We believe food should be produced in harmony with nature.
Our regenerative ranching program is the largest in the West, with 120+ ranchers on 7 million acres in 13 Western states. We are working together to produce high-quality food while also supporting healthy landscapes, a sustainable economy, and strong communities.
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Regenerative ranching is a way to produce food in harmony with nature. The main focus is on the soil because healthy soil is the foundation for everything. Healthy soil stores water, and carbon, naturally filters water, and supports diverse plants and wildlife.
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Each ranch is different, but when ranchers are practicing regenerative agriculture, they rotate cattle to prevent overgrazing, use natural fertilizers and pest control whenever possible, plant native plants, promote native birds and insects on their land, and protect water quality.
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Rangelands comprise 770 million acres across the nation – almost one-third of the land. Ranching employs hundreds of thousands of people, feeds millions, and sustains local and regional economies.
At the same time, ranchers are under intense pressure to lower costs, sell or subdivide land, and compete in a global market – all while dealing with increasing threats from climate change, wildfires, extreme weather, and persistent drought.
There is also increasing pressure from consumers and scientists to reduce the climate impact beef production has on the planet. Some people are choosing to eat less beef as a response, and reduced demand lowers prices, which makes it harder for family- and tribal-owned ranches to compete in the marketplace. Family- and tribal-owned ranches need support to help them sequester more carbon in their operations, while also building consumer demand for climate-smart beef and thus the value of climate-smart beef in the marketplace.
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At Sustainable Northwest, we are partnering with 120 ranchers to build the largest regenerative ranching program in the West – 7 million acres in 13 Western states. This partnership includes Country Natural Beef – a cooperative of 100 family ranchers – as well as other like-minded ranchers and several Tribally-owned and managed ranches.
Sustainable Northwest offers no-cost consulting services to ranchers in our program to help them find ways to produce beef in harmony with nature. We work with the rancher to identify goals and objectives specific to their ranchlands, and how to get there. The program includes the resources, learning, monitoring and solutions needed to create a product that is better for the climate while demanding a higher price in the market.
This project will target over 120 ranches and finishing operations across more than 7 million acres of private and public land in Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming.
It will demonstrate a suite of scientifically sound, quantifiable, and replicable climate smart practices that will significantly reduce the carbon intensity of beef products compared to conventional options.
It will also provide quantifiable economic benefit to producers and promote new incentives and market opportunities for increased adoption, with an emphasis on maintaining family operations, as well as a dedicated focus on underserved Tribal ranchers.
Assistance for conversion to climate friendly practices will be provided to participating ranches and finishing operations, and technical assistance will be made available to producers to ensure implementation and durability after the project period.
Innovative monitoring tools and practices will be deployed, including remote sensing, mapping applications, and information dashboards that will achieve scalability, traceability, and reduced transaction costs and barriers to replicability.
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Climate-smart regenerative grazing practices on 120 operations across eleven states and over 7 million acres of public and private rangelands.
Demonstrate an economically viable whole supply chain approach that reduces the carbon intensity of beef production by 50-100% compared to conventional options.
Annual carbon sequestration to soil, locally of 0.9 - 4 metric tons CO2e/acre and project-wide 5-8 million metric tons CO2e, for 100+ years, in addition to reduction of GHG emissions on project operations. This is equivalent to emissions from consumption of one billion gallons of gasoline or 10 billion pounds of coal.
An average of 50,000-75,000 metric tons of annual CO2e at each participating operation, equating to 0.56-0.80 metric tons CO2e per federal dollar.
Provide $67 million in annual increased market returns for participating producers.
Regenerative Ranching Landowner Program Terms & Requirements
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The applicant must be a non-federal or non-industrial forest landowner in Oregon, Washington, California, Nevada, Idaho, Montana, Colorado, Hawaii, New Mexico, Arizona, or Texas.
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There is no minimum acreage required to apply for the regenerative ranching program.
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There is no maximum acreage required to apply for the regenerative ranching program.
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Other federally funded assistance or financial incentive programs not administered by this program cannot be used to fund the same practices on the same acres as assistance from this program.
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The acreage within the application must have developed an approved Grazing Management Plan within a year of enrollment into the program. Grazing Management Plans are not required during the time of initial application.
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The applicant (producer/landowner) and/or identified CSC partners must provide Sustainable Northwest (SNW) with acceptable written documentation (e.g. Farm Service Agency land parcels and identification) of the acres the landowner wishes to enroll in the program.
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Applicants/landowners agree to allow NRCS staff, SNW staff, or staff partners authorized by SNW, access to the property to determine assistance needs, feasibility, and specifications; certify practice completion; and to determine compliance with the practice requirements. There is no requirement to allow public access to your property. Landowners will be notified before entry into property by staff associated with this funding assistance.
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Applicants/landowners agree to review the boundaries of their participating operation and certify that they own or lease the property on which the assistance work is to be performed. The NRCS, SNW, and/or any of the identified partners claims no legal accuracy in delineating property boundaries and will be held harmless of any potential trespass.
Application Instructions
You can also sign-up by email or mail to our office.
Mailing Address:
Sustainable Northwest, Attn. Dallas Hall Defrees
233 SW Naito Parkway Suite 200 Portland OR 97204
Contact: Dallas Hall Defrees, Regenerative Ranching Program Director
Frequently Asked Questions
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This program is intended to assist eligible non-federal forest and non-industrial landowners to develop a variety of regenerative livestock management practices, customized for calf-producing individual ranches.
The project will then help producers convert the ecological outcomes of these practices into climate-smart commodities such as climate-friendly beef or carbon credits. We expect these practices to conserve and increase soil organic carbon (SOC), ensure soil coverage to prevent erosion, and restore or invigorate perennial grasses to sustain production under grazing.
These practices should also improve other resources at the ranch level such as water quality and quantity and biodiversity–resulting in a win-win for both domestic and wild animals.
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All ranches will be mapped for baseline land cover using the NRCS/USDA National Land Cover data set and the Rangeland Analysis Program (RAP), followed by on-the-ground baseline soil sampling and data collection.
Baseline Ground monitoring, sampling, and program enrollment services are calculated at $8,500 per operation.
Follow-up monitoring between 3-5 years is calculated at $8,500 per operations.
Customized regenerative ranching management plans are calculated at $3,000 in services per operation.
Life cycle assessment is $6,000 per operation.
Each operation will receive $250/ year for 4 years for a total of $1,000 to cover cost of travel and/or program enrollment for educational opportunities.
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The program is funded by a Partnership for Climate-Smart Commodities from the USDA NRCS administered by Sustainable Northwest and identified partners within this application.
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Country Natural Beef, Beef Northwest, Northway Ranch Services, Utah State University, and Sustainable Northwest.
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Generally, non-federal and non-industrial owners of forest land in western Oregon who are within listed 2020 Labor Day wildfire footprints are eligible to apply. Examples of eligible parties include individuals, families, tribes, non-profit organizations, and homeowners associations.
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No. You can apply any time year round. Applications are approved continuously throughout the year as funds are available. The timing for this financial assistance program is from 2023 to 2028.
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No. There is no minimum ownership size or treatment acreage.
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No. There is no maximum acreage limit.
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Other federally funded programs not administered by the NRCS or SNW cannot be used to pay for the same practices on the same acres as this program.
Other federally-funded programs (e.g., The Environmental Quality Incentive Program (EQIP)) may be used on the same acreage area for future management activities if assistance is available at the time and you qualify for those activities through the supporting agency.
