[bouldercouncilhotline] Hotline: Suggested Carbon Sequestration Edits for Open Space Agricultural Plan

[cmosupport at bouldercolorado.gov]

Sender: Jones, Suzanne

Dear All—

With profound apologies for not getting this out sooner, I have the following input for the Open Space and Mountain Parks Agricultural Resources Management Plan being considered tonight.  In general, I commend the Open Space staff and board for an exceptional plan. It is really quite good and reflects the hard work that has gone into it.

The one place I would suggest augmenting a bit is the section regarding climate, specifically regarding carbon sequestration, to better reflect work that the city and county are already embarking on and which shows great promise for the future.  Specifically, I would suggest adding language in three places:


  1.  In the Climate Change section, I would add 2 references in the “existing policy guidance” sidebar:

  1.  Under “State,” include the “Colorado Climate Plan” (2015) with the other two 2015 references in the 1st paragraph, no change necessary to the descriptor.
  2.  Under “County,” (or local?) include “The Boulder Valley Comprehensive Plan Major Update (most updated version) lays out a basic strategy for city and county to coordinate to enhance soil health and evaluate soil carbon sequestration opportunities.”
See below for relevant references from these documents.


  1.  Under “Objectives” (p. 67), I would propose adding the following verbage (highlighted in red):

  *   Identify agricultural management practices that help prepare for a more arid future.
  *   Research the potential for agricultural practices to mitigate climate change, including a “carbon credit” incentive program for land managers to sequester carbon” such as the State of California’s Carbon Market.


  1.  I think it is specifically worth including some of the language from the BVCP that discusses carbon sequestration in more detail so that the concept is more fully embedded in the Agricultural Plan as we look to the future.

Below are references from the relevant documents noted above. I also attached two documents that Council and the public might find of interest: 1) the “Approved Resource Conservation Advisory Board Proposal” because it gives a good quick overview of the relevance of carbon sequestration, and 2) the scope of work for the carbon sequestration project, for anyone who wants to delve more deeply into the issue.

Cheers,
Suzanne

RELEVANT REFERENCES TO CARBOND SEQUESTRATION IN KEY DOCUMENTS

>From BV Comp Plan Update, 6.15.17 draft<https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/ar0xBdfmpEDu2?domain=www-static.bouldercolorado.gov>, p.78
3.15 Soil Carbon Sequestration The city and county recognize that soil carbon sequestration may have a range of potential benefits, including water retention, climate change mitigation, soil health and soil stabilization. Soil health is especially important for both the natural environment and agricultural lands. Section 9 (Food and Agriculture) includes a description of soil carbon sequestration policy for tilled agricultural lands. For the natural environment, the capacity of native grasslands and forests to sequester carbon will be important in city and county soil carbon sequestration efforts. Native grasslands and forests will be maintained and protected following resource management plans. Opportunities to manage soil carbon levels in such areas, when appropriate, need to be consistent with adopted plans and policies.

9.03 Sustainable Food Production and Agriculture Practices The city and county will promote sustainable food production and agricultural practices on publiclyowned lands and will encourage them on private lands. Sustainable practices include food production methods that integrate ecological conservation objectives, enhance soil health, responsibly use water and quality protection, provide for pollinator and beneficial insect habitat, are respectful to workers, are humane to animals, provide fair wages to farmers, integrate whole farm planning and support the Boulder Valley farming community. These can include a range of production types that take into account land suitability, water availability, invasive species, energy use and labor and capital needs.

9.04 Soil Health and Soil Carbon Sequestration The city and county will consider strategies to enhance soil health and will explore and evaluate strategies to sequester soil carbon on certain agricultural lands. The city and county recognize that there is baseline work to be done, such as conducting research and literature reviews, identifying relevant information gaps, conducting baseline soil health tests, and determining if and how OSMP and county Parks and Open Space tilled lands best offer opportunities to address carbon sequestration, beginning with limited experimentation in tilled lands. The city and county also encourage the private sector to practice soil carbon sequestration.

>From “CO Climate Vulnerability Study<https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/27L2BqcwrR9u5?domain=wwa.colorado.edu>” (already referenced in Ag Mgmt Plan), p. 82
Potential in Agriculture for Mitigating GHG Emissions Creating sustainable agricultural systems can help reduce agricultural GHG emissions through energy conservation, lower levels of carbon-based inputs, lower use of fertilizer and other features that minimize GHG emissions. Agricultural land can also serve as a sink for GHG emissions, especially through soil carbon sequestration, which could help moderate climate change. However, agricultural land can serve as an effective GHG sink over the long term only if agricultural systems are adopted to improve overall soil quality and provide for relatively stable GHG reduction or sequestration that can be verified and measured with reasonable accuracy. Agricultural crop and forage production systems intended to sequester carbon also need to be assessed for the effects that changing soil carbon levels and other system features have on the potent GHGs nitrous oxide and methane. These system features include, among others, fertilizer use and efficiency, nitrogen sequestration, and overall GHG emissions of associated livestock production systems. Overall, though, there is reason to expect that sustainable systems not only reduce GHG emissions, but are less susceptible to impacts from weather and climate fluctuations.

>From “CO Climate Plan<https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/6R52B8uNGewTG?domain=cwcbweblink.state.co.us>”. p. 51
6.3 SOIL HEALTH AND CONSERVATION Healthy soils provide nutrients to crops, hold water to nourish plants, and filter pollutants. Consequently, soil health is an important component of a producer’s ability to grow high quality products. Yet climate change has the potential to negatively impact soil quality. More severe and persistent droughts, wildfire, and severe heat can degrade the quality of soils. Degraded soils require more management, more added nutrients, and more water to support a crop, increasing management costs to producers. Scientists have predicted that within the next 20 years, global food demand will increase by 50 percent.21 Along with increasing demands on energy and clean water, demands on the earth’s soil resource to feed that population will be greater than ever.22 As soil organic carbon has volatilized and diminished, the soil health of the earth’s arable land has declined. Carbon-depleted soils become less productive and more dependent on additional inputs to produce crops. Farming Colorado’s arid high plains requires maximizing soil uptake of rain water and melted snow for storage and crop use. Reduced soil permeability results in reduced or prevented groundwater recharge and exacerbates the effects of limited precipitation or prolonged drought period

6.4 STRATEGIES AND POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS There are opportunities to develop strategies and incentives that improve Colorado’s crop and rangeland resiliency as well as its long-term sustainability and productivity. &#10070; Promote increased water storage solutions that help producers adapt to changing conditions and decrease production losses due to lack of water availability. &#10070; Partner with research institutions and federal agencies to support producers’ efforts to mitigate and adapt to climate change through improved irrigation efficiency and enhanced tillage practices. &#10070; Support federal and state programs that improve soil health, such as by increasing soil organic carbon and sequestration, promoting long-term research into land management practices that build soil health, and examining state and local land-use policies that reduce soil erosion on arable lands.
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