a rainforest conservationist, sculptural artist, and the founder of Endangered Rainforest Rescue, a women and Indigenous-led nonprofit organization working to restore biodiversity by planting endangered tree species and protecting indigenous land in the Darién Gap of Panamá. Alexandra has led expeditions for several years into this unexplored rainforest where she and her team are working to reforest an essential corridor for the endangered jaguar. The main goal is to use endangered tree species as the building blocks for habitat restoration in deforested areas, reconnecting them to primary forests. The Darién Gap stands as a vital ecological corridor connecting the Americas, holding immense importance in safeguarding the global ecosystem. The work of Alexandra's organization is not only crucial at a local scale but also pivotal for worldwide climate mitigation efforts.Alexandra's artistic practice involves utilizing materials gathered from fallen trees in the rainforest that she collected over several years, working with some of the most dense and beautiful wood in the world. The aim of her work is to showcase the rainforest's beauty and highlight its urgent need for protection.She has published articles about her work, most recently in "The World Sensorium, Plantings," where she emphasizes the importance of protecting the Darien Gap and its crucial role in preserving indigenous lands.This week, Mark and Alexandra talk about work on the ground, bringing the work to the world and doing it with a lot of curiosity and wonder.Save What You Love with Mark Titus:⁣Produced: Emilie FirnEdited: Patrick Troll⁣Music: Whiskey Class⁣Instagram: @savewhatyoulovepodcastWebsite: savewhatyoulove.evaswild.comSupport wild salmon at evaswild.com

(Aug 19, 2024)

Basketball career coach and NC State Women's Basketball Alum,  Marquetta Dickens joins the podcast to discuss her community as Founder and CEO at FreedomOrg. As a social impact leader, educator and motivational speaker she is shaping the next generation of leaders on the court, in the classroom and throughout the community.  Freedomorg.org

On today's episode, we are joined by Wade Shealy. With 40 years in the sector, Wade Shealy is one of America's top leaders in resort real estate development, marketing and sales. In 2010, in response to a market need to help second homeowners realize more value in their ownership, he founded and launched THIRDHOME, the industry's premier luxury property and travel club.  Wade is recognized as the visionary force behind a series of high-profile real estate development projects. Most notably, the purchase, vision and development of Hampton Island, Georgia, an exemplary coastal community with one of the lowest impacts on the surrounding environment.  Hampton Island, a 4,000-acre private community off the Georgia coast, was cited in Robb Report's “Best of the Best” as one of the top three private communities in North America. Hampton Island became the second home to Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck, along with Robert and Lydia Mondavi, among other high-profile residents. The Hampton Island development was featured in numerous publications and won national awards for architecture and design.  Wade graduated from the University of Georgia equipped for his future with far more than an Honors degree. Working for straight commission, 80 hours a week with the Southwestern Company selling bibles and educational books door-to-door, prepared him early on for many years ahead of entrepreneurial leadership.  As a college student, Wade rose through the ranks to become one of the organization's top salespeople, along the way recruiting both the largest student team and the team selling the most volume, in Southwestern's 155-year history. As a District Sales Manager, he was named “District Sales Manager of the Year” for each of his four consecutive years in that role.  In 1984, Wade began working in resort real estate, co-founding The Pinnacle Group in 1986 and growing it into one of the largest and most successful real estate companies on Hilton Head Island and the state of South Carolina.  As Vice President of Intrawest, a premier North American mountain resort and adventure company, Wade directed sales and marketing for 12 different resorts with locations from New England to the Caribbean, successfully closing over $500 million in sales, annually. During his years in resort real estate, he developed and sold more than $3 billion in real estate.  Wade has been featured in national and international publications, most notably the Wall Street Journal and Los Angeles Times. He also enjoys returning to his alma mater, the University of Georgia, as a frequent lecturer at the Business School, as well as to the College of Environment and Design in Landscape Architecture.  Wade was instrumental in the creation of the Land Conservation Program for the State of Georgia and subsequently appointed by the Governor of Georgia, to the State Board of Land Conservation, serving for five years. Under Wade's direction, tens of thousands of acres of pristine land were protected. He was also appointed to the state's Marshland and Wetlands Protection Committee and voted the “Tree Friendly Developer” for the state of Georgia.  Wade lives on a horse farm outside Nashville in Franklin, Tennessee. Besides his horses, Wade also raises bees and chickens. Inspired by his early background in nature preservation, he designed and built a natural swimming pond on his farm, one of the first of its kind in the U.S. Wade has three children, his youngest attends Arizona State University, his daughter lives in Greenville SC and is an entrepreneur with a very successful Medical Spa, and his oldest son is a Professor of Sustainable Civil Engineering at Virginia Tech. To learn more about Third Home, visit https://www.thirdhome.com/ Interested in joining our monthly entrepreneur membership? Email Annette directly at yourock@ievolveconsulting.com to learn more.  Ready to invest in yourself? Book your free session with Annette HERE.  Keep evolving, entrepreneur. We are SO proud of you!  --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/annette-walter/support

The Virginia Land Conservation Foundation is accepting applications for .5 million in land conservation grants, designed to support conservation of farmland, forestland, historic areas, natural areas, and open spaces and parks. The program provides matching grants of 50-50% for localities and nonprofit conservation entities, and 100% for state agencies and federally or state-recognized Indian tribes. In total, million in grants is available from the program, and million will be automatically awarded to the Virginia Outdoors Foundation. The application period closes at 4 p.m. Aug. 28. A virtual workshop for potential applicants will be held in the coming weeks....Article LinkSupport the Show.

Join us for a discussion on Africa's critical role in the fight against climate change! Although Africa is not a driver of the climate crisis, it bears a huge burden of the consequences. Simultaneously, Africa's wealth of natural resources, expansive forests, and abundant renewable energy potential, position Africa as a vital player in the fight against climate change. New strategies to achieve “net zero” emissions are emerging rapidly. Many of these strategies involve compensating for emissions through various carbon offset schemes, often implemented in “the global South” by “the West.” However, these projects have raised concerns about land grabbing, damage, and displacement of local communities. Africa now stands at the forefront of this movement. This seminar will build on two case studies from South-Eastern Africa and Western Sahara to demonstrate practices in land conservation and renewable energy projects. These cases will help unpack key equity issues within the political economy of climate change. Following the case presentations, a panel discussion will provide insights into carbon markets and credit schemes, highlighting relevant green investments and initiatives in Africa, and how Norway plays a role in global climate finance and renewable energy initiatives. The discussion will explore both the opportunities and challenges these movements present for the continent. Are carbon schemes viable policies toward achieving “net zero”? Or a new form of colonialism? What specific opportunities do carbon markets offer Africa in the fight against climate change? With Ian Bryceson, Professor in International Environment and Development Studies, Noragric (NMBU), Erik Hagen, Director of The Norwegian Support Committee for Western Sahara, Girum Zeleke, Associate Professor in Civics at VID Specialized University and Asbjørn Torvanger from CICERO. Moderated by Erika Wie Dia from the Norwegian Council for Africa.

In Massachusetts, preserving more forests, fields and wetlands is a critical way the state plans to slow climate change. But a popular land conservation program leaves many property owners in limbo. They apply, spend $5,000-$15,000 on surveys, appraisals and legal fees and then wait. "I might die before this is done," said one applicant.

