Carbon Farm Planning
1.1 Curriculum Overview
Under the leadership of the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and in partnership with the Carbon Cycle Institute (CCI), the COMET-Farm Team designed the Carbon Farm Planning Curriculum to provide the necessary background and tools for conservation planners and technical assistance providers to assist producers in the development of Carbon Farm Plans. The curriculum is divided into three modules, designed for users to complete sequentially. Throughout each module, there will be formative assessments for learners to check their knowledge. At the end of each module, you will be prompted with a task to assess your knowledge and prepare you for the next module. At the end of Module 3, you will have the knowledge and tools necessary to create your own Carbon Farm Plan.
Goals of Carbon Farm Planning Curriculum:
Provide essential background to understand the ecological significance of Carbon Farming.
Provide the framework knowledge to facilitate the development of a Carbon Farm Plan.
Provide necessary tools and materials for writing a Carbon Farm Plan.
Expectations:
To maximize your experience in this Carbon Farm Planning Curriculum, completing the modules sequentially is important. This curriculum serves as an introduction to the Carbon Farm Planning process. Following the completion of the modules, we encourage you to refer back to the modules during your own Carbon Farm Planning Process.
Module 1
Introduction to the Carbon Farming
Role of Carbon in Climate Change & Improving Resilience
Role of Carbon in Agriculture & Soil Health
Carbon & The Principles of Healthy Soils
Module 2
Planning through a Carbon Lens
Overview of a Carbon Farm Plan
First Meeting Preparations
Producer Communications
Carbon Farming Practices
Reading the Landscape
Building Your Own Toolbox
Module 3
Developing a Carbon Farm Plan
Creating an Implementation Schedule
Soil Sampling & Monitoring
Carbon Farming Success Stories
Curriculum Funding & Support
Funding was provided by the following: USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service through a cooperative agreement with Colorado State University; the Carbon Cycle Institute; and The Jena and Michael King Foundation
About NRCS and Carbon Farm Planning
USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) provides America’s farmers, ranchers, and private forest landowners with financial and technical assistance to voluntarily put conservation on the ground, not only helping the environment, but also help agricultural operations succeed, as well. Carbon Farm Planning helps provide technical support to agricultural producers while enabling producers to voluntarily implement climate change solutions on their individual operations.
About the Paustian COMET-Tools Team
Under the leadership of Dr. Keith Paustian at Colorado State University, in collaboration with USDA/NRCS, and with continued support from NRCS and the Climate Change Program Office at USDA, the COMET-Farm tools were developed in an effort to quantify the impact of conservation management practices on carbon sequestration and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions at the entity scale (i.e., for individual farms, ranches and forest plots). The tools implement USDA’s official methods for entity-scale carbon and greenhouse gas inventories, including for soils, biomass, livestock and on farm energy use. The COMET-Farm system utilizes USDA/ NRCS SSURGO (soil data), high resolution weather data and farm to field-specific data on management practices provided by the user. Since the genesis of the tool began in 2006, the COMET-Team has maintained, updated, and continued to add new features as new data and methodologies emerge. COMET-Farm led to the development additional quantification tools such as COMET-Planner and COMET-Energy as a simpler tool for regional assessments and to calculate reductions in emissions based on anticipated fuel savings, respectively.
About the Carbon Cycle Institute
Carbon Cycle Institute Mission Statement
The Carbon Cycle Institute (CCI) advances the carbon cycle as the fundamental organizing process underlying land management and on-farm conservation in our efforts to mitigate and adapt to the global climate crisis. CCI advances this work through its Carbon Farming Program, which supports producers and their technical service providers to build soil carbon and critical ecosystem services on ranches, farms and other working landscapes. Please visit Carbon Cycle Institute's website for more information.