Growing Returns: Greater sage-grouse

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By Eric Holst

Nearly two dozen Nevada landowners have already submitted letters of interest to generate conservation credits for sage-grouse through the exchange. Read more >>

For the first time ever, ranchers are able to enroll in a habitat credit exchange program to earn revenue for activities that protect and enhance habitat for the greater sage-grouse.

The state of Nevada and federal agencies today announced the approved use of the Nevada Conservation Credit System to protect the grouse’s sagebrush habitat on public lands.

This program will create a robust mitigation market that will bring greater certainty and transparency to the state’s agriculture and energy industries, ultimately allowing both sage-grouse and the economy to flourish.

About the Nevada Conservation Credit System

The Nevada Conservation Credit System is an advanced approach to protecting habitat for the greater sage-grouse that ensures impacts are fully offset in a way that helps create net benefit. It does so by creating new incentives for industries to avoid and minimize impacts, and for private landowners and public land managers to preserve, enhance, and restore habitat.

Nevada has committed $2 million to fund the first round of pilot projects, which will be awarded to land managers, namely ranchers, on private and public lands. Dozens of ranchers have already expressed interest in generating conservation credits through these pilots, which can eventually be sold as mitigation to industry buyers.

“The habitat exchange is a win-win for sage-grouse and for ranchers, who are natural stewards of these vital working landscapes.”

The credit system will ultimately provide regulatory certainty for industries by fulfilling compensatory mitigation needs.

The first, but not the last

Stakeholders conduct field tests for the Colorado Habitat Exchange on a ranch in Colorado.

The Nevada Conservation Credit System is an evolution of similar conservation programs under development in other sage-grouse states, like the Colorado Habitat Exchange, which was formally submitted to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service by Governor Hickenlooper in September 2015 – just before the “not warranted” listing decision.

In addition to Nevada, Colorado has been a strong leader in developing innovative conservation solutions that work for both wildlife and the economy. Approval of the Nevada credit system is a good sign that the Colorado exchange will soon be open for business as well.

“The sooner we can get federal recognition of the Colorado Habitat Exchange, the sooner we will be able to unlock new opportunities for Colorado ranchers to make sage-grouse conservation a part of their business models,” said Terry Fankhauser, executive vice president of the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. “The habitat exchange is a win-win for sage-grouse and for ranchers, who are natural stewards of these vital working landscapes.”

In order to keep the greater sage-grouse off the endangered species list in the long run, there needs to be strong conservation and mitigation markets in place that can drive momentum on the ground quickly, in keeping with the promises made by the states.

Approval of the Nevada credit system paves the way for other states to lead on sage-grouse, ensuring a sustainable future for wildlife and for the western economy.

Related:

Nevada landowners eager to generate conservation credits, help sage-grouse >>

$2 million available for Nevada landowners to earn revenue through sage-grouse pilots >>

Habitat exchanges: How do they work >>

By Eric Holst

2015 marked the end of a five-year drought, bringing relief to the parched prairie region. But climate impacts like drought and wildfires are only expected to increase in the future, threatening lesser prairie-chicken recovery efforts. Credit: Lesser Prairie Chicken via photopin (license)

Recent media reports have touted population rebounds for the lesser prairie-chicken – up 25 percent from last year. That’s great news for the bird, which was nearly wiped out in recent years as booming oil and gas industries encroached on the bird’s range across Texas, Kansas, Oklahoma, Colorado and New Mexico.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service listed the bird as “threatened” in March 2015, at the same time that the five states embarked on a conservation plan of their own. The plan was officially assembled and endorsed by the five members of the Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (WAFWA).

Now that bird numbers are up, WAFWA is claiming success – attributing the chicken’s rebound to effective implementation of their Lesser Prairie-Chicken Rangewide Conservation Plan (RWP). Certainly that program has provided some benefit, but the key question is whether the program has been a big enough boost to set the lesser prairie-chicken on a path to recovery.

Improvements needed

WAFWA continues to tout the number of acres enrolled in conservation agreements as evidence of their success. But this number does not correlate to the acreage of land protected or enhanced to benefit lesser prairie-chickens. It is rather the acreage that enrollees in the RWP (industrial developers like oil and gas companies) are likely to impact with development.