This week we continue to explore Explora, a South American travel group that provides luxury experiences to guests and focuses on the environmental conservation of South America's most remote and beautiful landscapes.While in Chile, Haley had the chance to talk to Caroline Van Kilsdonk and Juan Pablo Chovar, two Explora team members currently working at Torres del Paine.  In the interviews, Caroline and Juan Pablo discuss what they do at the reserve, how they got involved, how a reserve is managed, and what to expect when you come and stay at an Explora reserve.  If you are curious about exploration, travel, or conservation, don't miss out on these conversations to discover what Explora has in store!Topics[00:50] Caroline and Reserve Management[04:21] Member Participation in Conservation - What to Expect[05:42] Reforestation in Torres del Paine[08:24] Juan Pablo and Membership Opportunities[10:57] Services Coming to Explora[13:32] Land Conservation with Experts[17:24] Architectural Design and ECHO SocietiesNeed professional help finding, buying or selling a legacy ranch, contact us: Mirr Ranch Group 901 Acoma Street Denver, CO 80204 Phone: (303) 623-4545 https://www.MirrRanchGroup.com/

In this podcast, artist and land conservationist Haley Mellin talks with the Arts Management and Technology Lab at Carnegie Mellon University about actions artists and arts organizations of all sizes can take to measure their climate impact, reduce emissions, and support biodiversity protection. Mellin is the founder of Art into Acres, a non-profit organization which connects artists and arts institutions with large-scale land conservation projects focused on climate, Indigenous peoples, and beta-diversity. Additionally, Mellin co-founded Conserve.org, the MOCA Environmental Council in Los Angeles, Art and Climate Action, Artists Commit, and Gallery Climate Coalition's  New York chapter.  She was a member of the Whitney Museum's Independent Studio Program and holds a PhD in Visual Culture and Education from New York University.

(May 9, 2024) New York announced $3 million for land conservation groups, but environmentalists say the state is falling far short of its conservation goals; meanwhile, the state Legislature voted on climate change and environmental bills this week, but lawmakers couldn't predict if any of them would become law; we meet a Potsdam girl with grit at baseball practice; and explore how the bonds of baseball span generations in a Glens Falls exhibit.

As the head of Willamette Riverkeeper, Travis Williams has worked to protect the river for much of his professional life. The environmental nonprofit’s efforts have been both wide and deep, from helping enforce the Clean Water Act, clearing up trash, restoring habitat, contributing to the Portland Harbor Cleanup, working to protect fish populations and preventing concentrated animal feeding operations, or CAFOs, along waterways in Linn County.   Williams says the nonprofit is strong and does not expect any interruption in the work when he steps away in the coming months to focus on the Willamette River Preservation Trust. It’s a land trust focused on conserving creeks, rivers, floodplains, oak savanna, upland forests and more for the mid to northern Willamette Valley. We sit down with Williams about the health of the Willamette over the last two dozen years, and how his past work relates to his future plans.

Welcome back to Environmental Professionals Radio, Connecting the Environmental Professionals Community Through Conversation, with your hosts Laura Thorne and Nic Frederick! On today's episode, we talk with Francis O'Shea, Conservation Project Manager at Trust for Public Land about Project Management, the Appalachian Trail, and the Trust for Public Land.  Read his full bio below.Help us continue to create great content! If you'd like to sponsor a future episode hit the support podcast button or visit www.environmentalprofessionalsradio.com/sponsor-form Showtimes: 2:18  Nic & Laura discuss the Appalachian Trail9:22  Interview with Francis O'Shea starts14:05  Trust for Public Lands21:17   Project Management27:00   Appalachian Trail34:18   Field NotesPlease be sure to ✔️subscribe, ⭐rate and ✍review. This podcast is produced by the National Association of Environmental Professions (NAEP). Check out all the NAEP has to offer at NAEP.org.Guest Bio:Francis O'Shea is a Conservation Project Manager at Trust for Public Land. Born and raised in New York, Fran graduated from Skidmore College in 2005. After a decade in a variety of real estate related roles, Francis joined TPL in 2018 and has been working to protect land for people since. TPL is a national non profit that works to connect everyone to the benefits and joys of the outdoors. Since 1972 TPL has protected more than 4 million acres of public land, created more than 5,364 parks, trails, schoolyards, and iconic outdoor places, and raised over $94 billion in public funding for parks and public land. In New York we've created more than 500 schoolyards, parks and green spaces across the state, ensuring healthy, livable communities for generations to come. Francis lives in Irvington, NY just outside NYC with his wife Erika, two daughters Margaret (9) and Edith (6) and their dog Molly.Music CreditsIntro: Givin Me Eyes by Grace MesaOutro: Never Ending Soul Groove by Mattijs MullerSupport the showThanks for listening! A new episode drops every Friday. Like, share, subscribe, and/or sponsor to help support the continuation of the show. You can find us on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and all your favorite podcast players.

In this episode co-hosted by Dr. Davina Two Bears, Eva Bighorse, and Dr. Farina King, Skylar ("Sky") Begay shares insights from his life and work with Conservation, Native representation in new spaces, the Great Bend of the Gila, Save History, Archaeology Southwest, LandBack, and the Conservation Corps (specifically ancestral lands conservation corps). Sky identifies as an enrolled member of the Navajo Nation and is also Mandan and Hidatsa. He grew up in the Navajo Nation and in Flagstaff, Arizona. He currently resides in Tucson, Arizona where he works as the Director of Tribal Collaboration in Outreach in Advocacy for Archaeology Southwest. Additional Resources and Links:-Skylar Begay biography webpage on Archaeology Southwest: https://www.archaeologysouthwest.org/team/skylar-begay/ - Main Respect Great Bend website: https://www.respectgreatbend.org/ - The Respect Great Bend Story Map: https://story.respectgreatbend.org/ - Respect Great Bend linktree: https://linktr.ee/GreatBendOfTheGila - Main Save History Website: https://savehistory.org/ - cyberSW, online archaeological database: https://cybersw.org/ - Another podcast with more detail on the Great Bend of the Gila: https://bit.ly/GreatBendGilapodcast - A recent segment on Phoenix Channel 12 news about the effort of the Great Bend of the Gila: https://bit.ly/PhoenixChannel12GBG - Arizona Conservation Corps: https://azcorps.org/ - Ancestral Lands Conservation Corps: https://ancestrallands.org/

Made for Agriculture Podcast co-host Emily Beck interviews two folks with experience with the Missouri Department of Conservation and conservation land management. MDC's Private Lands Program District supervisor Jordon Beshears and MFA District Sales Manager Matt Hill. Introductions 3:00 min – Previous podcasts on NRCS. 3:55 min – History of Missouri Department of Conservation. 5 min – MDC the envy of other states. 6 min – MDC resources for private land owners from native forages to management plans. 7 min – MFA and conservation practices. 7:40 min – MDC and expertise they offer. 8:50 min – Ninety plus percent of land in Missouri is private. 10 min – Increasing production for both ag and wildlife habitat is important. 11 min – From Buffer zones to native grasses, small changes make large impacts. 12 min – Private lands make real impact. 13 min – Example of farmer who improved profit by enrolling field borders with CP33 program, planted warm-season grass . . . 17:08 min – using precision to conserve. 18:45 min – Nutri-Track helps reduce tillage, use fertilizer efficiently. 20:00 min – There is still a lot to learn about cover crops. 20:45 min – Field day description. 21:30 min – Jordan talks about his team's field day. 23:00 min – How MDC works with FSA, NRCS are more. 24:00 min – Installing pollinator habitat, stream bank stabilization and other funded conservation practices. 29:00 min – prescribed burns and other activities work best when you know your goal. 36:00 min – Programs for deer encroachment. MRAP vs. DMAP. 38:00 min – Crop loss from wildlife & deer management. 39:00 min – Shoot more Doe & Share The Harvest. 42:00 min – The Grassland Summit is April 9 – 11th in Jefferson City – more info here: https://confedmo.org/grasslands/. 44:50 min – Contact MFA for conservation advice. 46:30 min – Recent Made for Agriculture Podcasts, Today's Farmer Magazine issues.

It's CHOOSE LOVE AWARENESS MONTH, so we're going to talk about how you can choose love as defined by the Jesse Lewis Choose Love Movement and its founder Scarlett Lewis - who is on a mission to create safer and more loving communities through proven programs suited for all stages of life and everybody from you and your family, to your entire community and even your workplace. Then we're introducing the new director of the Connecticut Forest & Park Assoc.- which is dedicated to connecting people to the land in order to protect forests, parks, walking trails, and open spaces. We'll also learn how their experienced conservation professionals are delivering programs on Blue-Blazed Hiking Trails, Environmental Education, Land Conservation, and Public Policy. Then we'll touch base with LIV IT UP - a regional grassroots nonprofit providing support services and programming for neurodiverse adults by offering opportunities to enjoy enriched and fulfilled lives. The nonprofit promotes independence and building friendship and community through activities like volunteering , social gatherings, Broadway trips, yoga, therapeutic horseback riding, art classes, and concerts. 

