As I wrote previously, I want to start combining our good news posts with climate solutions. I want to highlight good people doing good things in regard to the climate crisis. It’s important to know, despite what is often a deluge of bad news on the climate, good things are happening. I’ll be highlighting regenerative farming for the next few posts because I love how it bridges generational issues, political divides and brings disparate folks together.
And quail. For some reason, as you will see, quail are a big deal in these farming communities. As someone who lived on a National Seashore property as a kid, which meant it had to be left as natural as possible, I can attest to the joy of seeing quail and their chicks walk across the yard and hear their calls. I was glad to see I am not alone.
Part 1 of 10
Gabe Brown, Allen Williams and Neil Dennis were all going out of business with their conventional grazing – then nature forced their hand to try grazing without chemicals because they couldn’t afford them anymore. They are now the pioneers in regenerative grazing – replacing the specter of bankruptcy with resiliency. These ranchers regenerate their soils which makes their animals healthier and their operations more profitable. Robust soils enable rainwater to sink into the earth rather than run off; and retain that water, so the ranches are much more resilient in drought. Filmed in Starkville, Mississippi: Bismarck, North Dakota; Wawona, Saskatchewan, Canada
I’m starting with the Carbon Cowboys documentary and their new one, Roots So Deep. I’ll break it up over a few posts, but you can go to their website here or their YouTube page here to watch all of it now, read more about their research, and see where they are at in understanding the carbon capture aspect of this journey.
Fourth generation cattleman Will Harris shares his evolution from industrial, commodity cowboy to sustainable, humane food producer. A growing group of consumers look at beef consumption as a terrible environmental and moral choice. Harris’s work in southwest Georgia shows how he produces healthy beef that regenerates his soils and allow the animals to express their natural instincts. The 150+ jobs he has created are breathing new life into a community left behind and forgotten due to, as Will says, the industrialization of agriculture. Filmed in Bluffton, Georgia
Part 2 of 10
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It’s not just farmers adding solutions to the climate issues. Beavers are important participants in climate change solutions, too (I will also be highlighting other rewilding projects that have brought more changes than anyone thought possible)
More and more scientists are starting to ask the question: Could beavers be the ally we’ve been waiting for when it comes to saving the environment? Travel with host Joe Hanson to Central Oregon where a group of scientists set up a kind of beaver laboratory to learn more about the crepuscular creatures. We’ll also speak with a scientist who studies how beavers help to mitigate wildfire and drought.
California’s drought is a multi-billion dollar issue that we’ve dumped a lot of resources into, but climate scientists are finding that working with what nature provides could be more effective than our synthetic solutions. They say sometimes, you just gotta leave it to the beavers. (TaMara: groan)
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And finally, from bogs to cranberries and back to bogs:
Commenter Marion sent me a link, long ago, for a “Good News” site and I doubt she’d expect me to use it first in a Climate Solutions post, but that was the lead story when I clicked over:
Though she and Schulman were only first-generation, they’d envisioned keeping the roughly 600 acres of legacy farmland pieced together into Tidmarsh Farms in their own family for many years to come. That looked unlikely if they kept growing cranberries — and impossible if the land wound up in the hands of a developer. So in 2008, Davenport retired from the media research lab she’d founded at MIT and went all in on conservation. It was the beginning of a multi-year effort to revive vanished wetlands that would bring new life not only to her property, but to an entire industry increasingly burdened by climate change, while doing some good for the climate in the process. Continue reading…
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And finally this video summarizes information I have been reading in a few places. (Simon is a Dr in atmospheric physics and his videos are pretty easy to understand and full of good information)
Despair only limits future action – Simon Clark
More details at this link.
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I’m going to aggregate all these posts here: Positive Climate News that you can go back to at anytime to review (you can see all the climate posts under the Climate Solutions tag). I’ll revisit all these areas as I find more information on each topic. But I’ll also expand to batteries, solar, wind, EVs, and infrastructure. I have information bookmarked from all over the world, which I find extremely exciting.
I feel like I have a handle on how to proceed with positive news. And with luck we’ll also cover activism and how you can kick some politicians and corporations in the butt to get them onboard (mostly politicians, most successful businesses understand that this is a problem
I think this is a good start. I look forward to continuing to share these good folks doing good things.
