If you’re a longtime Mountain & Prairie listener, then you’re already familiar with the Partnership of Rangeland Trusts, also known as PORT. But for any new listeners, PORT is an alliance of agriculture-focused conservation organizations dedicated to preserving working farms and ranches and conserving productive agricultural lands. PORT is currently celebrating its 20th anniversary, and in those two decades (and as of this recording), PORT organizations have helped more than 2,000 families conserve almost 3.2 million acres of productive working lands across the West.

In this episode, I chat with three executive directors of PORT-affiliated organizations, two of which have been on the podcast before. You’ll recognize Chad Ellis of the Texas Agricultural Land Trust (TALT), and Erik Glenn of the Colorado Cattlemen’s Agricultural Land Trust. And new to the podcast is Michael Delbar, who leads the California Rangeland Trust. I’ve known all three of these guys for many years now, and I have long admired the ways that they lead their respective organizations. But perhaps even more impressive to me is how they have worked as a team with all nine PORT organizations to increase the scale, influence, and effectiveness of large-scale, working lands conservation.

I don’t think I’ve ever recorded an episode this early in the morning– we squeezed it in between an early morning breakfast and PORT’s board meeting. Just the day before, we had all been at TALT’s Working Lands Innovation Summit on the Birdwell-Clark Ranch in Henrietta, Texas, which was a huge success. So this was a great time to reflect on the importance of working lands, and we covered a lot: The Working Lands Innovation Summit and the importance of spending time out on the land; the history and purpose of PORT, the growth of additive conservation projects; private lands conservation as an economic driver; hard work; innovation; the importance of advocating for conservation in Washington DC; future plans for PORT, and much more. As you’ll hear, I start out chatting with Chad and Erik, and then Michael steps in for Erik about halfway through and shares his valuable perspective. 

A huge thanks to TALT for inviting me to Texas and another huge thanks to all the PORT organizations and landowner partners who have had such a positive and significant impact on the landscapes of the West.

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• PORT
• Texas Agricultural Land Trust
• Colorado Cattlemen's Agricultural Land Trust
• California Rangeland Trust
• All PORT members
• Full episode notes and links: https://mountainandprairie.com/port/
• Ed's Book Recs

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TOPICS DISCUSSED:

• 4:00 - Intro / What brought us all to Texas
• 7:00 - Importance of being on the land for the conference
• 8:45 - Introduction to the Partnership of Rangelands Trust (PORT)
• 12:30 - How and why PORT was created
• 15:30 - Additive conservation and the future
• 18:45 - Examples of additive conservation projects
• 25:30 - Private lands conservation as an economic driver
• 29:15 - Intro to Michael Delbar
• 31:00 - How the perception of conservation easements has changed in California
• 32:00 - Once again, the importance of relationships
• 34:15 - Hard work and innovation
• 39:45 - Advocating in DC
• 42:00 - How PORT’s scale translates into results
• 43:30 - Future plans for PORT
• 47:00 - Funding needs and parting words

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