Read the latest on WAFWA's rangewide conservation plan for the lesser prairie-chicken in E&E. Credit: Tanks via photopin (license)

More clarity and detail is needed to understand precisely whether impacts from oil and gas drilling and other industrial infrastructure are being fully mitigated by the RWP.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Dan Ashe sent a memo to WAFWA in December raising these transparency and accounting concerns, writing that because WAFWA has still not created a database to track affected land and corresponding mitigation efforts, "the Service is unable to determine that the [rangewide plan] is offsetting the impacts to lesser prairie-chickens."

A better plan is needed to track both impacts and offsets to lesser prairie-chicken habitat to ensure success over the course of the next several years, when drought and wildfires are likely to return to the landscape.

What should this look like?

For starters, WAFWA should provide rigorous, transparent and quantifiable accounting of both the specific decline of habitat quality driven by energy and industrial development in the landscape, and the specific quantity and quality of offsetting conservation.

It should also take a hard look at integrating other compensatory mitigation approaches like habitat exchanges and conservation banks into its program to ensure that all options are available to landowners seeking to restore and maintain lesser prairie-chicken habitat on their land.

A lesson for the future

EDF has also work to build habitat exchanges for the greater sage-grouse, the golden-cheeked warbler and other at-risk wildlife.

Full disclosure: EDF has been a proponent of the Lesser Prairie-Chicken Habitat Exchange, a proposal that has taken a back seat to the RWP. But our critique is not just sour grapes. WAFWA is implementing a bold and innovative new model of conservation intended to provide states more control over the recovery of declining species.

If this model is to be replicated, the public has to have the capacity to understand which elements of the plan are delivering quantifiable benefit for the lesser prairie-chicken, and which require adjustments (or adaptive management) to deliver more benefits.

It’s critical that the public understand what proportion of the recent spike in population is due to acts of God (i.e. better weather) and which are due to successful implementation of conservation efforts.

As the feds look more frequently to the states to manage wildlife, it's imperative that states adopt plans that use the best science, maintain the highest level of transparency, apply rigorous accounting of impacts and improvements, and engage local landowners in ways that incentivize large landscape conservation. That’s the only way that states will be able to guarantee success and protect themselves from years-long court battles that too often delay conservation and waste taxpayers’ money.

Related:

Ranchers and conservationists step up to avert listing of sage-grouse >>

Operation Warbler: Fort Hood and local ranchers team up to save bird >>

By David Wolfe

Could the monarch butterfly face the same plight of the passenger pigeon? Read more in Modern Farmer.

When I think about what motivates me as a conservationist, I often reflect on the bird species we’ve lost – the Carolina parakeet, the ivory-billed woodpecker, the passenger pigeon.

I remember these species when I work to create pathways to prevent extinction for today’s at-risk wildlife – the lesser prairie-chicken, the golden-cheeked warbler and the greater sage-grouse.

But it’s not just the birds that inspire me. It’s also the people.

My role as director of conservation strategy and habitat markets often requires me to cultivate partnerships with ranchers, farmers, oilmen and large multinational corporations. It’s incredibly satisfying to work with this diverse set of stakeholders to find common ground. Sure, we all have different interests driving us, but I am steadfast in my belief that we can protect natural resources, while at the same time enabling the responsible production of food, fuel and fiber.

An evolution of conservation strategies

David Wolfe (right) has worked with countless stakeholders across the country in developing conservation solutions for at-risk wildlife – from golden-cheeked warblers in Texas to greater sage-grouse in Colorado.

In my 16 years at EDF, I’ve worked on many different species in various parts of the country with drastically different landscapes and habitat types. Across all of this work, one thing has remained true, which is that financial incentives in concert with regulatory assurances and cultivation of a stewardship ethic drive the fastest, strongest conservation.

In the early days we focused on the development of regulatory assurances in the form of Safe Harbor agreements, which are now used by a wide variety of organizations and state agencies to recruit landowners for voluntary conservation on non-federal lands. These agreements assure landowners that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will not require any additional or different management activities without their consent.

Dozens of species and more than 4 million acres are being conserved under Safe Harbor agreements today.

Following the successes of initial Safe Harbor agreements we identified sources of funding (for example the Farm Bill and philanthropic foundations) that could be used for restoring and conserving habitat. We would then identify individual landowners who, in return for credit payments, would be willing to engage in habitat restoration or conserve existing habitats.

The evolution of habitat exchanges

Dr. Gene Murph points to the best golden-cheeked warbler habitat on his property. Dr. Murph participated in the Fort Hood Recovery Credit System, earning new revenue for conservation activites that improved the bird's habitat. Read more >>

As my colleagues and I witnessed the success of Safe Harbor and early conservation credit markets, we quickly realized the potential to bring these markets to scale to work for multiple species in vast landscapes across the country.

