Increasing Carbon Capture - RCPA€¦ · sustained period.” IPCC SPM 2.4 (2014) “…enhancing...

Increasing Carbon Capture

on Sonoma County’s Working Lands

Carbon Cycle Institute www.carboncycle.orgGold Ridge RCD www.goldridgercd.org

Sonoma RCD www.sonomarcd.org

1/10/2020©CarbonCycleInstitute

http://www.carboncycle.org/

http://www.goldridgercd.org/

1/10/2020 ©CarbonCycleInstitute

Fertilizer

Production and Use

--- GtC830 Gt C870 Gt C

269 Gt C

*PNAS 114,36: 9575-9580

413.64 ppm

Sanderman et al. 2017*

https://scripps.ucsd.edu/programs/keelingcurve/


O

Can Soil Carbon Sequestration

Stop Global Warming?

The 4 per Thousand Initiative:

French Ministry of Agriculture, Agrifood and Forestry

Increasing global Soil Organic Carbon by 0.4% annually

would offset all global CO2 emissions

The 4% Initiative: soils for food security and climate

http://agriculture.gouv.fr/agriculture-et-foret/environnement-et-climat


Sonoma County

Regional Climate Action Plan 2020


“A large fraction of the anthropogenic climate change

resulting from CO2 emissions is irreversible on a multi-

century to millennial time scale, except in the case of a

large net removal of CO2 from the atmosphere over a

sustained period.”

IPCC SPM 2.4 (2014)

“…enhancing soil carbon is the only viable option to

achieve negative emissions.”

Celine Charveriat, Executive Director,

Institute for European Environmental

Policy

International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD)

Global Soil Week, Bulletin Vol. 206, Number 5

Saturday, 27 May 2017 Summary of the Global Soil

Week

Berlin, Germany


AGRICULTURE:

“The Art of moving carbon

between carbon pools

to produce

food, fuel, fiber, & flora”

-John Wick

Marin Carbon Project


CARBON

The Key to Agricultural Productivity and Resilience


All Farming is Carbon Farming

All farming is completely dependent upon atmospheric carbon dioxide

(CO2) in order to produce its products, but different farming practices, and

different farm designs, can lead to very different amounts of carbon

capture.

Carbon entering the farm from the atmosphere

ends up in one of three pools:

☼ in the harvested portion of the crop,

☼ in the soil as soil organic matter, or

☼ in standing carbon stocks on the farm


Mendocino SoilSame soil, different management histories


G. Batist photo, 2017

Carbon sequestration implications of increasing

Sonoma County agricultural soil carbon to 2.5%*

*From current baseline of 0.88% (52 Mg CO2e/acre)

1 Mg = one million grams, or one metric ton

(assumed depth: 30 cm)

**If the 104,443 acres of treatable Grazing Lands were included in the analysis,

an additional 3 MMT of CO2e could be sequestered on Sonoma County agricultural lands.

Crop &

Pasture

Acres

Metric Tons

C/acre @

0.88% SOC

Metric Tons

C/acre @

2.5% SOC

Metric Tons

CO2e @2.5%

SOC

Metric Tons

CO2e Seq

increase/acre

Total

Increased

Metric Tons

CO2e

160,250** 14.17 40.1 147.18 95.18 15,252,241


Paige Green Photo

Carbon Farm Planning: Toward a Climate Beneficial

Agriculture


FIG. 3. The black line shows simulated decomposition of the compost following application to grassland soils. Gray circles show

the monthly change in total ecosystem carbon, not including compost carbon. Values are averages across site characterizations ,

with standard error bars in light gray. Ryals et al, 2015. Ecological Applications, 25(2): 531–545.


GHG Implications of Riparian Restoration in

Coastal California

1,044,399 MMT CO2e benefit from riparian restoration in Marin County


Windbreak/Shelterbelt


Hedgerow


Silvopasture


Paige Green Photo

Prescribed Grazing


Conventional Tillage to No-Till


Nutrient Management

Replacing Synthetic Nitrogen with Soil Amendments


Cover Crops


Grassed Waterway


Alley Cropping


Carbon FarmingQuantifying On-farm Carbon Capture Potential


And LOCAL DATA, where available…

COMPOST: Ryals et al 2013; DeLonge et al 2013

CREEK CARBON: Lewis et al 2015

Carbon Farming Co-benefits

• Water holding capacity1% organic matter in top 6” of soil holds 27,000 gallons per acre

• Increased grass production on rangeland

• Wildlife habitat/migration corridors

• Water quality improvement

• Increased marketing potentialclimate beneficial ag products


Key Levers

Resources for ImplementationLarge up-front cost, but with long-term significant impacts and important co-benefits.

