The Kateri Grasslands Program

Project Overview

The Kateri Grasslands Program conserves grassland ecosystems in the USA by implementing conservation easements that protect these important grassland carbon sinks by restricting tillage of soils and the associated release of soil carbon to the atmosphere. The carbon finance provided by Inlandsis is in the form of upfront payments to ranchers which supports and de-risks their enrollment in the aggregation program. This carbon finance partnership between Kateri and Inlandsis includes multiple ranch owners and land trusts in several states, which provides an scaled up approach to conserving grasslands through aggregation that delivers significant wildlife and biodiversity co-benefits in conjunction with responsible cattle grazing management. The first two projects are located at the Switchback Ranch in Montana and will conserve approximately 14,000 acres of pristine grasslands that are inhabited by grizzly bears and other wildlife. Two additional projects are underway in Kansas at Hoeme Ranch & Cattle with several more projects in development in other states.