Particularly, we realized the opportunity and imperative to create a larger market to more substantially engage the agricultural community. Because if a few dozen ranchers could help protect a bird found only in the oak-juniper woodlands of central Texas, surely the same strategy could be applied to the 11-state range of the greater sage-grouse.

In places like Colorado, Nevada and Wyoming, habitat exchanges are working to engage energy companies, agriculture leaders and states to provide a fast and efficient means of moving mitigation dollars from oil and gas operations to ranchers with the most potential for restoring and conserving sagebrush habitat. Already, more than $2 million is set to flow to Nevada ranchers over the course of the next two years to protect sage-grouse habitat.

Up next: the monarch butterfly

As if working across an 11-state range wasn’t challenging enough, I am now leading the effort to develop a habitat exchange for the monarch butterfly — the iconic North American species with a trans-continental migration fanning from Canada to Mexico.

Farmers who avoid the conversion of marginal lands to cropland can earn conservation credits for leaving these lands fallow, or for planting milkweed on roadsides and field edges. Learn more >>

Over the past couple of decades, we have seen the widespread adoption of genetically modified crops that are resistant to glyphosate herbicides. As a result, glyphosate application has increased dramatically, causing milkweed, which the monarch needs to feed and breed, to disappear from the agricultural landscape. The result: an alarming decrease in the monarch population, to the point where the butterfly has been petitioned for protection under the Endangered Species Act.

If the monarch is added to the endangered species list, the use of herbicides might be restricted, which would impact farmers and herbicide producers alike. To avoid the need to list the monarch, we’re encouraging chemical companies to proactively invest in monarch habitat restoration, and we’re encouraging farmers to implement conservation measures to restore milkweed on their lands, for which they would receive credits that can be sold to the companies.

I’m optimistic about the potential for habitat exchanges to transform how landowners manage their properties and how corporations think about their development activities and associated environmental impacts. If all of these stakeholders become more sustainably invested in the conservation of wildlife and ecosystems, I will consider my work over the last few years to be a big success.

Related:

Program helps Texas ranchers save endangered bird, but more conservation is needed >>

Operation Warbler: Fort Hood and local ranchers team up to save bird >>

From California to Idaho: Protecting rural pit stops on the monarch butterfly's great migration >>

By Will McDow

The state of Nevada recently made $1 million available to landowners for enhancing and restoring habitat for the greater sage-grouse, with another $1 million becoming available in the fall of 2016.

Nearly two dozen landowners submitted letters of interest to generate conservation credits for the bird – a clear signal that the market for conservation is viable and competitive.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service may have determined that listing the greater sage-grouse on the Endangered Species List was “not warranted,” but that isn’t stopping landowners in key states from stepping up to help the bird, ensuring that it stays off the list. That’s because new conservation programs are coming online that are attractive to landowners, conservationists, and state and federal agencies.

An innovative, appealing approach

The Nevada Conservation Credit System is one such program that allows landowners to get paid for effective, long-term conservation activities. The $1 million made available by the state of Nevada will provide seed funding for this emerging market – funds that are to be paid back to the state upon credit sale, once landowners sell them to impact industries seeking mitigation.

By offering this seed funding and requiring repayment at the time of credit sale, the state is giving a boost to the developing credit market in Nevada and reducing the financial risk to landowners.

Once the state recovers its investment, funds will be reinvested in additional conservation projects using the same process.

Nevada is the first to take steps towards implementing a state-supported mitigation stewardship fund. This is a landmark step towards establishing long-term mitigation and conservation programs for the sage-grouse.

Paying for success

A competitive reverse auction was used to select projects for the Fort Hood Recovery Credit System, which enrolled Texas ranchers in conservation activities to protect golden-cheeked warbler habitat. As competition increased with each bid round, landowners revealed their preferences to each other and prices normalized. Read more about the Fort Hood Recovery Credit System >>

To ensure the highest environmental outcomes per dollar invested, the state is using a reverse auction approach to select which landowners receive funding.

Further, the state is piloting a new “pay for success” model that incentivizes landowners, who are in the best position to influence the outcomes of conservation projects, to maximize the state’s conservation investment. This model takes into account the quality and scale of improvements to the habitat, as well as additionality and durability requirements of the Nevada Conservation Credit System.