Watch a presentation by Clay Henderson at the Corridor Connect here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABBTl8KOq5Q&t=3sClay Henderson has had a long career as an environmental lawyer, educator, and writer. He has served as president of Florida Audubon Society and Florida Trust for Historic Preservation, as well as two terms as Volusia county commissioner. Until his retirement in 2019, he served as Executive Director of the Institute for Water and Environmental Resilience at Stetson University.As a writer, he has been published in both law reviews and scientific journals extensively. His new book Forces of Nature (University Press of Florida 2022) is an environmental history of Florida. One thing I noticed when reading Forces of Nature is that the story of Florida's conservation isn't beginning, it has been happening for over 100 years. In fact, my perspective has shifted enough that I would say we are approaching the end of the story of Florida's conservation, in the sense of the future of our land, versus the beginning. Clay has been involved in the negotiation to acquire over 300,000 acres through Learn more about Forces of Nature here https://www.clayhendersonauthor.com/booksSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/florida-uncut/donations

Ilyssa Manspeizer, Ph.D. is an Anthropologist with over 30 years of experience creating opportunities for people and planet to thrive together. Throughout her time as a conservationist, Ilyssa had a recurring question about how people and conservation could go hand in hand. Landforce, formed in November 2015, has hired more than 140 people to learn environmental stewardship skills, be employed in transitional jobs to steward our land, and enter family-sustaining jobs from a place of dignity and strength. As the founding Executive Director of Landforce, Ilyssa leads an organization where traditional barriers to employment do not exist, and returning citizens, people with substance use disorders, mental health diagnoses, or those trapped in cycles of generational poverty have the opportunity to grow and thrive while ensuring that our environment can do the same.******landforcepgh.orgLinkedIn

In the final episode of our second season, Jarred and Adam review the conversations we've had on the theme of private lands habitat conservation, discuss some things “left on the bone,” and share with the listeners where Habitat University is heading in the new year! Be sure to check out the previous episodes in the podcast, including those from Season 2 discussed in this episode, and Season 1 if you haven't already! And as always please help us improve the podcast by taking this Habitat University Listener Feedback Survey: https://purdue.ca1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_5oteinFuEzFCDmm Resources mentioned in the episode: Bird friend coffee: https://nationalzoo.si.edu/migratory-birds/bird-friendly Bird friendly beef: https://www.audubon.org/conservation/ranching Learn more about the Land sparing and land sharing debate with this article: https://e360.yale.edu/features/sparing-vs-sharing-the-great-debate-over-how-to-protect-nature For a much more thorough treatment of the history of Native peoples' relationships to much of what we today know as private land, check out the exceptional book: An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz

In the final episode of our second season, Jarred and Adam review the conversations we've had on the theme of private lands habitat conservation, discuss some things “left on the bone,” and share with the listeners where Habitat University is heading in the new year! Be sure to check out the previous episodes in the podcast, including those from Season 2 discussed in this episode, and Season 1 if you haven't already! And as always please help us improve the podcast by taking this Habitat University Listener Feedback Survey: https://purdue.ca1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_5oteinFuEzFCDmm Resources mentioned in the episode: Bird friend coffee: https://nationalzoo.si.edu/migratory-birds/bird-friendly Bird friendly beef: https://www.audubon.org/conservation/ranching Learn more about the Land sparing and land sharing debate with this article: https://e360.yale.edu/features/sparing-vs-sharing-the-great-debate-over-how-to-protect-nature For a much more thorough treatment of the history of Native peoples' relationships to much of what we today know as private land, check out the exceptional book: An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz

For years, Utah's prime agricultural lands have been disapearing. This is detramental not only to our local food security and agricultural industry, but also disheartening to those who have farmed and cared for those lands for many generations.  The LeRay McAllister Working Farm and Ranch Fund was created to help preserve agriculture land in Utah by creating conservation easements that allow farming families to keep in business, while preserving the beautiful open space that so many love and enjoy in Utah.  Join Jim Bowcutt and Jeremy Christensen in this episode to learn more about the LeRay McAllister Working Farm and Ranch fund, how it is helping Utah, and how you can be involved.    Learn more at ag.utah.gov/leray-mcallister-working-farm-and-ranch-fund/ 

In this week's episode, host Allison Donahue welcomes Marie Orttenburger, Advancement Manager, with the Land Conservancy of West Michigan. The organization's history began in 1976 when four volunteers met to lay out a plan to identify, protect, and care for West Michigan's natural areas.  They created an organization called the Natural Areas Conservancy of West Michigan (NACOWMI). Early projects included several conservation easements, Saul Lake Bog, Lake Breeze natural area, and an addition to the Saugatuck Dunes State Park. In 1997, the organization's name was changed to The Land Conservancy of West Michigan, and the projects have continued to grow.  Today, the Land Conservancy of West Michigan is an accredited land trust with an office in Grand Rapids, governed by a board of directors and operated by a professional staff. The mission of the Land Conservancy of West Michigan is to help people protect, enjoy, and care for natural land in West Michigan.   Online:  The Land Conservancy of West Michigan  

