Grasslands store one-third of Earth’s carbon. Just one acre of grassland can store an estimated 50 tonnes of carbon or more. Yet, in the U.S., over one million acres of grassland are still converted each year, which has the potential to release 50%-70% of the carbon they hold into the atmosphere.

The Medford Spring grasslands in southeastern Colorado is facing an imminent threat of conversion to cropland given its soils are suitable for farming and cropland rental rates are more than five times pastureland rates in Bent County, CO. A permanent conservation easement will preserve the grasslands and avoid conversion of the land to farming or development. This will prevent an estimated 190,000 tonnes of CO₂ from entering the atmosphere over the next 50 years. This is the equivalent of almost 208 million pounds of coal burned.

This project helps halt the loss of the remaining 50% of Colorado’s shortgrass prairie — an ecosystem being reduced at a higher rate than any other type of ecosystem in the state and linked to the decline of several animal species.

With the conservation of the Medford Spring grasslands, bison and black-tailed prairie dogs will help limit shrub and tree encroachment and preserve habitats for native swift fox, ferruginous hawks, burrowing owls, elk, pronghorn antelope, and the mountain plover.