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It is indisputable; atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) levels are rising at an accelerating pace. While controversy abounds about the current and future impacts of increased atmospheric CO2, the federal and many state and local governments are taking actions – regulatory and programmatic – to reduce CO2 emissions, at great collective cost.

What if there is a simple, proven, natural way to remove this excess CO2 that can be rapidly implemented at virtually no cost (and actually generates positive economic benefits) while it produces a cascade of positive environmental benefits by restoring ecosystem health? A process that is supported by decades of researched science?

Sounds too good to be true?

Well, it is true.​​​​​​​​​​​

Soil, itself, is a huge potential carbon sink that can and should be used to store (sequester) excess atmospheric carbon. Thirty years of research have led scientists to predict our soils can quickly capture enough carbon to restore atmospheric carbon dioxide to pre-industrial levels.

However, nearly every action we have taken on our lands over the last 200 years – deforestation, tilling, annihilation of large grazing herds like buffalo (+/-60 million animals), fencing, converting prairie to farms, you name it – has caused massive carbon losses in soils of all types. The cumulative effect of this carbon loss has led to severe soil degradation that, in turn, has simplified and desertified our environment.

In the U.S., some of the worst soil degradation has occurred on our public forests and grasslands – most of which are decadent, dying or dead – and is due, in my opinion, to 100 years of failed federal policies. These same soils, however, also represent a huge opportunity for carbon recapture and restoration.

Both forests and grasslands use photosynthesis to store carbon – forests, with shallower, lateral root systems mostly store carbon above ground in woody tissue. But in a fire, forests release their stored carbon to the atmosphere.

Grasslands, with very dense, deep horizontal root systems, store carbon in the soil as organic material and humus to depths of 15 feet and more. In grassland fires, soil sequestered carbon remains untouched, which makes these soils a very stable carbon sink.

Photosynthesis is the natural process of plants taking in carbon, water and sunlight and making more plant mass. If grass plants take in more carbon than they need, they release and store it in the soil around their roots for future use.    

Scientists now know that this soil carbon arrives at a plant’s root hairs as sugars that are picked up by fungi and piped even farther underground through vast multi-acre networks in a process referred to as a “liquid carbon pathway.”

Photosynthesis for a grass plant starts with sunlight hitting its growth points which are located in its base near the ground (below where a grazing animal can bite them). This grass plant requires a periodic defoliation of its leaves (by grazing, fire, trampling) to keep past years’ growth from shading these growth points and inhibiting their ability to photosynthesize.

From a holistic perspective, the symbiotic, evolutionary relationship between grasslands and grazers is obvious. Once we understand that the grass needs the grazer for survival every bit as much as the grazer needs the grass, we then begin to understand how – together and managed holistically – they CAN store massive amounts of carbon in the soil.

While the regulatory path is an attempt at prevention   the capture through photosynthesis path is a cure.

There are many examples of managing resources holistically throughout the world. However, public land examples in the U.S., where the soils are the poorest and the opportunity for reversal is the greatest, are few and far between. One of the exceptions to this rule is the Deseret Ranch, a 205,000-acre public and private land ranch in northeastern Utah that has practiced and documented these practices since the early 1980s.

They have restored plant and animal species, improved soil function, restored perennial streams and wetlands, and sequestered carbon – all while producing a living wage. Deseret Ranch nets $17 per acre per year, a livable value that supports our Western culture. In contrast, in my county, public land ranchers might net $.05 per acre per year. Yes, just a nickel!! This tiny wage provides almost no support to our economy, and so we rely on PILT and other federal programs.

What would new, annual, earnable, taxable receipts of up to $17 per acre per year from the 193 million U.S. acres the Forest Service manages and the 260 million U.S. acres the Bureau of Land Management manages do for our local, state, and federal economies? What would it mean to preserve our Western rural culture?

If we let them, public forests and grasslands can be managed to sequester carbon to mitigate climate impacts and benefit by a return of health, functionality and productivity. Americans will benefit from the cascade of above-ground results such as reduced erosion, increased biodiversity, increased productivity, fire-resilient forests, quality wildlife habitat, cleaner water, and cleaner air.

I recently testified with others before a Congressional Oversight Hearing on this subject urging federal land managers to adopt a holistic approach. I also asked that Congress direct the Forest Service and the BLM to create 100,000-acre demonstration areas scattered throughout our public lands.

This would allow for the demonstration and collection of measured results of how holistically managed land and livestock can sequester enough carbon in the soil to restore atmospheric carbon dioxide to pre-industrial levels.