If you want to share any links to good climate news info in the comments, I’ll check them out.
This is a doom and gloom free zone.
Geo Wilcox
We took shitty Indiana farm land and turned it back into what it was before white people showed up… forest. We planted over 10,000 trees in 8 days and several thousand more in later years. Now we have more wildlife than ever and so many different species even beavers!!!!
TaMara
@Geo Wilcox: 😍 You ever want to share photos and a bit of your story, you just email me and I’ll share in one of these posts.
You are my heroes.
Chief Oshkosh
Thanks for all the great stories!
But gotta ask: If there are carbon cowboys, are there carbon rustlers?
SW
Where I come from the ranchers like the quail because nut jobs from the city will pay them to allow them to shoot the quail.
TaMara
Four comments in. Amazing.
BellyCat
Jonathan Foley on TED talks daily offers some insight into the importance of immediate deployment of existing technology due to compounding effects.
(Not sure if link works, but you can search for the show: “The climate solutions worth funding now”)
delphinium
Thanks for this TaMara-so awesome! And good on the ranchers for being open-minded enough to make a change despite some of their misgivings. Hope it inspires many others to do the same.
Baud
BJ motto.
H.E.Wolf
Thank you for this series! Much appreciated.
TaMara
Watching some additional material for future posts and just learned a new phrase, evapo transpiration. So my learning something new every day is now complete for today I guess.
TaMara
@Baud: 😉😘
Chief Oshkosh
That video on the farmer from Bluffton, GA is great! Thoroughly enjoyable.
Sure Lurkalot
Thanks for the side wall bookmark and assembling this content for us to access so seamlessly.
I watched the video about the beavers and it was fascinating. I walk and bike along Cherry Creek quite often and there’s a ton of beaver activity. I didn’t know if it was beneficial or detrimental. The ponds and islands they have created have attracted lots of ducks and muskrats.
Thanks again.
TaMara
@delphinium: In Chihuahua, Mexico, they have 200 ranchers and Menonite 200 farmers who all came together to do AMP farming after watching the documentary. Which I thought was amazing.
Almost Retired
This is fascinating. I’d never heard of regenerative farming before this morning. I was particularly taken with the Will Harris cattle-ranching video, which demonstrates that you can be environmentally-sensitive and profitable .
And hearing the message coming from a native south Georgian – once you get used to the accent and pacing (talk faster dammit!) – is much more powerful than if the farmer was a hobbyist who sold his Brooklyn loft to carpetbag a cattle ranch.
I contrast Will Harris with California’s Harris Ranch feedlot – a massive industrial enterprise straddling the 5 Freeway half way between Los Angeles and San Francisco and densely packed with cows standing on dirt. It’s a powerful refutation of the old cheese commercials claiming “Happy cows come from California.”
Thanks for these posts.
TaMara
@Sure Lurkalot: We have them up here on the St. Vrain, too. I hope the powers that be are rethinking their relocation efforts after the big flood.
eclare
I love that quote: despair only limits future action.
Perfect.
eclare
Wow that video of Will Harris was hella impressive! So good to see. He should give lectures on how to transition farms, but that would take him from his land.
TBone
We have reindeer farms here. And buffalo. When I was a kiddo, ring-necked pheasants used to serenade me in my tree-crook nook reading spot. In a very urban environment! Majestic.
eclare
@Geo Wilcox:
Amazing! We’re turning a small park near me into a class 1 arboretum, which means it will have a minimum of 30 different types of trees.
Spanky
@TaMara: Hey, it took some time to watch all the videos.
Glad to see beavers and BDAs getting some love. BeaverCON2020 and 2022 were held in Baltimore, and BeaverCON2024 will be closer to home for you, TaMara, in Boulder in October.
TBone
@Baud: thank you, I am a filthy feckin’ animal.
Alison Rose
I love that news about the beavers! I would never have thought the two things could be connected, but it’s super interesting to learn about it.
Also reminds me of this:
Maybe they’re thinking “Time to help save the planet!”
TaMara
@Spanky: Thanks for that link!
