SACRAMENTO — More than 40% of California’s rural land is active rangeland, and at more than 19 million acres, these lands host diverse ecosystems, support clean water, and provide nutritious forage for grazing animals. Rangelands also hold promise for agricultural practices that can help mitigate problems impacting millions of Californians while creating opportunities for the next generation of rangeland managers.
California FarmLink and TomKat Ranch Educational Foundation have published an extensive new resource for landowners and the grazing community: A Guide to Regenerative Grazing Leases: Opportunities for Resilience. Historically the constant movement of animals through rangelands meant they grazed only a portion of the plants and supported a more diverse landscape. “Today we’ve got drought, fire, climate change, and places where the mindset is about what we can extract from the land, not what we can give back,” said Wendy Millet, Ranch Director at TomKat Ranch.
The guide provides a framework for drafting rigorous grazing leases that articulate shared agricultural, ecological, and social values. Designed with the needs of graziers, private landowners, public agencies and land trusts in mind, the guide illustrates how land leases can serve broader purposes. It helps readers design and maintain regenerative grazing leases to support resilience, adaptability, and economic opportunity in rural communities.
Effective communication is vital to support adaptation and help align incentives around productivity and resilience. “People using this guide will be able to create leases that help to improve biodiversity, soil health, water infiltration capacity, and water quality. Regenerative grazing leases can help meet these ecological goals, while also furthering a rancher’s business and greater community goals,” stated Kendra Johnson, program advisor and author of the guidebook. Its 64 pages contain dozens of resources and references for charting a new future on California rangelands. The publication is available here.
California FarmLink is a nonprofit organization working across California with a mission to invest in the prosperity of farmers and ranchers through lending, education, and access to land.
Located near Pescadero, the mission of TomKat Ranch is to provide healthy food on working lands in a way that regenerates the planet and inspires others to action.
–California FarmLink