Since the time of the Dust Bowl, landowners have worked with Resource Conservation Districts (RCDs) to conserve water, improve soil, preserve natural habitat, and prevent erosion. However, it can take two to three years to secure funding to begin a sustainable initiative. Devin Best, Executive Director at the Upper Salinas-Las Tablas Resource Conservation District, and Michael Larcher, North American Solution Lead at cBrain have partnered on a new system that drastically decreases that timeframe by matching a grower's land conservation needs with grants in a database. Landowners can participate in the Sustainable Land Initiative by submitting a short form that includes their location, acres, and goals. Technical staff from the RCD will follow up with a sight visit to determine all potential conservation projects including healthy soils, cover cropping, beaver dam analogs, and carbon farm plans. Through a database, the RCD can pull a report on all landowners interested in similar projects and connect them with funding and permitting. By aggregating data, the RCD can fund more growers, advise grant agencies on what conservation programs are most effective, and spend more time helping growers on the ground. Resources: *** Register 12/6/2023 | Prepare for 2024: CA DPR Changes, Bulk Wine Trends & Funding Sustainable Projects*** 181: Can Applying Compost Reduce Water Use? 122: Preserving Agriculture Land to Combat Climate Change 58: Barn Owls cBrain Devin Best Michael Larcher on LinkedIn San Luis Obispo County Beaver Brigade Sustainable Land Initiative Upper Salinas-Las Tables Resource Conservation District Vineyard Team Programs: Juan Nevarez Memorial Scholarship - Donate SIP Certified – Show your care for the people and planet   Sustainable Ag Expo – The premiere winegrowing event of the year Sustainable Winegrowing On-Demand (Western SARE) – Learn at your own pace Vineyard Team – Become a Member Get More Subscribe wherever you listen so you never miss an episode on the latest science and research with the Sustainable Winegrowing Podcast. Since 1994, Vineyard Team has been your resource for workshops and field demonstrations, research, and events dedicated to the stewardship of our natural resources. Learn more at www.vineyardteam.org.   Transcript Craig Macmillan  0:00  And our guest today are Devin Best is executive director of the upper Salinas, las tablas Resource Conservation District. And Mike Larcher, who is a North American solutions and sustainability lead with a company called cBrain. And today we're going to be talking about a very interesting idea called the sustainable land initiative. Thank you both for being here. Thank you.   Devin Best  0:19  Thanks for having us.   Craig Macmillan  0:20  Actually, before we get into that, let's kind of set the stage for those folks that are not aware. Devin, can you tell us what is a resource conservation district?   Devin Best  0:28  Sure. So a resource conservation district is a non regulatory, nonprofit local organization that works with growers and local community to help provide resources and technical assistance for their management of natural resources.   Craig Macmillan  0:41  And there are RCDs throughout the state, correct?   Devin Best  0:44  That's correct. There's about 95 of us or so. And they're organized around watersheds, watershed political boundaries, sometimes county boundaries. So it there's a little bit of a mix of how they're organized, but they were formed out of the dust bowl er, and some of them have combined, so you might get a little bit of those sort of things. Originally, the idea was that a federal government had the Natural Resource Conservation Service. And that was a entity that was focused in on dealing with the Dust Bowl and how to help farmers with their resource issues, but they recognize that the federal government didn't really have the best working relationship with local growers. So they formed what was originally known as soil water conservation districts, and here in California, are called RCDs, resource conservation districts, primarily same sort of mission, but they're more directed towards not just water, but also other things as well. And so California, if you look, you'll see this sort of conglomeration of some our cities have combined like ours is upper Salinas and Los Talas, this was to our cities that combined to form one but our counties actually shared by two our cities, the other one is being Coastal San Luis, our city.   Craig Macmillan  1:43  And Mike, tell us what is cBrain? What does the brain do?   Mike Larcher  1:47  The C brain is a process company, we specialize in redesigning processes, typically for government agencies, to make them as efficient, effective and transparent as possible, so that the government can do the work and arrive at the appropriate decisions very quickly. And so citizens get better services.   Craig Macmillan  2:06  And you two are working together on this thing called the sustainable land initiative. Is that correct?   Devin Best  2:10  That's correct.   Craig Macmillan  2:11  Devin, what is that?   Devin Best  2:16  So that actually started with Michael coming into my office and saying, you know, I'm really interested in this beaver brigade and beaver dams, and how can I help to get more of those? And I said, Well, that's great. But I'm also working on this thing called the carbon farm plan. And I need to get more of them done. But it's really tough. They started talking a little bit more about like, what does it take to actually do a carbon farm plan? Why is it takes so long? Why is it so expensive? Why are people not, you know, sort of gravitating behind these things. And as I started explaining, to Michael and his company, how it works, it was really apparent that we, as RCD staff don't spend that much time actually working on the plant itself. Most of it is there's these stop gaps between when we meet with somebody, and when we actually get something done. either. It's funding permitting something staff turnover, sometimes whatever it may be. And Michael's company actually sort of dealt with this particular instance of how do we make sure that we sort of streamline that whole process from start to finish, and get it down to the bare sort of essential parts, but make sure that there's tracking things along the way. So the sustainable land initiative really just focused more on how can RCDs be better at when I meet with the landowner getting resources to them, and I'm not spending all this time chasing grants and looking for permits. And so the example I've been given people is if I was to go meet with the landowner, and they're asking about, let's say, cover crops in vineyard rows, and they're looking for funding for that, usually, I'd go look into CDFAs, you know, list of programs that they have grants and stuff. That's one landowner, and I'd have to write one grant, and I have to wait three to six months until we got announced if we got awarded or not wait for the contract, then the resources, it's so we're talking almost a year or two. And if there's permitting, you're almost talking three years from the day I meet them. That adds some long amount of time between when we meet and actually get something done. And that's not beneficial to the landowner. It's not really the best use of our time. And so we started looking at like, but that's just for cover crops, I might meet with that landowner and say, you know, actually see you have some riparian corridor stuff that we can be doing to and you know, you have an oak woodland, we actually have a program for that. Well, in that one hour to two hours, we might meet that landowner, we lose a lot of information, a lot of potential projects, because now I'm off chasing after the cover crop grant and say, I don't get it. Well, all those other projects sort of fell by the wayside. Well, what if we were able to take all that information, put it in a streamlined sort of database essentially, and then tie those things in and aggregate them with other landowners, so I might be able to say, hey, in addition to that one landowners interested in cover crops have 10 other people I know that are interested in the same thing. Now I'm applying for a larger grant for 10 people all at one time, rather than one and competing against the other. And if I see a grant for my period restoration, I I can combine those together. So it's taking a lot of that information we get in a short amount of time and put it in a place where we can make it the most useful.   Craig Macmillan  5:08  You are probably more likely to get funding when you can come to a funder and say, Hey, this is going to affect 10 properties is going to 1000 acres as opposed to one person, 100 acres, one person 100 acres, you know, and it's probably also going to increase the efficiency of the actual implementation, I would guess, because you set up your team to do whatever it is, and then you can do a lot of work.   Less administrative oversight. Yes.   Now, Mike, I want to go back the way that Devin made it sound was you were just walking down the street one day and said, Hey, look, there's a sign these guys look cool. I like beavers. And you just wandered in. And I very, very quickly the beaver brigade and whatnot. I'd like you just to touch on what that is. Because that's an interesting thing in and of itself. What brought you to Devin went right to the RCD.   Mike Larcher  5:52  Sure, I wasn't. I wasn't walking down the street. But I was driving. I I grew up here on the Central Coast. And I spent a long time away last couple of decades, actually, the pandemic silver lining was I got to start working remotely. And so I came back home was on my way to the MidState fair, my wife and we looked out the window and I said, I don't remember the river looking green and lush in the middle of summer. I know what's going on what's changed. And that was how I stumbled across the slo beaver brigade. So for those who don't know, this is a nonprofit organization focused on trying to bring back Beaver and educate people about the benefits that they create. And they do so much cool stuff. Both Beaver and the SLO beaver brigade. But they are they're known as what is a keystone creature that can create entire habitats that benefit farmers, as well as the biodiversity in the overall ecosystem by slowing the water down, helping to improve soil moisture, reconnect with the underground aquifers. I think I saw some statistics that round about 90% of species in California depend on these wetland habitats. And so the more that beaver started coming back, the more water that is available for fish habitat for agricultural purposes, etc.   Craig Macmillan  7:16  So you had an interest in this you knew about the importance of the Beaver? And then what brought you then to the RCD, you had an idea.   Mike Larcher  7:23  I started actually with a quick Google search. And I found a call a Cal Poly graduate student who had just done his graduate paperwork on land that was suitable for beaver habitat in and around San Luis Obispo County. And Devin was one of the supervisors overseeing that and providing advice. So we had an introduction I was very excited about about the beaver. And Devin said, Wait, I'm really excited about what you guys do, you can make things so much more efficient and effective. Let's talk about doing that for beaver. But let's do that next. And so our first conversation was, how do we help landowners spend more time in the fields and less time at a desk dealing with government bureaucracy, let's make it really easy for them.   Craig Macmillan  8:08  So the sustainable land initiative, this was the two of you having a conversation and this is your project. This is your idea.   Mike Larcher  8:13  It started with the two of us. But we actually had feedback from the Farm Bureau from landowners throughout the region, city, county officials, everyone coming together and realizing that everyone actually wants the same thing. landowners want to become more sustainable. They want to maintain the legacy of their land. They don't want to spend a ton of time dealing with government bureaucracy to make it happen. How do we make it really easy for landowners to do what they already want to do? And to connect them with the immense amount of funding sources that are out there.   Devin Best  8:44  And I think the one thing I'd add on to that was that when I go to my RCD counterparts, one thing we always talked about was the limitation of our capacity. It's always funding and permitting. And yet we spend all our time doing just that is going after funding and get trying to get permits. And so we're not being a resource to the local community. It's like we want to be we're sort of hindered by those two other processes. So when Michael came to me, it was like, Well, if I can make the ways, that we're getting more funding to us quicker, that's churning the way that we're moving that technical assistance more towards helping the farmers we're talking about, hey, I'm not waiting for this grant. But this is a cover crop, I think it's really good for you. What I think's really fascinating is because because as Michael said, we started got a lot of feedback from other people was that this turned in from just the two of us to really be brought in much broader we have Cal Poly involved. We have three other RCDs involved as well. We have a lot of other incident entities and organizations, NGOs, municipalities. And so we've quit calling it like so much of a program, but it's more of a platform.   When did this begin?   I think we launched in 2022.   Oh, wow. You've done a lot of work in a short period of time.   Yen-Wen Kuo  9:33  Yeah.   Craig Macmillan  9:33  This is October of 23. For listeners, as you've done this, you've talked to growers, you've talked to all these folks, what are the top priorities in terms of implementation, project practices that people have said, Hey, these are the things that we want to do, what are the things that seemed to be the most I don't want us popular, but were the most interest is   Devin Best  10:10  BDAs Beaver Dam Analogs. That's one of the big ones, which is not a standard practice with vendor NRCS or CDFA. Is this the climate smart agricultural practices, it's something that's still kind of out there and still new enough. And that's one of the reasons why this is working really well is we can go forward and have sustainable land initiative and be sort of that platform for us to go outside of that. Those are the list of practices, developed the tactic, goal practices, the actual techniques, the implementation, the funding, the monitoring, the ecological benefits, all that information that goes into feeding into those to make them a standard practice, we can do that, and still provide that information under SLI. So that when it does become a practice.   Craig Macmillan  10:51  I want to come to back to Mike. But one thing that I want to clarify, because I don't feel like people understand this, the National Resource Conservation Service has a list of conservation practices, they are numbers, much like the code that you'd get diagnosis code and hospital, everything is tracked by that. And if it's on the list, then you maybe find a place where you can fund it. And if it's not on the list, well, then you're not far as the federal level goes, which can make it kind of tricky beaver brigade. That was kind of what got you into this. I'm guessing it must be very gratifying that a lot of folks are now interested in the same thing. Two questions for you on this. First of all, what is a beaver dam analog? We know about the benefits, but how does it fit into this, this this process? You know, do we need permitting? How do we go about it? What are the costs? Like how do you find people that have land that want to do this? I mean, you had the graduate student that sounds like they did the mapping? How is this? how's this working?   Mike Larcher  11:53  Yeah. So a couple questions there. To start with, like what is a BDA? Do you remember when you were like four years old, and you wanted to put some rocks and sticks in a little creek or something and slow the water down and hold it up?   Craig Macmillan  12:06  Too old? I don't remember when. But 14, how about that? But yes, yes, I do. Remember? Yes.   Mike Larcher  12:12  I have a three and a five year old and they still love to do it at its core. That is what a BDA is, we're basically pretending to be little kids or beavers again, and you're slowing the water down the same thing that the beaver would have been doing if it was still in that area. And what that does is it holds the water in the watershed longer. And so it can actually recharge and go into the ground, it's incredibly low impact shouldn't have any negative environmental consequences. However, when you're talking about doing anything in a riparian corridor, or in California, it's going to involve eight permits, Sequa, from six different agencies at three levels of government   Craig Macmillan  12:58  SEQA, the California Environmental Quality Act, by the way, thanks.   