Browse Ambrook’s collection of funding programs by The Climate Trust

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.

Julius Pasay

Executive Director

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&#x2004;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.



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.

A contract to sell an environmental outcome the operation produces - sequestered carbon, a water-quality credit, a habitat credit - to a buyer, rather than receiving an award. Payment is typically per unit (per acre or per ton CO2e) over a multi-year term and contingent on verification, so records using this instrument carry the payment.* and contract.* fields rather than award.min/award.max. Covers both credit-generating programs, where credits are sold to outside buyers, and supply-chain insetting programs, where a company the operation already sells to pays for the practice.

Environmental Market

Livestock

Cattle

Pigs

Poultry

Sheep

Specialty Livestock

Beef Cattle

Dairy Cattle

Feeder Cattle

Slaughter Cattle

Calves

Heifers

Steers

Bulls

Barrows

Boars

Feeder Pigs

Hogs

Sows

Chickens

Cornish Hens

Ducks

Geese

Turkey

Ewes

Lambs

Rams

Alpacas

Beefalo

Bison

Buffalo

Caribou

Deer

Emus

Goats

Guinea Pigs

Llamas

Mink

Mohair

Ostrich

Pheasants

Quail

Rabbits

Reindeer

Water Buffalo

Beef Bottom Round

Beef Brisket

Beef Chuck Roast

Beef Eye Round

Beef Flank Steak

Beef Flat Iron Steak

Beef Heart

Beef Liver

Beef London Broil

Beef NY Strip Steak

Beef Oxtail

Beef Rib Steak

Beef Rump Roast

Beef Short Ribs

Beef Sirloin

Beef Sirloin Tip Roast

Beef Skirt Steak

Beef Soup Bones

Beef Stew Meat

Beef Tongue

Beef Top Round

Beef Whole Filet

Ground Beef

Broilers

Chicks

Fryers

Layers

Pullets

Roasters

Ducklings

Goslings

Poults

Toms

Ground Lamb

Lamb Chops

Lamb Heart

Lamb Leg

Lamb Liver

Lamb Shank

Lamb Shoulder

Lamb Stew Meat

Bison Calf

Bison Meat

Bucks

Nannies

Slaughter Goats

Soil Health

Air Quality

Certification

High Tunnel

Landscape

Wildlife & Pollinator Habitat

Reduced Tillage

Certified Organic

Certified Grassfed

Cover Crops

Regenerative

Conservation

Carbon Capture

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.

List of The Climate Trust Funding Opportunities