Elevating America's Grasslands

Grasslands are a vast and biodiverse ecosystem that have the potential to play an important role in climate change mitigation. However, today, they exist on only a fraction of the land they once covered and are under great threat of continued loss and degradation. Further, grasslands are less visible than other conservation targets and don’t yet have the widespread support needed to ensure their survival.

Volgenau Climate Initiative (VCI) is a deep proponent of grasslands’ ability to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and support plant, animal and human life. In 2023, we hosted our first grasslands retreat, “Elevating the Profile of America’s Grasslands,” in Tucson, Arizona. The retreat led to a communications campaign focused on increasing awareness of the importance of grasslands. It also identified the need to develop a nationwide map of the country’s grasslands.

This year’s retreat, hosted in Gulf Shores, Alabama, was geared toward building a broader grasslands coalition. Our attendees traveled from many regions across the country and represented the private sector, federal and state agencies, farming and ranching organizations, conservation groups, family foundations and funder networks, educational institutions and Indigenous advocacy organizations. Together, the participants brought their perspectives, lived experience, professional expertise and passion to workshop ideas and generate action plans to support the elevation of grasslands.

Throughout the retreat, our attendees asked probing questions that sought to discern expedient and impactful means of creating change. They engaged in debate over the best ways to support producers, when to compromise on conservation goals, how to engage a broader audience and what data would best serve practical efforts. Such discussion not only illuminated the complexity of elevating the appreciation of America’s grasslands but also reflected the true heart and passion that our attendees bring to their work on a daily basis.

We didn’t just talk the talk. We also had an on-the-ground encounter with a nearby longleaf pine ecosystem, a type of grassland that once dominated 60 million acres across the Southeast. During the field trip, we identified a wide variety of plant and animal species and shared laughter and wonder.

Shared moments like these are part of the relationship-building that is key to maintaining trust and collaboration in the face of hard work and challenging issues — all needed to create enduring change. And through such work, our attendees homed in on nine key action plans to move forward the work of elevating America’s grasslands.

• Grow and Coordinate Delivery: Curate listening sessions and a national survey to deeply understand the needs of farmers and land stewards and what support would most help them enact practices that could better support grasslands ecosystems. This group plans to spend the next year gathering this information so that they can apply for grants from the USDA and other agencies to provide on-the-ground technical support and labor to farmers. 

• Storytelling Grassfire: Create a grassroots storytelling social media campaign by collecting and collaborating with existing creators and teaching others how to share their stories. The team’s initial focus is on identifying content criteria, compelling stories, potential audiences and partnerships, then to help train new storytellers and connect them with audiences and policymakers and measure outcomes.

• Grasslands Awareness Campaign: Realize the recognition of grasslands, their stewards, and all human connection to them through a widespread communications campaign. This group will build on the research of the past year and continue to plan, design, and fundraise with the goal to announce the campaign at America’s Grasslands Conference in June and launch the campaign by the end of 2025.

• Grasslands Hub: Distill objectives and create connections between the campaigns growing out of this retreat, eventually including a web platform to hold and organize maps and stories and facilitate engagement, collaboration and connection. The group plans to start by clarifying objectives and strategies, then to meet with ESRI about technological planning and establish partnership frameworks.

• Next Generation of Grasslands: Expose more young people to grasslands through education and workforce training with an emphasis on the role that access to nature can play in improving mental health. This plan will start by identifying a student intern for the spring semester at Dobyns-Bennett High School (Kingsport, Tennessee) and discerning the scope of the project. The group hopes to expand student internships within the high school and district first and then potentially develop a replicable curriculum for other teachers. 

• Federal Transferable Conservation Tax Credit: Research and draft a legislative proposal for a tax credit that farmers could use to supplement income while enacting conservation practices. The team plans to start by drafting a scope of concept and conducting research on credit examples and implications. They plan to complete a draft by June and seek comments and sponsorship with the goal of having the bill introduced within a year.

• Preservation of Prairie Species: Send prairie seeds to Svalbard Global Seed Vault so that they are protected and preserved in the face of climate change. The group will start by communicating with Svalbard and potentially supportive seed organizations. Through conversations, they hope to organize, draft a plan, identify barriers and determine a seed aggregator. Ultimately, they hope to start sending seeds by the end of 2025. 

• Registration Hub: Coordinate continued communication among participants as the action plans grow and develop. Within three weeks, this group plans to help facilitate follow-up, enable joint proposals to VCI and discern how to keep others informed of progress. Going forward, this group hopes to share this coalition’s work with others and advocate when needed. Eventually they want to support the next VCI retreat.

• Increase Indigenous-led Conservation: Determine methods for increasing Tribal-NGO land acquisition partnerships as part of a goal to ensure that Indigenous perspectives are included within conservation conversations. This team will start by determining potential tribal and NGO partner organizations. They will then research the elements needed to move partnerships forward and better understand what questions need to be answered to facilitate partnerships and do so quickly when needed.

VCI is now working to assess where funding can best support these initiatives and launch their work into action. We look forward to the impact we know they will have.