Building momentum on the ground

In addition to landowner interest in the Nevada Conservation Credit System, USDA’s Regional Conservation Partnership Program just announced funding for various conservation projects, which include a proposal submitted by Colorado and Nevada to help producers generate greater outcomes for greater sage-grouse.

The funding will provide $1.9 million more to invest in conservation projects on private rangelands – a major milestone and exciting example of the power of cooperative conservation and market-based approaches. Nevada is planning to leverage a reverse auction to distribute these funds as well, putting tangible projects on the ground, in the best locations for sage-grouse, fast.

We must continue to build on the momentum created by the state of Nevada and USDA, increasing investments in approaches that tap into working lands and drive more landowners to become a part of the conservation solution.

Related:

$2 million available for Nevada landowners to earn revenue through sage-grouse pilots >>

What’s next for the greater sage-grouse? A public lands strategy >>

Operation Warbler: Fort Hood and local ranchers team up to save bird >>

By Eric Holst

California's Sutter Buttes are the remnants of a volcano that are sometimes called the "smallest mountain range in the world."

On a clear day I can see the Sutter Buttes, the smallest mountain range in the world, from my office in Sacramento. It’s a landscape that inspires me.

Although the Sacramento Valley is not without its problems, when I look out my office window, explore the local outdoors with my kids, or catch the woodsy whiff of a pencil made from California incense cedar (yes, I collect those), what I sense in those sights, sounds and smells is balance.

Striking the right balance in our working landscapes

The Sacramento Valley is a real working landscape. I use that term a lot: “working landscape.” By that I mean a place where natural resources are used to provide economic benefit – “working” to support jobs, industries and economies, both local and of scale – in a way that strikes a balance between maximizing profits and sustaining the natural resources, or the “landscape.”

Striking that balance between economic output and environmental protection has been a pillar of my work at EDF. I’ve long believed that if we can find and replicate this delicate mix everywhere, we’d be in much better shape.

Cooperation is key

Two former EDF colleagues of mine – Michael Bean (right), Deputy Assistant Secretary at the Department of Interior, and Robert Bonnie (middle), Under Secretary for Natural Resources and Environment at USDA – are both advocates of fostering the mutual appreciation for natural resources among farmers, ranchers and environmentalists, and creating policies that benefit all stakeholders. It is a philosophy I wholeheartedly embrace and strive to carry on in their legacies.

The media draw a lot of negative attention to the hostility and disagreements in our culture, pinning environmentalists against farmers and ranchers, for example.

That’s not my story. Nor is it the story that I have seen unfold over my career.

EDF’s approach to environmental solutions involves a great deal of collaboration. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve sat around a table with an industry representative on my left and a rancher on my right. Sure, sometimes the conversation gets a little weedy, but it is always a constructive dialogue – everyone sensitive to each other’s point of view.

As one of two environmental representatives on California’s Food & Agriculture Board, I appreciate the need for such open discussions. In that role, I wrestle to understand the best ways to enhance the environment in ways that work for farmers, ranchers and foresters, whose economic and ecological contributions to the state are incredibly valuable. I also advise government decision-makers by helping them understand the value to California agriculture of clean air, clean and abundant water, rich soils and thriving wildlife habitat.

Rallying around our common goals

Agriculture and environmental communities often share the same values, but get tied into knots when forced to takes sides, oftentimes in legal battles.

Most folks in rural America value abundant wildlife, clean water and fresh air. But they also want rules that make sense and that give them the ability to solve problems without complicated prescriptions from regulators who don't understand their land or their business.

If we can create social and political consensus around policies that reward people for providing ecological benefits, we’d be more likely to reach our common goals.

Protecting wildlife, and human life on earth

My colleagues and I are working with key partners in agriculture to develop a conservation tool for the monarch butterfly in the hopes of restoring essential habitat for the butterfly, which has seen a 90 percent population decline in the last two decades. Read my latest blog to learn more.

As I look to the future, my focus is on how to prevent the extinction of species, which is a critical indicator of the health of the planet. When you lose wildlife, you’re likely losing the vital natural resources also crucial to human survival.

Whether it’s making room for the greater sage-grouse to strut its stuff, or planting milkweed for the monarch butterfly to lay its eggs, we need to find a way to simultaneously protect wildlife and provide enough food, fuel and fiber to support human life on earth.

It’s not a question of the economy or the environment. We need both.

I will continue working to find that balance for each new species I encounter – each its own puzzle. Fortunately, I can find inspiration whenever I admire the landscape outside my office window.