Mike Larcher  13:01  So when you think of it that way to do something that a three year old would do, or a beaver would do on his own, is going to take $10,000 in permitting and three years. So that's one of the values of the sustainable land initiative is that we're trying to take an approach where we can aggregate this across property owners. And instead of permitting each individual one, we can actually go after this as a region or as a watershed. Devin, you want to add something to that?   Devin Best  13:27  I do. And then the point being is that as a practitioner, somebody that's actually having to go after and get these permits, they typically will permit one feature at a time. So if you're looking at Beaver Dam Analog, you can only do one feature one permit. And that takes three years, well, we're talking about doing hundreds to 1000s of BDAs. And so as an organization, we wouldn't be able to keep up with that level of detail and information and processing of data, to be able to relate that to the regulatory agencies and make sure that we're tracking all these things without something like the sustainable land initiative, which is what we have.   Craig Macmillan  14:02  And I think that's where you come in. So this is process and process tracking and process design. I'm guessing that's where your expertise would come into this, Mike.   Mike Larcher  14:12  Yes, that's right. So the way the sustainable land initiative works is that any landowner who is looking to adopt more sustainable practices or to find additional funding and would like the RCDs help, they would submit an intake form that takes no more than five minutes. They can do this from their mobile phone. I've we've even had people submit this while driving, which we do not recommend.   Craig Macmillan  14:34  Do not recommend.   Speaker 3  14:35  Don't recommend that no. If it's, if it's a long light, all you have to do is say here's where I live, how much acreage we have, what our vision and goals are for our property. And then RCD staff come out and say this is your vision. We will try and help connect you with funding and permitting to make that happen so that you don't have to spend time going after grants or going after an Dealing with permits yourself will do the heavy lifting. What my company does is we designed a process so that it's really easy and efficient for RCD staff to do this. It's that five minute intake form. And then typically about a one to two hour meeting with the landowner where they'll walk your property, understand your needs, identify appropriate NRCS practices that have been approved and tried and trued. And a couple of things like BDAs, that aren't yet a standard practice, but that might have an appeal to that landowner. And if the landowner wants to do them, the RCD keeps that information. And when a funding opportunity avails itself, the RCD can go after that with a number of properties at the same time, so drastically increasing the RCDs capacity to help landowners here in the region.   Craig Macmillan  15:45  One of the things that I think is interesting here is this is this is a new model. I haven't heard of anything quite like this before, at least in Agriculture and Land Management, you guys are doing stuff already. I mean, you're making things happen. How has the world of funders reacted to this because this is not their norm? This isn't what they're used to.   Devin Best  16:04  Yeah, actually, so one of the best case studies was, actually there's the SB 13, Senate Bill 1383, which is about reducing the amount of green waste that goes to landfills. And it was a you know, it's a mandate, and everybody was scrambling to try and figure out how to make this happen. Our local county slo county Waste Department reached out and said, Hey, RCD, you guys work with landowners? How can you maybe help us as well, you know, and actually, this works out really well, with our sustainable land initiative, I can actually, one identify a number of people that we've already talked to that are interested in compost, I can give you the acreage is I can already have a way to track how that that resource would be dispersed and monitored and reported in a very efficient way. So what would have normally taken us a year or even two years to get a scope of work and figure out all the details and how many landowners etc. We turn that around in three weeks, but that was only three weeks, but I was doing other things. That's not really like three weeks they spent doing it. But that's how quickly we could get the information to them. Right up the scope of work, get a contract, we are already doing it. We're meeting the goals for SB 1383. Here and still counting for 2022 and 2023.   Craig Macmillan  17:09  What about federal funders, state funders, how's that been going?   Devin Best  17:14  So that is something in the process of developing one of the programs we're really hoping to actually make this more attractive for a lot of people is there's the CDFA Healthy Soils block grants that was originally sent out for solicitation we put in two grants for healthy soils, and also for the state water energy and efficiency program. Our thought was that if we had those funds, we would actually be able to give as much as $5 million of funds directly to the landowners. The main thing that was a problem, and I will just say this, honestly, a lot of our cities were hesitant, because we're not administratively designed to have that much capacity for that much money really. And meaning that many that much demand. It was only because we had sustainable initiative, I was like, Well, this is perfect, because not only can we receive those funds, and get those to directly to landowners, but we can actually report it very quickly back to CDFA. And track all that information where it's not on a spreadsheet or someone's notebook somewhere or something like that. It's in a centralized database for us to use. That was one of the things I was really looking forward to getting those funds to sort of see the true power of the platform itself.   Craig Macmillan  18:21  That's fantastic. And that leads them to the next part of the process. So we've we've we've brought people into the system, we then have put together an application for funding, we now have a way of making that efficient, and getting to the funders hopefully funding that then comes in which it sounds like it has now there's a lot of reporting, having worked on grants the past, there's a lot of reporting that's involved, and it takes every form from where how many pencils Did you buy to how many acre feet of water did you move? I mean, just everything. So Mike, this sounds like where the data management is really, really powerful.   Mike Larcher  18:58  So often, when you think about writing a report, if you're starting with a blank piece of paper, that's going to take you a very long time.   Craig Macmillan  19:06  Oh, yeah.   Mike Larcher  19:08  But in reality, you probably know a lot of the information already. And that's what we've done by using standard process is that all of that information that was captured during the original site visit and from the landowners intake form, including what their vision, their goal is, how many acres are on an orchard, how much or natural and all of that valuable data is available at a click of a button. So as you go through the process, you've actually had all these conversations, you've had all that you've discussed that and you've probably even written those notes down. Because all of those components are now digitized. All you have to do is click one button or at least RCD staff just has to click one button within the slides system and it will generate a word report pulling all of that information in and having it look and feel like the report that's necessary for the grant. It really makes it It's easier for monitoring and for tracking, Devon.   Devin Best  20:03  So going back to our original discussion about carbon farm plants, this is where we're really seeing the benefit, where before it would take my staff, many, many months to write a carbon farm plan one, and then to this the funding to be able to get those in place and everything else. Well, so now that we're, actually, I am going to use the word I do not know if its actually true, templatetorizing our businesses, it is now so we're actually taking what we do in our site visits. And we call these resource conservation profiles that collects all this information, we put it into a document for the landowners to have just as a living document. But because Michael's been involved in helping us kind of move these things forward, we're taking all that information and fitting it into carbon farm plans. So now what was taking me a year to write a carbon farm plan, I'm now getting my staff basically a day. And they're getting close to actually writing a full carbon farm plan in a day because we have all that information gathered. And it's just fitting the site visits and the resource conservation profiles, to these templates into these requirements for carbon farm plans. So that's in place, we're also doing the same thing with forest management plans, and conservation plans. So we have a way to make it so that my staff isn't spending all their time writing documents, they're just getting information, putting it in a format that's useful for everybody, whether it's the funding agencies, regulatory agencies, the landowner themselves, but then really transitioning in our conversations away from planning, and assessing, and actually implementing and doing and monitoring what's actually working on the ground. Yeah, go ahead, Mike.   Mike Larcher  21:28  The nice things about working with the rscds is they have this immense expertise and knowledge, they can write a carbon farm plan, I can't do that, all I can do is build the process to make them more efficient and effective. And so we'd still take all of that expertise from people who are highly trained. And we simply turn it into actionable results as quickly as we possibly can. You still have to know how to write a carbon farm plan, you have to be trained and have the understanding, and the scientific and agricultural backing to do it well. But now let's just make all of that information actionable, so that it can go into a plan, yes. But a plan just sits on a shelf? How do we unlock all of that data so that it can easily flow into a grant. So it can easily be tracked over the course of the next five years to say, here's what its real impact was. And that's the power of digitization.   Craig Macmillan  22:21  And that then brings us to, we've gone through the process. Now everybody's concerned about the final outcome. What about monitoring? What about evaluating? Did this work this work better here than better there? Can we improve is that part of this whole process is the post implementation part.   Devin Best  22:38  It is 100%. So that's one of the things when early on, we're designing this processes that we amend to make sure that we're one transitioning RCD staff role from being an administrator. Secondly, being more informative and providing that feedback loop. The other thing too, is if we're doing more of these sorts of things, we can be more informed to CDFA and NRCS, about what practices people like one, what are useful, and Intuit is again, sort of the biggest bang for the buck. At this point, if you look at all this healthy soils practices, I couldn't quite tell you which one is the best one for them to continue pushing forward and Central Coast versus maybe in the northern part of California. But if we do enough of these, we have the monitoring, and I'm shifting my staff time away from administration to on the ground monitoring and reporting and actually talking to people and having that conversation. And I think the main thing I can almost point to is, if you look at what we're doing, we're really sort of putting ourselves back into what they were originally designed to do. You know, back in the Dust Bowl era, not these administrative, let's go chase grants, but really being a resource, a local resource for growers and sort of taking their input and providing it to a higher context, whether it's the state agencies and saying, This is what you should be supporting. This is why we're gonna move this direction, maybe it's BDAs. Maybe it's biochar, maybe it's how these forest management plans fit into a larger context of our secret document, whatever it may be. But we can't have those conversations. When I'm going, Gosh, I really got to get this grant written. And I'm holding my fingers and crossing, hoping that we get something that comes up. So   Craig Macmillan  24:08  The same question, Mike, where now that we've gone through the process, where are we headed? From your perspective? Where are we going to go?   Mike Larcher  24:14  I want to see this really start to expand. It starts with the individual landowner. No one knows what's appropriate for their land as well as the landowner. As as much as a farmer or rancher who has been working that land. They know what they need, what they want. The sustainable land initiative exists just to help them achieve that as quickly and as effectively as possible. I want to see this start to scale. And when we start talking, we can talk about one individual landowner and helping them that's amazing. But when an entire region starts to do it, or when an entire state starts to do it, you start to see some really incredibly impactful outcomes. So we've actually deployed a solution that's quite similar. This is actually bottoms up working with individual landowners, we've done a solution very similarly in Europe from the top down. So within the the nation of Denmark, it allows landowners to select what fields they're willing to follow. And this is very specific to Denmark because it's such a low lying land mass, that's only a couple 100 feet above sea level. Well, they have a lot of agricultural land that is that has been completely drained from wetlands, and is very low yielding. It's only existing because it's already government subsidized. Well, what if we subsidize them to return it to wetlands instead? It is, landowners have been so excited about this initiative that they've had to continue to increase the funding year over year. And this one process on its own, is actually on track to reduce greenhouse gas for Denmark as an entire nation by 20%.   Craig Macmillan  25:52  Wow.   Mike Larcher  25:53  I mean, that's huge. And California is 10 times larger than Denmark.   Craig Macmillan  25:59  And also has its own goals. Yeah, there's a lot of potential here.   Mike Larcher  26:04  So my goal is to help landowners achieve their individual vision. But to do it at such a scale that we're really actually impacting the entire environmental the state.   Craig Macmillan  26:14  On this topic, is there one thing you would tell growers and landowners   Mike Larcher  26:17  take five minutes, open your phone or your browser   Craig Macmillan  26:21  Not while you're driving!   Mike Larcher  26:22  Look for stainable land initiative, not while driving, don't do it while driving.   Craig Macmillan  26:25  If we if we if you search a sustainable land initiative, we'll find you. And we will also put a link.   Mike Larcher  26:30  search sustainable land initiative, let your local RCD know what it is that you want to do with your land. And they'll try and help you fulfill your vision.   Craig Macmillan  26:39  Perfect.   Mike Larcher  26:40  They'll they'll try and make it so you don't have to deal with bureaucracy. And you can spend more time working your land. They'll figure out the permitting in the grants.   Craig Macmillan  26:49  Mike, where can people find out more about you?   Mike Larcher  26:51  You can google us at cBrain, the letter C and then brain like what's in your head. It stems from corporate brain. We designed a software to help enable all this in conjunction with the Danish government about 15 years ago. And we are now the back end of 18 of 21 Danish ministries part of why they're considered the most digitized government in the world.   Craig Macmillan  27:11  That's really interesting. Mike, thanks for being a guest.   Mike Larcher  27:15  It was my pleasure. Thank you for having me.   Craig Macmillan  27:17  Our guests today have been Devin Best executive director of opera Salinas Las tablets resource conservation district located in San Luis Obispo County, California and Mike Larcher is a North American solution sustainability lead for cBrain and we talked about amazing, really fascinating model process that they've been implementing called the Sustainalbe Land Initiative.   Nearly Perfect Transcription by https://otter.ai

