The Climate Trust, a carbon market nonprofit, says it has finalized a $2 million investment alongside Inlandsis Fund, a carbon finance fund, in a pair of grassland conservation carbon projects that span nearly 38,000 acres in Southeast Montana.

The investment provides critical funding to support ongoing ranch management activities, permanent rangeland protection and soil carbon storage. This project is the fifth grassland conservation investment by The Climate Trust and its first project with Inlandsis Fund.

“We are thrilled to help this project come to fruition and support The Climate Trust’s pioneering efforts in this area. Working with The Climate Trust is particularly gratifying to me personally as their team introduced me to carbon finance over a dozen years ago,” says David Moffat, managing director of Inlandsis Fund. The projects are anticipated to perpetually store 450,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide.

This investment was used to help place perpetual, no-till conservation easements forever protecting the ranch’s soil carbon. This strategy is part of The Climate Trust’s new Grassland Conservation Carbon Program, which can be used alongside NRCS’s Agricultural Lands Easement program or standalone.

By valuing the amount of carbon perpetually protected by the placement of a conservation easement, The Climate Trust can provide payment to ranchers for this climate mitigation tool and support generational ranching. Once the initial investment is recovered, ranchers earn additional revenue through future carbon credit sales.

Grasslands are the least protected ecosystem in the U.S. Since 2012, 32 million acres of rangeland in the Great Plains have been converted to other land uses like croplands, disrupting critical wildlife habitat and migration corridors, and changing land ownership away from multi-generational ranchers. The historic investment supports the family's generational ranching legacy in Montana and ensures that critical working land habitat is protected.

"The Climate Trust’s investment in Montana’s rural communities is an important new source of funding for conservation easements,” says Brad Hansen, Conservation Program Manager at The Montana Land Reliance, which holds the easements for this project.

“Every year, we have far more ranchers interested in protecting their land than we have funding available. This program is another tool to help ranchers access a funding source, via carbon finance, that hasn't previously been available."

The Climate Trust will continue investing in working lands as it scales its Grassland Conservation Carbon Program, especially as the threat of conversion increases in the Northern Great Plains.

“Storing carbon on working lands is a cost-effective and immediately actionable climate solution,” said Kyler Sherry, Chief Operating Officer at The Climate Trust. “We are excited to work with partners like Inlandsis Fund and Montana Land Reliance as we continue expanding our grassland program to more ranching families."

Read more about these types of carbon projects on The Climate Trust’s website.