Related:

From California to Idaho: Protecting rural pit stops on the monarch butterfly's great migration >>

New White House mitigation standard opens market opportunities for farmers and ranchers >>

Ranchers and conservationists step up to avert listing of sage-grouse >>

By Eric Holst

Related: Ranchers and conservationists step up to avert listing of sage-grouse

A few months have passed since the greater sage-grouse was deemed “not warranted” for listing under the Endangered Species Act. But that doesn’t mean that I’ve forgotten about the bird. Nor have the countless agency staff at the Department of Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and Forest Service (FS) who continue to work to ensure that the bird stays off of the Endangered Species List.

The listing decision signaled that the state, federal and other conservation plans for the greater sage-grouse should be enough to ensure healthy populations, and now we must continue the hard work on implementing these plans.

BLM and FS have already committed to developing Regional Mitigation Strategies for the greater sage-grouse within one year of the September 2015 listing decision – a strategy that I hope will bring consistency, transparency and high standards to mitigation on public lands.

Protecting the 50%

Credit: www.fws.gov

Roughly half of greater sage-grouse habitat exists on federally managed lands, across 10 states. With a range this vast, the sage-grouse will require a high-level mitigation strategy – likely one of the largest and most robust mitigation plans to be put forth by federal land managers to date.

This strategy will need to take into account local and state needs, existing plans and ecological differences while ensuring consistent and high-quality mitigation across the species' range.

So what will this strategy look like, exactly? That’s still to be determined, but my colleagues and I have been hard at work developing a set of principles that we believe will create strong mitigation standards, allowing development on federal lands to continue while contributing efficient and effective investments in the greater sage-grouse.

To create a program that works for landowners, project developers and the bird, BLM’s Regional Mitigation Strategies should:

1. Strive for overall improvement in conservation outcomes by following the mitigation hierarchy and offsetting all residual impacts. By prioritizing avoidance of impacts first, followed by minimization, restoration and offsets, the strategy can ensure that the highest priority habitats are protected, and incentive structures can be applied to encourage stewardship and enhancement when impacts do occur. No net loss of sage-grouse habitat is the only way to ensure that populations do not decline, and protect against listing under the Endangered Species Act in the future.
2. Ensure compensatory mitigation fully offsets impacts over time (durability & duration). Agreements and assurances must be used to ensure that offsets are maintained throughout the length of time for which the impact occurs.
3. Ensure compensatory mitigation goes beyond business as usual and does not displace other conservation funding (additionality). To achieve the most per dollar invested, the standard for mitigation must ensure no double counting of a single conservation outcome.
4. Consistently apply high, equivalent standards for credits to ensure mitigation measures are completed as required. It is critical to have consistent standards for credits in the mitigation marketplace to attract market participants, track credit transactions and ensure success.
5. Apply offsets prior to impacts (advanced mitigation). Mitigation projects need to be in place before the impact occurs to avoid loss of habitat.
6. Ensure mitigation measures address landscape-scale conservation planning and objectives across the matrix of public and private lands. Sage-grouse habitat is found across the matrix of land ownerships in the West, so a landscape-scale approach addressing conservation needs on both private and public lands is essential to sage-grouse success. This will ensure that the market for mitigation expands to facilitate more transactions with greater efficiency and pace. This also guarantees consistent outcomes across the entire range.
7. Ensure offsets occur in a landscape-relevant proximity to the impact location. Offsets should be close enough to the population being impacted so as to be meaningful, while also taking into account habitat priority and the ability of the species to adapt to a shifting landscape.
8. Employ the same or comparable science-based habitat valuation for both the impacts and offsets associated with compensatory mitigation. Impacts and offsets must be measured using the same methodology to guarantee no net loss from mitigation.
9. Establish standard reporting for the outcomes associated with mitigation measures. Standard reporting creates more efficiency for market participants and agency staff. We need standard ways to measure progress across the landscape and participants.
10. Integrate adaptive management. It is critical to reassess mitigation standards over time to ensure success and adjust as needed. For example, as climate change brings more extreme weather (drought, wildfire) to the sagebrush landscape, we need built-in flexibility to be able to adjust standards as the habitat and species’ needs change.
11. Offer regulatory assurances to participants in mitigation measures in the event of a future species listing. To attract market participants, federal agencies must offer assurances that protect buyers and sellers from future regulatory requirements, should the species be listed.

Farmers and ranchers are critical to conserving greater sage-grouse habitat on both private and public lands.