In this episode, Michael speaks with Peter Stein, a managing director at The Lyme Timber Company in Hanover, New Hampshire. In addition to his current work, Peter has a long history of work in the land conservation movement. He was one of the founding staff of the Trust for Public Land, eventually becoming a senior vice president there. Michael and Peter discuss the history of the land trust movement and the challenging but still evolving relationship it has had with equity and community rights. Later on they talk about Peter's role at Lyme Timber, which is what is known as a Timber Investment Management Organization, or TIMO. Peter described how his move there was at a fortunate time, given several important transitions that were occurring. First, there was a large divestment of paper products companies of their forest assets, creating organizations like Lyme Timber. And second, such organizations were increasingly using what are known as conservation easements, which constrain the development rights on a piece of land in exchange for some kind of subsidy. Finally, Michael and Peter discuss the role that carbon markets and specifically carbon offsets are playing in the forest sector. Carbon offsets are a kind of payment for ecosystem service that are often integrated into the regulatory regime of a carbon market, but the voluntary  offset space is now growing rapidly as well.

How can one change an overgrazed property that is in terrible shape into one that is profitable again in a matter of a few years? Today, we'll revisit our conversation  with ranch broker Woody Beardsley and special guests, Tom Morrow with Lyme Timber and Louis Martin of Round River Resources, to discuss how that can be achieved as we explore the investment side of regenerative agriculture. Let's see what we discovered. Panel: Haley Mirr, Woody Beardsley, Tom Morrow & Louis MartinNeed professional help finding, buying, or selling a legacy ranch, contact us:Mirr Ranch Group901 Acoma StreetDenver, CO 80204Phone: (303) 623-4545https://www.MirrRanchGroup.com/

