The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) works with landowners through conservation planning and assistance to benefit the soil, water, air, plants, and animals for productive lands and healthy ecosystems.  By working at the local level and understanding local resource concerns and ecosystem challenges, the NRCS implements conservation practices with landowners to provide lasting conservation solutions.  Seventy percent of the land in the United States is privately owned, making private land stewardship a critical component of our Nation’s environment.   NRCS succeeds through partnerships, working closely with individual farmers and ranchers, landowners, local conservation districts, government agencies, Tribes, Earth Team volunteers and many other groups that care about the quality of America’s natural resources.

Forest stand improvement, windbreaks, shelterbelt establishment, and silvopasture establishment are management practices that sequester atmospheric carbon over time.  Other conservation practices actively reduce greenhouse gas emissions at the source, the most notable emission reduction practices are anaerobic digesters, nutrient management, residue management and tillage management.   Partnering with private land owners to manage lands for both carbon sequestration benefits and reduced emissions intensity provides an opportunity for the United States.  This opportunity comes with a suite of challenges, ranging from market and quantification uncertainty to the more traditional emission reduction challenges such as leakage, additionality, and permanence.  The challenges and opportunities will be discussed during this oral presentation.