As the world grapples with the impacts of a changing climate, there is an imperative to diversify our toolset for combating and creating resilience to climate change. Agriculture accounts for 10% of the United State’s Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions, and conventional agricultural systems have eroded and degraded soil, reduced biodiversity and ecosystem health, and altered landscape functioning crucial to our carbon, water, and nutrient cycles. Degraded agroecosystems are less resilient to disease and extreme weather events, compounding the impacts of a changing climate on growing food for a hungry population. Regenerative agriculture is a set of principles and context-specific practices that integrate natural systems into the production of food, fiber, medicine, materials, and fuel. By keeping soil, ecological and human health as the prime objectives of growing food, regenerative agriculture holds the potential to restore carbon and water cycles, enhance biodiversity, improve the nutritional value of food, and provide a more just, equitable, and healthy future for humanity. While the success of regenerative agriculture has been proven in certain contexts and environments, its local adoption is dependent on the tangible demonstration of its success within a regional context. We are working towards identifying regionally relevant tools, practices, methodologies, and communication platforms to help land stewards transition to regenerative agricultural systems.
White Buffalo Land Trust works on local systems with regional partners for global impact through the lens of regenerative agriculture. Our project is focused on the 1000-acre Jalama Canyon Ranch (JCR), which is representative of agricultural and natural systems across the Santa Ynez Valley, Santa Barbara County, California, and much of the Mediterranean regions of the world. Much like its surrounding areas, past management of the land has resulted in erosion, decreased soil health, reduced water holding capacity, loss of biodiversity, and decreased resilience in the face of an ever-rapidly changing climate. This is where we see the greatest opportunity for impact through regenerative practices, where regeneration of an agroecosystem involves the transition from its current state to a state of improved ecological functioning while increasing its capacity to grow healthy food. We are implementing a robust data collection system to quantify and track climate, management, and ecological indicators to develop deeper insights into the drivers of change for regeneration of keystone crops (vineyards and rangelands), as well as keystone species (oaks and sagebrush) of the region. We will quantify carbon sequestration and associated co-benefits such as soil health, water holding capacity, and biodiversity. Our work at Jalama Canyon Ranch will help identify land steward-friendly protocols for measuring ecological state measures and catalogue best management practices for keystone crops and species in the region. The Center for Regenerative Agriculture at Jalama Canyon Ranch will serve as a research, education and outreach hub, helping to create and further grow a network to disseminate knowledge, connect and train land stewards in the Santa Ynez Valley, Santa Barbara County, California and beyond to Mediterranean regions around the world.
Since taking over the stewardship of Jalama Canyon Ranch in April 2021, White Buffalo Land Trust has implemented management and infrastructural changes towards regeneration of the land. This has included the removal of livestock to let pastures rest and recover during the non-growing period, and redesign of pastures and fencing for adaptive multi-paddock grazing livestock. We have implemented cover cropping and the application of beneficial microorganisms in our 5-acre vineyard, eliminated the use of synthetic herbicides, pesticides and fungicides, and conducted soil, leaf and water tests to establish baseline data. We have held three Holistic Management Intensive courses to date to train and guide land stewards in developing a context appropriate pathway to management for ecological, economic, and community health.
Understanding the variability in outcomes of regenerative agricultural practices through space and time depends on our ability to study how spatially (climate, soil, topography, vegetation) and temporally (climate, vegetation) variable factors impact and are impacted by the practices. To set ourselves up for such analysis, we have contracted with Terra Genesis International to train our database manager and set up a framework capable of intaking and processing geospatial data. We have created a spatial inventory of the landscape (topography, soil, vegetation, hydrology and infrastructure) to create a digital representation of the natural and infrastructural resources on the ranch. Getting baseline data and building a proper monitoring framework is key to our success.
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We are currently laying the groundwork for demonstrating the impacts of regenerative agriculture. This includes procuring and installing in-field sensors, including weather stations, streamflow monitors, soil moisture sensors, and wildlife monitoring equipment. We will use IrriWatch data (remote satellite service provider) for 2021 to establish baseline conditions for soil moisture and other ecosystem indicators prior to implementing regenerative agricultural practices at Jalama Canyon Ranch.
We will conduct soil monitoring at 30 sites according to the sampling protocol detailed in the Regen Network’s Methodology for GHG and Co-Benefits in Grazing Systems. These data will allow us to quantify baseline carbon stocks in 410-acres of rangelands at Jalama Canyon Ranch. We are also working on educational materials to share with the broader community of land stewards on the methodology associated with soil stock assessments.
Data collected from in-field sensors and satellites will be used to derive a deeper understanding of the outcomes of regenerative management of rangelands on carbon sequestration, soil health, water holding capacity, and biodiversity in these agroecosystems.
Soil Formation
Biodiversity
Nutrient Cycling
Primary Production
Food
Fresh Water
Fiber
Atmospheric Regulation
Water Regulation
Water Purification
Wild/Fire Protection
Habitat Maintenance
Aesthetic/Inspirational
Educational
Sense of Place
Cultural Heritage
White Buffalo Land Trust practices, promotes, and develops systems of regenerative agriculture for local, regional, and global impact.
We are committed to the evolution of land stewardship and the redesign of our food system to directly address the climate, biodiversity, public health, and food security challenges that we face today.
With our employees, partners, and volunteers we engage in direct land stewardship, education and training programs, ongoing field research, and exemplary product development.
Terra Genesis - Cultivating Transformation