Developing Regional Mitigation Strategies with these principles will be necessary to scale participation – attracting farmers, ranchers and forestland managers to the mitigation marketplace – and to ensure better performance to drive stronger outcomes across the landscape.

With strong standards for mitigation, we can keep the greater sage-grouse off the Endangered Species List and sustain the economic and environmental vitality of the West.

Related: 

Ranchers and conservationists step up to avert listing of sage-grouse >>

$2 million available for Nevada landowners to earn revenue through sage-grouse pilots >>

In 2015, U.S. agriculture proved to be a willing and powerful partner in the path to sustainability. We’ve seen farmers, ranchers and food companies make major headway in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, improving soil health, restoring habitat for at-risk wildlife and protecting freshwater supplies.

Here are some of this year’s highlights:

• Approval of the first carbon offset protocol for crops in a cap-and-trade market (for U.S. rice growers), followed by approval of a grasslands protocol and a huge investment from USDA to develop a fertilizer protocol. These protocols reward farmers for conservation measures that reduce emissions and offer businesses new opportunities to offset the environmental impacts from their operations.
• Launch of the innovative SUSTAIN platform throughout the United Suppliers agricultural retailer network. SUSTAIN, developed in coordination with EDF, trains ag retailers in best practices for sustainable farming and aims to enroll 10 million acres in the program by 2020. So far, over 300 sales representatives in Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, and Ohio have attended training. And food companies interested in making SUSTAIN a feature of their sustainable sourcing work include Campbell’s, Unilever, Kellogg’s, General Mills, and Smithfield.
• A “not warranted” listing decision for sage-grouse under the Endangered Species Act, due in large part to ranchers’ commitments to develop and implement conservation solutions for the bird. Habitat exchanges – a solution developed by EDF and partners in agriculture and industry – are now available in Colorado, Nevada and Wyoming for landowners to earn new revenue for protecting and enhancing greater sage-grouse habitat.
• Release of Colorado’s first-ever water plan to ensure the health and vitality of the state’s streams, rivers, communities and wildlife – without harming farmers. The plan addresses development of financial mechanisms to incentivize participation in alternative water transfer mechanisms and subsidize agricultural water system optimization. This innovative water planning can now be a model for other water-stressed communities.

So what lies ahead for 2016? We asked our experts to share their thoughts and wishes for the New Year.

Reducing habitat loss

Read Eric's latest blog about new market opportunities for ag.

From Eric Holst, associate vice president of working lands:

• Aside from another championship for the Golden State Warriors, I’m excited about the potential to put the monarch butterfly back on a path to recovery in 2016. Populations have declined 90% over the last 20 years – and the possibility of listing the species under the Endangered Species Act would indicate massive failure on the part of the conservation community to stimulate action. 2016 is the year to bend the curve back to recovery by tapping into the potential of agricultural lands to provide needed milkweed and wildflower habitat for this iconic American species.
• In addition to launching a habitat exchange program for the monarch butterfly in 2016, I look forward to seeing exchanges formally launch in Colorado, Nevada and Wyoming for the greater sage-grouse, and in California’s Central Valley for multiple species, including Swainson’s hawk, Chinook salmon and riparian songbirds. With the launch of these markets will come numerous opportunities for farmers and ranchers to earn new revenue for conserving wildlife habitat.

Eliminating fertilizer pollution

Learn more about Suzy.

From Suzy Friedman, director of agricultural sustainability:

• In 2016 I want to get the SUSTAIN platform 30 percent of the way towards our enrollment goal of 10 million acres. I also want to replicate sustainability programming across the ag retail sector, with strong support from food companies. Bringing the SUSTAIN model to scale holds huge potential for sustainable ag.
• One of the things I’m most looking forward to seeing on the ground in 2016 is a race to the top for nutrient management tools that help farmers be more efficient and sustainable. Keep an eye out for a new program to be launched in 2016 that will bring transparency to these tools – so that farmers can have certainty that the products they’re using deliver results. That means saving money and eliminating waste from fertilizer use.

Reducing GHGs from agriculture

From Robert Parkhurst, director of agriculture greenhouse gas markets:

Read Robert Parkhurst's latest blog on ag's big data boom.

• I’m excited to work with our new partners in 2016 — ranchers, almond growers and rice farmers. We’ll see carbon credits being generated across these diverse agricultural landscapes, which will benefit growers and the planet.
• With the recent adoption of the rice protocol by the California Air Resources Board, I’m especially excited to witness the sale of the first rice credits to a California company in 2016, verified and regulated under the state’s cap and trade program.