In this episode, Jason talks with Chris Beichner. Chris graduated from Clarion University and is the President and CEO of Allegheny Land Trust. His tenure has witnessed the creation of ATL's Community Conservation strategic focus, which includes conserving land in the City of Pittsburgh. During the conversation, Chris fills us in on the Mission of Allegheny Land Trust, general conservation benefits of setting aside land, and how the process works. He also details why partnerships are such a critical need, why they've partnered with GROW Pittsburgh, and how you can get involved. Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram Get summer savings on tools when you mention the show at Allegheny Valley Winlectric!Nurture yourself with Nature by visiting WildRouted.com and using CUFREESHIP23 at checkout!

City councilors in Beaverton voted unanimously to do away with including parking in new developments in the city. Kevin Teater is the newest member of the council and campaigned on this issue. Beaverton joins seven other cities in the state that have made the same shift recently, including Portland, Salem and Bend. Last year the state’s Land Conservation and Development Commission passed rules to lift parking requirements in many places and encourage cities to do the same. Teater calls the policy “absolutely transformative.” We talk with him about the vote and what this could mean for his city and others in Oregon.

In this episode, we are talking with Andrew Wilkins about his career path and current role. He got his bachelor's degree from Davidson College in political science. After graduating, he worked as a Staff Assistant in the US Senate, as an Assistant to the Executive Director for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, and as a Government Relations Representative for the Theodore Roosevelt conservation partnership. He is currently the Director of Land Conservation Policy at the National Wildlife Federation. We discuss: 0:50: His original career interests  1:40: The biggest similarities and differences between his previous roles 2:59: Why he switched from working on campaigns on the hill to advocacy roles 4:54: Qualities he didn't want in a job 5:40: What he did want in a job 7:02: How he got his first role in advocacy and tips for applying to jobs 8:53: An overview of his current role at the Nature Conservancy 9:32: Advice for your first job 10:57: Why he changed roles when he did 11:18: Advice for when to leave a role 12:29: What the training is like in advocacy roles 14:13: Advice on how to stand out in a role 15:28: His biggest roles and responsibilities 16:15: An overview of the National Wildlife Federation 19:18: What a typical week is like 19:39: Advice on how to be effective in any role 22:04: An example of the types of projects he works on 22:59: How collaborative the role is 26:13: Favorite parts of his role  28:26: Challenges of the roles 30:19: Opportunities for moving up 30:58: What he likes about working for the National Wildlife Federation 32:08: Career advice

Of the millions of people working in STEM fields in the U.S., only 9% are Black, according to the Pew Research Center. Those numbers are "unchanged" since 2016. How can efforts around “inclusivity” in these fields go farther? Environmental scientist Dr. Nyeema Harris has written about the importance of Blackology. “Blackologists are not simply scholars that are Black but, rather, are scholars who deliberately leverage and intersect Blackness into advancing knowledge production," she writes. Dr. Harris joins us to discuss how this approach is applied to environmental science and so many other disciplines. Plus, public health professor Dr. Ijeoma Opara discusses her work to reduce racial health disparities, and to "strengthen the pipeline of Black youth to the field of public health research." GUESTS: Dr. Ijeoma Opara: Assistant Professor, Yale School of Public Health; Assistant Clinical Professor, Yale School of Nursing Dr. Nyeema Harris: Knobloch Family Associate Professor of Wildlife and Land Conservation, Yale School of the Environment Where We Live is available as a podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe and never miss an episode!Support the show: http://wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Listen in as Matt interviews breakthrough Author Tony Hiss. He explains how we could save millions of species from extinction by conserving about 50% of the planet's land and water by 2050. Tony Hiss is the author of fifteen books, including the award-winning The Experience of Place. He was a staff writer at The New Yorker for more than thirty years, was a visiting scholar at New York University for twenty-five years, and has lectured around the world. His most recent book, Rescuing the Planet: Protecting Half the Land to heal the Earth, is now available as a Vintage paperback: bit.ly/3oevYsG

Of the millions of people working in STEM fields in the U.S., only 9% are Black, according to the Pew Research Center. Those numbers are "unchanged" since 2016.How can efforts around “inclusivity” in these fields go farther? Environmental scientist Dr. Nyeema Harris has written about the importance of Blackology.“Blackologists are not simply scholars that are Black but, rather, are scholars who deliberately leverage and intersect Blackness into advancing knowledge production," she writes.Dr. Harris joins us to discuss how this approach is applied to environmental science and so many other disciplines.Plus, public health professor Dr. Ijeoma Opara discusses her work to reduce racial health disparities, and to "strengthen the pipeline of Black youth to the field of public health research."GUESTS: Dr. Ijeoma Opara: Assistant Professor, Yale School of Public Health; Assistant Clinical Professor, Yale School of Nursing Dr. Nyeema Harris: Knobloch Family Associate Professor of Wildlife and Land Conservation, Yale School of the Environment Cat Pastor contributed to this episode which originally aired February 24.Support the show: http://wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this episode of the Heartwood Podcast, Dr. Easley and Bennett Olupo are joined by the illustrious Dr. Nyeema Harris (Associate Professor of Wildlife and Land Conservation at the Yale School of the Environment (YSE). Easley and Harris are colleagues whose careers crossed paths at NC State University. We are fortunate to discuss how Dr. … Continue reading Plugging Into the Source with Dr. Nyeema Harris →

James Prince talks about Minnesota State land conservation and indigenous land reparations. Music: Navigation by Areonaut, Blue Dot Sessions Celestial Navigation by Blue Dot Sessions Homegrown by The Pine Barrens, Blue Dot SessionsHomegrown by Blue Dot Sessions

When the United States took action to preserve what is now known as Yosemite National Park, they encountered a major problem: it was home to a number of Indigenous people from several tribes. The federal government expelled the Native residents. Some right away, others over time. It's a scene that continues to play out across the globe. Today on Native America Calling, we take a look at a new graphic comic by Gord Hill (member of the Kwakwaka'wakw nation) and a series of articles from Grist which reveal the bloody legacy of conservation in light of the current push to preserve 30% of the Earth's land by 2030 with Tristan Ahtone (Kiowa), editor-at-large at Grist; environmental journalist Blanca Begert; and Maria Parazo Rose, spatial data analyst at Grist.

