WASHINGTON
,
July 27, 2022
(press release)
–
The Land Trust Alliance, a national land conservation organization working to save the places people need and love by strengthening land conservation across America, today, applauds the introduction of The North American Grasslands Conservation Act, legislation that denotes one of the most significant grasslands conservation efforts in recent history. Nearly 53 million acres of our nation’s grassland habitat have disappeared in the last 10 years. These ecosystems — comprised of tallgrass, mixed grass and shortgrass prairies, sagebrush shrub-steppe and savannah grasslands — are critical for wildlife and agriculture and have the potential to remove carbon from the air and store it in the soil in large quantities. Multiple land trusts have pursued grasslands conservation as a natural climate solution. The following statement can be attributed to Lori Faeth, senior director of government relations of the Land Trust Alliance: “The conservation community and land trusts across the country have been working tirelessly to protect imperiled grasslands ecosystems, but without a larger, dedicated funding source, these threatened landscapes will continue to disappear at an alarming rate. On behalf of the Land Trust Alliance, I thank Sens. Ron Wyden of Oregon, Michael Bennet of Colorado and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota for introducing legislation that will benefit wildlife, and climate resiliency, rural economies and tribal communities, and America’s ranching and agricultural communities. "We must preserve America’s grasslands before it’s too late. This bill empowers America’s landowners to step forward and utilize voluntary conservation tools where they are needed the most, with the results benefitting stakeholders across the board, from ranchers and farmers to hunters and anglers, tribal communities, and threatened plant and animal species. This model of conservation has proven highly successful for America’s wetlands and can play a crucial role in restoring native grassland habitat across the country as well.” More information on grassland conservation: In 2020, the Land Trust Alliance launched its Avoided Grassland Conversion Carbon Offset Pilot Program to facilitate the permanent protection of grasslands. Collectively, our community is working to protect these imperiled ecosystems. The purpose of the program is to facilitate the permanent protection of grasslands by providing a scalable easement funding model based on anticipated future carbon revenues. Learn more. About the Land Trust Alliance Founded in 1982, the Land Trust Alliance is a national land conservation organization that works to save the places people need and love by strengthening land conservation across America. The Alliance represents approximately 950 member land trusts supported by more than 250,000 volunteers and 6.3 million members nationwide. The Alliance is based in Washington, D.C., and operates several regional offices. More information about the Alliance is available at www.landtrustalliance.org.
* All content is copyrighted by Industry Intelligence, or the original respective author or source. You may not recirculate, redistrubte or publish the analysis and presentation included in the service without Industry Intelligence's prior written consent. Please review our terms of use.
