Soil Health Stewards Program

Soil Health Stewards Program: Promoting Soil Health on Protected Agricultural Lands

Overview: AFT's Soil Health Stewards Program is an ambitious national effort to engage and support agricultural land protection practitioners in promoting soil health practices with the farmers, ranchers, and others who own and manage permanently protected agricultural land—and on the agricultural land their agency or organization owns.

Status: Currently celebrating five years of the Soil Health Stewards program with significant impacts.

Geographic Scope: National effort with regional training and implementation:

Northeast Region (Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ohio)

Southeast Region (Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia)

Midwest Region (Wisconsin, Iowa, West Virginia, Michigan, Illinois, North Carolina)

Western Region (Alaska, California, Colorado, Idaho, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Washington)

Northeast/New England Region (Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont)

Focus Areas:

Promoting soil health practices on permanently protected agricultural land

Preventing loss of soil and nutrients to waterways

Protecting water quality and quantity

Restoring soil biology and function

Enabling farms and ranches to sequester carbon

Reducing greenhouse gas emissions

Building farm resilience to intense and erratic weather

Target Audience:

Land trusts

Public Purchase of Agricultural Conservation Easement (PACE) programs

Agricultural land protection practitioners

Farmers and ranchers owning permanently protected land

Scope: Program focuses on over 6 million acres of permanently protected farms and ranches across the United States

Program Impact (Five Years):

127 entities trained

256 participants

4,868,692 total acres of agricultural conservation easements covered

Participants estimate collectively reaching over 260,000 farmers, ranchers, landowners, and additional land trust and agency staff and board members

Producers and landowners engaged steward over 6.5 million acres of farmland and ranchland

Program Components:
1. Grant funding for participating agencies and land trusts
2. Multi-year action plan development and reporting requirements
3. Training opportunities
4. Webinar series on soil health topics
5. Online toolkit with video sessions and resources

What They Don't Fund:

Not specified in materials provided

Contact Information:

Cris Coffin, Director of AFT's National Agricultural Land Network

Jennifer Dempsey, AFT Farmland Information Center Director and Senior Advisor

Resources Available:

Downloadable Summary

Soil Health Toolkit

NRCS Soil Health Fact Sheets

Farmers.gov Soil Health Webpage

Soil Health Webinar Series recordings

Soil Health Stewards Online Toolkit