TBone
One night we took a lantern out and sat quietly on the bank of Penn’s Creek. In the still quiet, all of a sudden SPLASH SLAP BOOM! Beaver warning its compatriots was startling! But we got to see them swimming under water by lantern light…amazing 😍
eclare
More good news about trees:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/feb/17/us-east-trees-warming-hole-study-climate-crisis
TBone
Once in Penn’s Woods, I was startled by what I thought was a dog off leash. I was so far up on the mountain, that was nigh impossible. It was a bobcat! White Mountain Wild Area
eclare
@Almost Retired:
Ha! His accent sounded about right to me, slow and smooth like molasses.
lashonharangue
@TaMara:
If you want more videos about this, here is another source. https://holisticmanagement.org/video-profiles/
Spanky
@TBone:
Were they holding the lanterns in their teeth? Headlamps would be much more efficient, methinks.
TBone
@Spanky: smart aleck! Hold your light up high! I have photos we went back the next day to see the lodge. Neighbor phooey have-a-hart trapped and tried to move but without success.
eclare
@TBone:
That sounds very cool. Night swimming.
TBone
@eclare: I have way too many (true) stories to tell, don’t want to hijack thread but sometimes I just gotta tell or I will burst!
Spanky
In barely related news, PACE (Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem) launched this week. A friend of mine is on the science team.
eclare
@Spanky:
Awesome!
TaMara
Thanks for all the links you guys. I’ll check back for more later…
@Spanky: That’s exciting
RevRick
Urban areas can, and must, participate in combatting climate change as well. The church to which my wife and I belong, St. John’s UCC, Allentown PA, is in the process of becoming a Creation Justice Church. We’ve spent the past two months engaging in reflection and prayer and our pastor preached a sermon series on it, so our next steps will be to conduct audits of our church’s impacts on the environment and inviting our members and friends to do likewise. April 7th we will gather after worship to talk about our findings and begin the process of developing action plans to address them in the upcoming year.
bluefoot
Thanks so much for this post and starting this series – this is great. I am making my way through the videos and it’s cool to see that we can do things on so many fronts for environmental reclamation and climate remediation. I need to get involved somewhere.
ETA: I have a friend who has started a sustainability VC-like org. I will try and get some more info from him and share.
HinTN
Paging Tony Jay, stat. Somewhere toward the end of Dr Simon’s climate video is a fine evisceration of Brit leadership.
Also, too, @eclare: I could listen to that man talk all day.
Thanks @TaMara: !!!
HinTN
@TBone: They are coming back around these parts, too. Something has to control the deer.
Bill Arnold
@HinTN:
Yeah, I even wrote that down:
“Our current government in the UK of cartoonishly incompetent ghouls.
… I think that was impartial enough… “
TaMara
@RevRick: One of the best things urban homeowners can do is kill their front lawns and turn them into natural areas or vegetable gardens.
Also, planting fruit trees where anyone can enjoy the fruit for free is an amazing gift.
I will love to hear about what things your church family comes up with, so please share!
TaMara
@TaMara: I should add I have been struggling with what to do in my backyard – I need grass for the critters, I also need to revitalize it after the previous homeowner killed the soil with chemical additives (weekly). I’ve tried many things -including clover, which has had limited success in establishing.
I think this year I’m going to try buffalograss and clover combined and see how that works. Univ of NE has some heirloom grass plugs available for this type of climate and reasonably priced.
I’ll take any advice from anyone who has tackled similar.
TBone
@HinTN: I’m glad to hear that. Chronic Wasting Disease is controlling deer 😞 and they can catch Covid too. I don’t mind harvesting if one has to feed a family but deer get a really bad rap (due to the sadly named Deer Tick) and somebody gotta stick up for them. White footed mice spread more ticks than deer and I see too many “let’s go cull the deer” responses for Lyme prevention. Ok, soapbox rant done. Happy bobcat sighting!
TBone
@RevRick: I always enjoy your posts. Been meaning to check out a local church that has recently installed many solar panels and flies friendly colors on the front lawn. St. Andrew’s. But I’m balking because of other experiences with different church around here. Maybe I should go tomorrow…
Geminid
@TaMara: I have done very little regenerative agriculture, but I have planted Crimson Clover and can recommend it. Unlike most clovers, Crimson Clover is an annual. It has a very pretty flower and is often found in wildflower mixes, but an ag store is the best place to buy it. The ones around here sell it in three pound bags, but some co-ops sell Crimson Clover by the pound.