When it comes to getting boots on the ground for private lands conservation, Pheasants Forever & Quail Forever is a leader. This episode we are joined by Quail Forever Tennessee State Coordinator, Brittney Viers, to discuss all the work PF & QF does for wildlife on private lands. From Farm Bill Biologists to Precision Ag & Conservation Specialists, tune in to learn about the wide-ranging roles of PFQF employees, and how they work to create and enhance habitat on private lands. Help us improve the podcast by taking this Habitat University Listener Feedback Survey: https://purdue.ca1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_5oteinFuEzFCDmm Resources from the episode: Find your local Pheasants Forever or Quail Forever Biologist: https://quailforever.org/Habitat/findBiologist.aspx Contact a Precision Ag & Conservation Specialist: https://www.pheasantsforever.org/Conservation/Precision-Agriculture/Contact.aspx

When it comes to getting boots on the ground for private lands conservation, Pheasants Forever & Quail Forever is a leader. This episode we are joined by Quail Forever Tennessee State Coordinator, Brittney Viers, to discuss all the work PF & QF does for wildlife on private lands. From Farm Bill Biologists to Precision Ag & Conservation Specialists, tune in to learn about the wide-ranging roles of PFQF employees, and how they work to create and enhance habitat on private lands. Help us improve the podcast by taking this Habitat University Listener Feedback Survey: https://purdue.ca1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_5oteinFuEzFCDmm Resources from the episode: Find your local Pheasants Forever or Quail Forever Biologist: https://quailforever.org/Habitat/findBiologist.aspx Contact a Precision Ag & Conservation Specialist: https://www.pheasantsforever.org/Conservation/Precision-Agriculture/Contact.aspx

In December 2020 Santa Fe County adopted a resolution to conserve 30% of its land and water by 2030. We interview County Sustainability Manager Jacqueline Beam to understand how the resolution happened, what it means, and how it's being implemented. Plus, we even learn the role beavers are playing!ResourcesSanta Fe County Sustainability webpageResolution adopting 30 X 30 goalInfographic status reports from 2022 and 2021

Join the Club https://SimplePassiveCashflow.com/club to get access to our deal flow and book a free strategy call with Lane.-Land conservation refers to protecting natural areas, biodiversity, and ecosystems for the long-term benefit of humans and the environment. Conservation easements are a tool used to preserve land for future generations. The New Omnibus Bill impacts conservation easements by increasing tax incentives for landowners who choose to conserve their land through easements. In addition, it encourages private landowners to participate in land conservation efforts and helps protect critical natural resources. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today we are joined by Jake Haupert and Jorge Perez, thought leaders and entrepreneurs in transformational travel. We explore why travel is the perfect launchpad for the transformation economy; how transformational experiences differ from our traditional ways of looking at categories like healthcare, finance, retail, technology and beyond; which customer types seek transformation and why they value it. Most importantly, we talk about how to effectively deliver on transformation. GUEST BIOS  Jake Haupert:  He's passionately advocating for new ways of believing, being, doing, and traveling that positively impact our lives, how we are with others, and how we relate to our planet. Travel today has become devoid of intention, integrity, meaning, and purpose, resulting in personal experiences lacking their full potential which, too often, reinforces boundaries, worldviews, and practices rather than stretching and evolving them. Despite our good intentions, unintended consequences have contributed to our current social and ecological crisis rather than catalytic to human development, healing, and collective prosperity. Jake believes the time is now to change that and invites you to join him. Jake is currently most excited to be participating in the "Transformation Economy Collaborative" led by Stone Mantel, an experience strategy company, and convening a roundtable of travel-specific brands.   Jorge Perez:  A passionate traveler and sustainable development promoter.  A pioneer on conservation through adventure travel and private land conservation, with more than 20 years of experience in these fields. Founder of  Tierra del Volcan, an Award-winning travel company that offers life-changing adventures that leads to legendary moments in Ecuador, South America. Adventure guide. Former president of The Ecuadorian Ecotourism Association. South America ambassador for the Transformational Travel Council and vice chair of the board of TTC. Ambassador for Adventure Travel Trade Association. Panelist and conference speaker at events like; ATWS, TNC private Land Conservation expo, TIES Ecuador, Ela Travel Show.  

Hello to you listening in Everett, Washington!Coming to you from Whidbey Island, Washington this is Stories From Women Who Walk with 60 Seconds for Wednesdays on Whidbey and your host, Diane Wyzga.Looking for a home in Belfast, Maine I stumbled on Green Tree Coffee and Tea of Maine in Lincolnville. I ended up moving to Whidbey Island but my coffee beans come from Green Tree.Why, in a region overflowing with coffee roasters would I support a business across the country? Carbon footprint discussions aside, because they know what they're About from Purpose to Mission.Purpose: To produce gourmet coffee / tea products with effective environmental sustainability strategies.Vision: To ensure viability of future generations by permanently conserving land.Mission: To produce small batch daily roasted gourmet coffee, with tea and related products that help support social, cultural and environmental responsibility, including dog adoption.In addition, they are fine, friendly folks who will happily talk with you about all your coffee needs. Give them a ring up  toll free at 877 338  0040 OR click HERE  to access their website.CTA: And, if you could use a hand up sorting out what your business or organization is About from Purpose to Mission, give us a shout at Quarter Moon Story Arts or on LinkedIn.  You're invited: “Come for the stories - stay for the magic!” Speaking of magic, I hope you'll subscribe, follow, share a 5-star rating and nice review on your social media or podcast channel of choice, and join us next time! Remember to stop by the website, check out the Services, arrange a Discovery Call, and Opt In to stay current with Diane and Quarter Moon Story Arts and on LinkedIn.  Stories From Women Who Walk Production TeamPodcaster: Diane F Wyzga & Quarter Moon Story ArtsMusic: Mer's Waltz from Crossing the Waters by Steve Schuch & Night Heron MusicAll content and image © 2019 to Present: for credit & attribution Quarter Moon Story Arts 

Americans typically are told that private enterprise wastes resources while government preserves them. Economic truths turn that canard upside down. Original Article: "Paradise Valley, Montana: A Study in Free Market Land Conservation" This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.

Americans typically are told that private enterprise wastes resources while government preserves them. Economic truths turn that canard upside down. Original Article: "Paradise Valley, Montana: A Study in Free Market Land Conservation" This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.

NGA.org's Land Conservation & Recreation Webinar, plus the Confluence Accords, and “Feels Like Summer,” by Childish Gambino!

What environmental problems would Craig Pittman like to see Ron DeSantis address in his second term as governor? These ones. Craig's not holding his breath.Our guest this week is Clay Henderson. His new book, "Forces of Nature: A History of Florida Land Conservation" details the century-plus effort to conserve land in Florida for nature, recreation and human health.Another hurricane just hit Florida and if you managed to elude damage from both Ian and Nicole, chances are, you're next. Preparing for the unknowable, but inevitable is a major pain in the neck, but you know it has to be done. Windstormproducts.com has the hardware and know-how to help you secure your property from hurricane wind and flood damage. Check them out online and give them a call if you have questions about how to protect your home or business from hurricane damage.

Oregon's Land Conservation and Development Commission adopted a new set of rules this summer that aim to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the state's eight largest metro areas. The Climate-Friendly and Equitable Communities rules affect several aspects of land use, transportation and development. Among other things, they require cities to remove certain parking mandates, provide more electric vehicle infrastructure, and designate mixed-use “climate-friendly areas” where residents can meet their daily needs without using a car.Oregon's Department of Land Conservation and Development spent nearly two years crafting the rules with city representatives. However, several cities aren't pleased with the results — they say the rules are too prescriptive and will be too costly to implement. A group of cities is even planning a lawsuit to get the state to pause the rules and renegotiate.Joining us to talk about the dispute is Kevin Young, a senior urban planner with the department. We'll also hear from Cornelius Mayor Jef Dalin and League of Oregon Cities lobbyist Ariel Nelson about how the rules are affecting some Oregon cities.

As the world's nations face the realities of climate change negotiation in Egypt this week at CoP27, the United Nations Climate Change Conference, we take a closer look at what it means to care for wild places. For some indigenous groups, just the concept of “wild” land is foreign, but many of these groups do recognize when land is out of balance. The extreme floods and fires we've been seeing around the U.S. and the world are a telltale sign that something is off, and as humans, we need to pay a little more attention to what's happening on our land. Chuck Sams is the first Native American director of the U.S. National Park Service, and he explains in this talk how his background impacts the way he approaches his job and thinks about managing protected places. Kristine Tompkins spent a lot of time outside and in U.S. national parks growing up, and now runs Tompkins Conservation. The philanthropic organization buys up land in Chile and Argentina to restore and return to the countries as part of their national park systems. NBC Correspondent Gadi Schwartz moderates the conversation and shares some outdoor memories of his upbringing in Albuquerque, New Mexico.