July 28, 2022

What's the Most Climate-Friendly Way to Use My Land? A HTSAP House Call

44 minutes

A listener called in with a dilemma: What's the most climate-friendly thing she can do with her family farm? Her family owns 126 acres of land in the Willamette Valley in Oregon, which she’s going to inherit one day. And she wondered…should I put up solar panels? Try climate-smart ag? Plant trees? So we flew out to investigate, and found people doing some amazing work – from a regenerative bee ranch to reforesting 400 acres of farmland. Tag along on the very first How to Save a Planet House Call.

Guests: John Herman from Lazy Z Ranch, Claire Fox from Greenbelt Land Trust, Paul West from Project Drawdown

Calls to Action

If you want to learn more about regenerative agriculture, check out the Soil Health Institute, this blog post from the World Resources Institute, and our episode Soil: The Dirty Climate Solution

The Farm Bill (the big bill that lays out agricultural subsidies in the US) is up for a new version in 2023. If you think the US should offer more incentives to encourage regenerative agriculture, reach out to the House and Senate Agriculture Committees and let them know!

If you’re interested in conservation, get to know your local land trust, watershed council, or other conservation organizations and find a way to get involved! They likely have volunteer opportunities, educational programming, activities like tours and hikes, and exciting conservation projects that need your help.

Check out our Calls to Action archive for all of the actions we've recommended on the show. Send us your ideas or feedback with our Listener Mail Form. Sign up for our newsletter here. And follow us on Twitter and Instagram.

This episode of How to Save a Planet was produced by Anna Ladd and Rachel Waldholz. The rest of our reporting and producing team includes Kendra Pierre-Louis and Daniel Ackerman. Our supervising producer is Matt Shilts. Our editor is Caitlin Kenney. Our intern is Janae Morris. Sound design and mixing by Peter Leonard with original music from Emma Munger. Our fact checker for this episode was Claudia Geib. Special thanks to Laurie Hutchinson.

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By Gimlet