JAM
@TaMara: The best advice I can give is to top-dress the lawn with compost before you install your plugs. I haven’t gotten rid of my lawn though, as much as I would love to replace it. I don’t think I could ever kill it completely because it’s bermudagrass, so I’ve been trying to encourage desirable weeds and to get rid of the weeds that need lots of mowing.
moonbat
Thanks so much for this, TaMara!
I teach a cultural ecology class which in past years inevitably got more and more depressing as we tackled intensive agriculture societies and their effects on the planet and this gives me and my students some desperately needed positive action fodder.
ETA and I subscribed to Simon Clark’s Nebula. SO much goodness in there!
Trivia Man
@Geo Wilcox: one chunk at a time, bless you
Trivia Man
@TaMara: in utah we killed the lawn and replaced eith golden poppy and about 8 different kinds of sage
plus a transplanted rose bush we estimate at about 80 years old but that one DID require water
TaMara
@moonbat: Your comment pretty much made the work I did for this post all worth it! thanks
TaMara
@Trivia Man: Pretty! I think I killed my front yard in 2020 (I’d have to go look at my blog posts to be sure) and I haven’t regretted it a bit. The soil is teeming with bugs, worms, and shrooms. The native, low-water plants are thriving and I’m seeing more and more varieties of birds and butterflies. Just in my little patch of nature.
sab
Our local national park lost a battle with beavers 30 years ago and now the beaver marsh is their biggest tourist draw.
Initially the spot was a junk yard with 1800 car wrecks on the banks of the Cuyahoga River. I remember it from high school.
Park decided that after clean up (1800 car wrecks) that it would be a good place for a parking lot.
After the cleanup, the beavers decided it would be a good place for a dam. So they built one.
The park people tore it out.
The beavers rebuilt it.
The park people tore it out.
The beavers rebuilt it.
The park people gave up and built a much smaller parking lot nearby, and a wooden causeway over the new beaver marsh.
If you build it (dam and parking lot and wooden causeway) people will come.
ETA We and these beavers are in NE Ohio
ETA It has water lilies, and an amazing bunch of birds, and of course the beavers
ETA It is so popular that they do need a biger parking lot.
Bill Arnold
Nice to hear that rancher bragging about being able to set up a 1/4 mile electric fence surrounding a paddock in 18 minutes.
Seriously, that’s the sort of innovation we need.
Gvg
@TaMara: just using fewer chemicals and mulching instead of bagging the clippings improves the soil over time. Florida has very sandy soil with few nutrients. Because of our long warm season, soil microbes have a longer time to expand exponentially and that means organic matter gets eaten by bacteria faster here than other places. I bought my first home while still poor and routinely let the grass clippings lie. Was already aware that everything possible should be composted so did not get rid of much yard waste. Also used few chemicals because they cost lots of money and my earliest experiences were that they don’t work. I also was sceptical of believing safety promises and just doesn’t have time to research myself every claim. After a few years I noticed my soil was better, lots of earthworms etc. I don’t know what other people do to their lawns, but mine improved as long as zi mowed to keep the weeds down. Others also throw away leaves but I go hunting bags of leaves to add to my flower beds. In 3 years my hard packed sandy soil lawn gets fluffy with worms and organisms and the soil retains rain better, the lawn looks lots better. I am not even that strict on no chemicals, just mostly. This is my third house and the lawn always improves with the soil. This time I may eventually have no lawn. Shade is increasing in an older neighborhood. I think the lawn will die out over time.
I plant ferns under the trees.
Mart
I was fascinated by the linked PBS segment on grasslands being a better carbon sink than forests. Large critters ripping up the turf with their hooves makes for an even better carbon sink.
More buffalo roaming the plains is good news too:
https://www.pbs.org/video/grasslands-ge47zj/
(Link says you need to have a PBS tote bag to watch.)
Bill Arnold
@Almost Retired:
A reminder that youtube videos have a speed control. Generally, 1.75x starts clipping phonemes (2x worse) but 1.25/1.5 are generally OK. And faster is OK, if one looks at a transcript at the same time.
kmax
Bravo on giving us one of the most uplifting posts I have seen here. Brought a smile to my face. While I was somewhat familiar with some of the farming practices in the films, it was great to hear about in the farmers’ words.
