Last month, with support from the Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research, TomKat Ranch Educational Foundation, and other match funders, Point Blue published
Introducing the Range-C Monitoring Program
Last month, with support from the Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research, TomKat Ranch Educational Foundation, and other match funders, Point Blue published The Range-C Monitoring Program: Handbook of Field Methods. Protecting and rebuilding carbon through stewardship is an important part of the climate solution. Measurement of ecosystem carbon can provide insights into climate mitigation, forage productivity and soil organic matter, nutrient availability, water infiltration and storage, and even wildlife habitat, all key aspects of ecosystem health and resilience.
The Range-C Monitoring Program is an innovative initiative designed to standardize the way we monitor changes in carbon associated with rangeland management practices. Developed in collaboration with over 35 experts from 26 institutions, this comprehensive program not only supports individual monitoring needs but also aims to create a nationwide dataset to assess carbon changes across space and through time.
With a focus on seven key ranch practices—including prescribed grazing, compost amendment, range seeding, and riparian restoration—The Range-C Monitoring Program employs a guided decision-making process to ensure that each monitoring project is tailored to the user’s needs while maintaining rigorous standards.
Rangelands provide critical ecosystem services, many of which are linked directly or indirectly to carbon storage in plants and soil.
A notable feature of The Range-C Monitoring Program is its novel inference scoring system, which helps to accommodate varying carbon monitoring needs and goals. With a tiered structure, The Program enables users to make guided decisions throughout the monitoring process based on considerations like accuracy and precision. Those decisions are used to create an inference score, allowing each customized project to be tracked and communicated effectively, no matter the context.
The success of The Program relies on strong partnerships with organizations like OpenTEAM, Quivira Coalition, and Zero Food Print. By working together, our hope is to drive meaningful progress in rangeland carbon monitoring within California and beyond.
If you’re passionate about regenerative rangeland management and would like to learn more about participating in the Range-C Monitoring Program, we invite you to reach out!
Email: RangeC@pointblue.org.
