This document discusses how managing ecosystems and land can draw down carbon from the atmosphere and stabilize the climate. Large-scale adoption of natural climate solutions like soil-based carbon capture are very cost-effective ways to remove carbon. The City of Boulder and Boulder County are leading initiatives to test carbon farming practices on public lands, involving local farmers, researchers, and citizens. Their goal is to rapidly develop land-based carbon removal strategies and scale them worldwide to address climate change.

1. ECOSYSTEMS
STABILIZINGCLIMATETHROUGH LAND-BASED CARBON DRAWDOWN
The climate emergency has detrimental effects on our ecosystems, but managing that impact can also be an important,
widespread solution to climate change.
In August 2019, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued a report called “Climate Change and Land”
which described the critical importance of carbon drawdown and the enormous role land and ecosystem management must
play in this effort. Large scale adoption of “natural” climate solutions, such as soil-based carbon capture, are the most cost-
effective options to quickly drawdown carbon at local and global scales.
WHAT IS CARBON DRAWDOWN?
Carbon drawdown is the process through which atmospheric carbon (a greenhouse gas) is recaptured and stored into either
living or non-living systems.
Living systems include plants, algae, or other organisms capable of convertingCO2 into sugar or other compounds.
Technology-based, non-living-system approaches are in development, but none have been able to achieve cost-effectiveness
given the current value of carbon removal.
HOW CAN WE DRAW DOWN CARBON INTOTHE SOIL?
Land managers can work with plants and soils to capture carbon from the air and deposit it in soils by working in alignment
with biological systems and using best practices for land management:
• Stimulate soil microbial communities
• Enhance plant productivity
• Reduce surface exposure and erosion
These practices can achieve significant carbon capture, ranging from 1/2 ton to over 5 tons of CO2 per acre. This could
offset or even reverse the impacts of burning fossil fuels, particularly as we simultaneously work to reduce our emissions
from these sources.

2. BOULDER’S LEADERSHIP
TheCity of Boulder and BoulderCounty have together launched some of the first local government soil-based drawdown initiatives
in the world.
Working on public open space lands, public land management staff, local farmers, academic researchers and citizen scientists are
coordinating an exciting range of different carbon farming initiatives.These can an avenue to rapidly develop new approaches
which can be scaled and modeled worldwide.
WHEREWE ARE
BENNET CARBON FARMING PROJECT
1. Desertification Comes Home - A combination of factors including past
management, climate change and impacts from prairie dogs resulted in
significant soil loss on a city open space property called the “Bennett Farm.”
In 2017, the city began working McCauley Farms to develop a soil
regeneration project at the site.
2. Soil Regeneration-The city and McCauley began experimenting with
strategies for regenerating the soil and site productivity and restoring carbon
to the soil system. Volunteers from the Junior Rangers, Ready toWork,
NRCS, MadAgriculture and others helped implement these trial treatments.
3. Result -After one growing season, the combination of key line plow,
compost and drill seeding showed significant positive results!

3. CITIZEN’S SOIL
HEALTH PROJECT
Collaborative soil
monitoring on over 50
agricultural sites around
Boulder County.
GAME CHANGERS
COMMUNITY CARBON
FARMING CAMPAIGN
200+ Households in testing
various soil treatments and
measuring results.
CARBON FARM AND
RANCH PROGRAM
Providing technical support
to local farms & ranches
developing carbon farm
plans.
THEVISION
Boulder leads regional, national, and international efforts to rapidly develop land-based carbon drawdown
strategies that enhance community health, resilience and equitable economic opportunity.