And let those beavers do their thing.
stinger
@lashonharangue: Thanks for your link. The Savannah Institute is another great place to start for information about integrated/regenerative farming, permaculture, and silviculture/agroforestry.
Whether you have a cattle ranch, a suburban backyard, a highrise apartment, a mobile home lot, or something else, you can participate in efforts to reduce pollution and global warming, encourage pollinators and wildlife, and feed people.
TerryC
I’ve mentioned before the massive tree planting I’ve done at my home (16,000+ trees in 10 years). That’s personal, direct contribution.
Even more impactful, from me, is that in 2003 I conceived of, created, and pushed the growth of Campus Sustainability Day, which became Campus Sustainability Week and then Campus Sustainability Month. Every year, millions of college students, faculty, and staff focus on sustainability and climate change in academics, activism, and practical actions, sharing successes and motivation. Probably the best thing I ever did in terms of social impact.
Geminid
@TerryC: This reminded me of what Rep. Grace Meng posted on the evening of the NY03 special election:
Chris T.
@TaMara:
It’s what plants crave!
Jay
@TaMara:
airate the lawn, fill the holes and top the lawn with good compost.
Happy dirt, happy lawn.
Grass loses vigor after 5 years, so reseed every couple of years, fertilize with compost every year.
Don’t stick to just grass. I have always mixed in thyme, lambs ear, violets and red and white clover. I’ve always mixed in crocus bulbs and anenomes.
At the Clinton St house, I found at a garden center, a bunch of bulbs that were a wild Turkish tulip, that grew to a 3″ height and added those in.
In the fall, cut the lawn short, in the spring, cut the lawn short, (after the bees have had their fill), in summer, leave the lawn 3 to 4 inches high.
Another Scott
@TerryC: Wow. That’s huge.
Very well done.
Thanks.
Cheers,
Scott.
CaseyL
These are wonderful videos, TaMara. What a treasure of positive information!
A question that keeps coming up when you try talking about regenerative/holistic ranching is “How can it scale up to feed the same number of people as industrialized ranching?”
I like the answer one of the ranchers gave: It can’t. So what needs to be done is expand the number of ranches (and farms) that practice regenerative farming and ranching. Change the food supply model of one more locally based, so a limited number of giant industrialized farms no longer are our only food sources. That would improve the land, the food supply, and restore communities lost when farmland dies. (I was shocked when he said only 17% of the money earned from farmed food goes back to the farmer: the rest goes to the shippers and distributors.)
It means a U-turn from the trends over the last 30 years, of arable land getting plowed under for development. I’m not sure how to do that on a nationwide basis, since people want to live where they want to live and migration is, if anything, increasing.
I subscribe to Butcher Box for my meat, and I wonder if any of the cattle ranches in these videos are among the suppliers. I think the suppliers are listed on the Butcher Box website; will have to look.
stinger
@CaseyL:
This. Try to shop “locally” for meat and other groceries. The grocery bill may increase slightly, but it will be better for the planet!
CaseyL
@stinger:
That’s probably my next step. I mean, I shop a lot at farmer’s markets, but mostly in the summer. And I’ve been contemplating moving away from Butcher Box to local providers, because there are plenty. Just gotta do it and not dither…
Yarrow
@TaMara: You might find this book helpful. I heard this husband and wife team speak and they were great. They re-built their yard at their Seattle home using soil regeneration.
StringOnAStick
@TaMara: I killed our front lawn two years ago and planted it fully with only local native plants. The grass in the backyard was eliminated the year before and replaced with a pollinator pollinator garden, veggie garden and the two existing fruit trees. This year I’m adding a cold tolerant peach tree and a grape arbor, plus a water feature for the local critters, including CA quail. I hope to get the attention of the annual garden tour this year; this area is too dry for lawns and they need to be replaced..
StringOnAStick
@TaMara: the main thing buffalo grass needs is full sun. Just be aware it aggressively sends out runners so you need to keep on top of them to keep it out of your flower or veggie beds.
Bupalos
Regenerative and sustainable agriculture can be profitable to the extent that consumer choice allows it to be. These stories are inspiring and it’s important to remember they depend on each of us changing our consumer habit of racing to the bottom for cheap stuff.
Bupalos
@sab: I’m in NEO and just wondering which park this is?