Rebalancing water use

From Kevin Moran, senior director of EDF’s Colorado River program:

• One of the goals I am personally excited about in 2016 is taking a leadership role in getting Arizona and the Imperial Irrigation District to assist in reducing the structural water deficit in the Lower Basin of the Colorado River. It’s been widely known that demand for Colorado River water has exceeded the river’s supply in recent years, so I am hopeful that with Arizona continuing to lead on water, we will catalyze a shift toward demand management in the Lower Basin that promotes flexibility and resilience throughout the entire Colorado River system.
• To achieve this goal, we need to make real progress on piloting agricultural water efficiency practices linked to ecosystem benefits, which EDF is pursuing in partnership with the University of Arizona’s ag extension office and Yuma farmers. Through pilot programs, we will influence how Yuma agriculture invests in water efficiency to advance both sustainable agriculture and ecosystem and water system management benefits.

David Festa (left) meeting with a Yuma farmer to learn more about irrigation efficiency. Read his latest blog: 3 investment ideas to sustain water in the American West.

• In 2016, I would like to see California Governor Jerry Brown and the state legislature unleash the potential for water sharing by blowing up the state’s “paper dams” – a patchwork of outdated laws and regulations that have disproportionately affected disadvantaged communities and the environment during the drought. Agriculture has a big role to play in water sharing. Through a whole host of practices – from efficiency, to fallowing, to crop switching – many farmers could sell 10% to 20% of their water for other uses while improving their bottom-line.

EDF's agriculture team would like to thank all of the partners – from individual farmers to major food companies – for their help in making U.S. agriculture more sustainable and, ultimately, more prosperous.

More to come in 2016!

Related:

Why the sustainable agriculture glass is half full >>

Why almond lovers can breathe easy again >>

Ag’s big data explosion can benefit the environment too >>

By Eric Holst

Stakeholders conduct field tests for the Colorado Habitat Exchange on a ranch in Colorado.

The decision whether or not to list the greater sage-grouse under the Endangered Species Act was one of the biggest listing decisions of our time.

Thanks to unprecedented public-private partnerships among ranchers, energy developers, conservationists and states, we now have the groundwork to guide future management of our nation’s wildlife and working landscapes.

The “not warranted” decision sends a strong signal that investments in conservation are making a difference, providing the catalyst for a new approaches and a different kind of politics.

Bringing the sharing economy to conservation

The reason the greater sage-grouse was not listed as an endangered species is because of major investments made in private working lands, and strong commitments by ranchers to steward their lands for sage-grouse.

So how do we operationalize and scale up this approach?

We draw from the sharing economy to unlock the vast untapped potential of private lands and use market forces to get small improvements on a very large number of acres. I like to think about it as Airbnb for wildlife.

Just as Airbnb allows private homeowners to get paid for opening a spare bedroom to travelers, habitat exchanges allow private landowners such as farmers and ranchers to get paid for providing quality habitat for vulnerable wildlife. The revenue is supplied by infrastructure developers seeking to mitigate the environmental impact of their projects.

"Now is the time for us to come together to change the business of conservation to benefit all." — Terry Fankhauser, executive vice president of the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association

An example from Colorado

In places like Colorado, energy companies, agriculture leaders and that state worked together to develop the Colorado Habitat Exchange – a program that provides a fast and efficient means of moving mitigation dollars from oil and gas operations to ranchers with the most potential for restoring sagebrush habitat.

In a habitat exchange, landowners benefit from new revenue for creating or maintaining habitat. Industry benefits from scientifically valued credits that can be purchased to offset the impacts of development.

“The Colorado Habitat Exchange will create a new market for voluntary conservation that will help protect the greater sage-grouse and sustain Colorado’s robust energy and agriculture economies.” — Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper

The Colorado Habitat Exchange has proven that wildlife conservation does not have to come at the expense of the economy. That in fact, it is just the opposite. Similar efforts to launch habitat exchanges are underway in Wyoming and Nevada.

Up next: the monarch butterfly

Nearly a billion monarch butterflies have vanished since 1990.

Habitat exchanges aren’t just designed to work for sage-grouse. An earlier iteration of the program worked to recover golden-cheeked warblers in Texas and the next version is being adapted for the monarch butterfly.

