The Climate Trust Grassland Carbon Program

The Climate Trust describes itself as the country's only source of carbon funding for grassland conservation. Rather than paying for practice change, its grassland projects pay ranchers for avoided conversion: the landowner places a perpetual conservation easement on their grassland, agreeing never to till or convert it to cropland, while continuing to graze cattle and run daily operations exactly as before. Keeping the soil intact avoids the large carbon emissions that conversion would release, and those avoided emissions generate carbon offsets.

A nonprofit with over 25 years in carbon markets, The Climate Trust works directly with landowners from the first site visit: determining eligibility, recording the easement with a land trust, modeling emissions, developing and monitoring the project, managing third-party verification, and selling the resulting credits on the landowner's behalf, returning revenue on an ongoing basis. It helped write the Climate Action Reserve Grassland Protocol in 2015 and the American Carbon Registry's Avoided Conversion of Grasslands Methodology in 2013, transacted the first ACR grassland conservation offsets in 2014, and formed the first rancher carbon cooperatives in the country.

The Trust aims to open carbon markets to family-owned ranches that historically could not access them because of high technical barriers and smaller holdings. Carbon revenue also stabilizes ranch income in drought years: when herds shrink, carbon volumes and revenue increase.

• Grassland at risk of conversion to cropland; the program's value rests on avoiding that conversion.

• Willingness to place a perpetual conservation easement on the property deed, recorded with a land trust. Grazing and normal ranch operations continue.

• The Trust explicitly works with family-owned and smaller holdings, including through rancher carbon cooperatives; no minimum acreage is published.

• Current grassland projects are in Montana, Oregon, and Colorado.

Structure. The landowner grants a perpetual conservation easement restricting conversion of grassland to cropland. The Climate Trust provides upfront funding for the conservation agreement, then develops, verifies, and sells the resulting offsets (Climate Action Reserve Grassland Protocol or American Carbon Registry methodology) on the landowner's behalf, providing that revenue back on an ongoing basis.

Payment. No rate is published; revenue comes as upfront easement funding plus the landowner's share of ongoing credit sales. The Trust negotiates credit pricing and states its reputation lets it demand appropriate prices for its small portfolio of high-impact projects.

The easement is permanent — unlike term contracts, this commitment binds the land in perpetuity, which is what makes the avoided emissions creditable.

Contact The Climate Trust through the form on their site (climatetrust.org/who-we-are/contact) — the form asks specifically whether you are a landowner interested in earning revenue from the carbon market. The Trust then meets landowners on their land, determines carbon project feasibility, and works through easement and project compatibility before developing the project.

Office: Portland, Oregon, (503) 238-1915. Executive Director Julius Pasay (jpasay@climatetrust.org) is the published contact.