Boots on the GroundWe need more carbon farmers, supported by technical service providers who have a

conservation planning background, understand agriculture, and have a depth of knowledge in

carbon farming and climate science (bridge builders), and a scaled Civilian Conservation

Corps to do the work on the ground.

Behavior ChangeAfter all the technical talk and discussion of science, this is about a producer/landowner

making a change and long-term investment …. This can take time, and they need to have

TRUSTED partners engaged for the long-term.

Alignment on Critical Science and Measurement NeedsWhat are the critical gaps in knowledge that would allow the private sector, producers and

government to advance this work at scale?


Scaling Up: Carbon Farming with

Resource

Conservation

Districts

36 CFPs completed, 35,000 acres,

potential sequestration: 550,000 MT CO2e (20 yrs.)

31 CFPs in development, potential

sequestration: 472,000 MT CO2e (20 yrs.)

Additional 49 producers interested in

completing CFPs, sequestration potential:

750,000 metric tons



Implementing 16 Carbon

Farm Plans in Sonoma County:

256,826 MT CO2e at 20 years


Implementing 16 Carbon Farm Plans (256,826 MT CO2e at 20 years) would offset

all GHG emissions from the agricultural sector in that time frame.

Increasing agricultural soil carbon to 2.5%, resulting in an additional 15.25MMT CO2e sequestered, would offset all projected county emissions in year 2050.

Sonoma County RCDs Supporting Climate Beneficial Agriculture

• 16 Sonoma County Carbon Farm Plans Developed (256,826 MT CO2e, 20 yr.)

Implementation has occurred on 12 farms and ranches: 6 ranches, 2 dairies, 3 vineyards and 1 orchard.

• Soil Health Assessments through the North Coast Soil Health Hub:

www.soilhub.org

• CDFA Healthy Soils Program Demonstration Projects

1 dairy, 1 orchard, 1 cattle ranch, and 1 vineyard

• CDFA Alternative Manure Management Program Projects

4 dairies

• RCD Project Tracker: www.rcdprojects.org


http://www.soilhub.org/

http://www.rcdprojects.org/

Estimated Carbon Sequestration

through Planned Practices

Ocean Breeze Dairy (Organic Valley Producer)


Ocean Breeze Dairy

Riparian Restoration (9.6 acres)Estimated increase of 340 MT CO2e at 20 yrs.


Estimated Additional Annual

Soil Water Holding Capacity

after 20 Years Ocean Breeze Dairy


Farmland after rain different management


Patrick Francis, Australian Farm Journal

Neighboring paddocks, waterlogging

due to poor structure resulting from

cultivation, compaction and lack of

soil cover (and roots!).

Denser groundcover, results in

higher soil carbon, leading to better

structure and improved water

absorbing and holding capacity.

Local ExamplesJackson Family Wines/La Crema



RCD Project Tracker

Carbon FarmingA Sonoma County Climate Mobilization

Strategy

• Agricultural and grazing land soils in Sonoma

County can store a conservative estimated of

61 to 69 metric tons of CO2e per acre.

• Across 156,553 to 264,693 acres of

agricultural land, this represents an additional

9.5 to 18.3 million metric tons of CO2e

removed from the atmosphere over time.


Photo: CarbonFarmersofAmerica.org

Good NewsWe can meet our GHG reduction goals if we dramatically

reduce emissions and seriously invest in our soils and working

lands as

major beneficial sinks for atmospheric carbon.


www.carboncycle.org

The climate crisis (and county resolutions)

requires we act swiftly.

http://www.carboncycle.org/

Questions?


Torri Estrada, Carbon Cycle Institute

Executive Director and Director of Policy

[email protected]

Brittany Jensen, Gold Ridge Resource Conservation District

Executive Director

[email protected]

Valerie Minton Quinto, Sonoma Resource Conservation District

Executive Director

[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

Increasing Carbon Capture - RCPA€¦ · sustained period.” IPCC SPM 2.4 (2014) “…enhancing...

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