Once again, the agriculture community will be critical partners in conservation efforts for the butterfly, but we can’t expect them to do it for free. We must continue to develop programs like habitat exchanges that provide the financial incentives, regulatory certainty and management flexibility to attract farmers to the conservation marketplace.

Related links:

With the launching of a new market, he’s a vanguard of grouse conservation in Wyoming >>

Feds call for cooperative conservation on sage grouse, states deliver >>

A cattleman’s quest to save a bird and help ranchers thrive >>

By Eric Holst

Photographers snap shots of two New England cottontails being released into new habitat during a celebration in Dover, New Hampshire

Saturday marked a new chapter in a years-long rabbit’s tale.

Of course I’m talking about the New England cottontail, which, until this week, was a candidate for listing under the Endangered Species Act.

Thanks to the work of private landowners, conservation groups, tribes, and state and government agencies, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has decided to remove this critter from the candidate list and declare that it’s well on the path to recovery.

A team effort

The growth of the New England cottontail population was a team effort, with important contributions from state wildlife departments, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and conservation organizations.

But the most important contribution came from farmers and forestland owners who committed to managing the specialized habitat of the New England cottontail.

“The decision not to list the New England cottontail shows that wildlife and working lands cannot just coexist, but thrive, in harmony. USDA is proud of the private landowners who stepped forward to make proactive conservation improvements on their land, restoring critical habitat for this unique rabbit.” — USDA NRCS Chief Jason Weller

These rabbits rely on young forests, with short trees surrounded by a variety of shrubs and bushes that provide critical protection from predators. As forests have matured over time, this habitat has experienced slow but significant erosion.

Thanks to the efforts of local landowners to cut trees and plant shrubs, 18,000 acres of new habitat was created for the rabbit.

Replicating the success story

A Montana rancher walks across the sagebrush habitat on his property — habitat vital for survival of greater sage-grouse

The commitment by local landowners to recover the New England cottontail has set a strong precedent for habitat management of other species across the country.

Out West, similar efforts are underway by ranchers hoping to restore enough habitat for the greater sage-grouse to put the bird on a positive trajectory and preclude the need for listing under the Endangered Species Act.

The more we can do to stimulate the conservation ethic of private landowners before wildlife are put on the Endangered Species List – whether by public or private investments, or other incentive programs – the more successful we will be in protecting species. Because, at the end of the day, the needs of our nation’s wildlife aren’t that different from the needs of agricultural producers. They both need healthy, productive land to thrive.

By Eric Holst

U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Tom Vilsack today announced a four-year strategy to invest more that $200 million in greater sage-grouse conservation efforts.

The strategy, known as Sage Grouse Initiative 2.0, will build on successful public and private conservation efforts to improve sage-grouse habitat by providing additional assistance for ranchers to make conservation improvements to their land.

It’s encouraging to see USDA remaining at the forefront of federal efforts to move sage-grouse protection forward. This funding is a huge boost for sage-grouse, but there are opportunities through emerging programs for impact industries to do even more to protect this iconic bird.

More investments needed

Ranchers are absolutely essential to the success of the greater sage-grouse. They have proven to be willing and committed partners in conservation, so investments like this that tap into the abundant potential of private, working lands deliver the best strategy for recovery.

But we need more.

“I applaud America’s ranchers for their initiative in improving habitats and outcomes for sage grouse and other wildlife, and for their recognition that these efforts are also good for cattle, good for ranching operations, and good for America’s rural economy.” – USDA Secretary Vilsack

Habitat exchanges are one emerging program being developed by ranchers, energy companies and conservation groups to that offer financial incentives for industry and the agriculture community to invest in conservation.

In a habitat exchange, farmers and ranchers create, maintain and improve habitat on their property and earn credits for their efforts. Farmers and ranchers sell these credits to industry to compensate for development, such as roads, transmission lines and other infrastructure that impact species and habitat.

An investment through a habitat exchange is not just an investment in the greater sage-grouse. It’s also an investment in America’s rural economy.

The sooner, the better

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service faces a Sept. 30 deadline to decide whether or not the greater sage-grouse requires protection under the Endangered Species Act. Either way it falls, the decision will be momentous, as it will not only decide the fate of one bird, but it will also have major implications for U.S. agriculture and energy production.

Now is not the time to be complacent. We need to build on the momentum of investments like this one by USDA to make sure private industries and the 11 sage-grouse states are doing everything they can to ensure sage-grouse success.

We should all be invested in assuring the long-term sustainability of the greater sage-grouse, both for the economy and the environment