Through photosynthesis, plants combine atmospheric carbon dioxide with water to create sugars, plant tissue, and other organic compounds. As grass roots grow, die, and decay, organic matter builds up in the soil. Leaves and stems add more organic carbon from aboveground.

The result is a buildup of soil carbon that continues to grow for decades until it reaches a steady state. When grassland is plowed, soil organic matter combines with oxygen in the air and releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

Hence, one way to capture carbon dioxide, one of the gases causing global warming, is to restore grassland. Similarly, by preventing the plowing of native prairie, one can prevent the release of carbon dioxide. These actions result in “carbon sequestration.”

Obviously, carbon sequestration has a lot in common with our interest in restoring and securing grasslands for duck nesting habitat. In fact, our grassland easement program has effectively been sequestering carbon since its inception. CRP grasslands sequestered massive amounts of carbon – carbon that will be re-released to the atmosphere if the CRP tract is put back into crop production. Accordingly, we are now in serious discussions with an investment firm that is considering funding perpetual grassland easements to secure soil organic carbon in expiring CRP and in native prairie. DU would purchase the credits from this “avoided loss” with funding provided by the investors; transfer the credits to the investment firm, which would then sell them to corporations interested in offsetting their “carbon footprint.”

Stay tuned. If all goes well, carbon sequestration could provide a new source of revenue for grassland conservation far larger than any of our current sources!