As world leaders and some 20,000 delegates gather in Glasgow, Scotland, for the COP26 climate summit, they’ll be working toward the goal of keeping global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius, through a variety of methods aimed at reducing greenhouse gases. Much of the focus is on renewable energy and decarbonizing the power grid, transportation, and buildings. But Bruce Babbitt, former governor of Arizona and former Interior secretary, says there are two other big sectors that should not be overlooked:  land and water. 
 
“It just isn’t really getting the attention it deserves,” says Babbitt in the most recent episode of the Land Matters podcast, noting that land-clearing and the destruction of forests takes away vast carbon sinks and accounts for 20 percent of emissions worldwide, on a par with what transportation produces globally. 

Global warming is also having such a big impact on water supplies all around the world, he said, more focus needs to be on near-term solutions to avert a catastrophic crisis in both urban development and agriculture. The Colorado River Basin, where the Lake Mead and Lake Powell reservoirs have dropped to historic lows, is a vivid illustration of that challenge. 

“The Colorado River becomes sort of the poster child of this, because the river flow is diminishing as a result of the drought and the decrease in runoff efficiency,” he said. “What rain there is doesn’t reach the reservoirs because it evaporates from the soil [because of] the temperature constantly heating up the landscape.” 

Holders of water rights established long ago are now facing drastic reductions, both in urban areas and in the agricultural sector, the biggest user of Colorado River water. They must now make due with less water—right now and in the future. The current method of irrigating crops simply cannot go on as usual, Babbitt said. “We haven’t really stared that straight in the eye, and begun to plan and to join a big region-wide discussion,” he said. 
  
Babbitt, for whom the Babbitt Center for Land and Water Policy is named, served for many years on the board of the Lincoln Institute. The Phoenix-based center is promoting the better coordination of land use planning and the management of water resources. The Lincoln Institute’s work in land, water, and climate is getting special recognition in this 75th anniversary year; the organization started as the Lincoln Foundation in 1946, in Phoenix. 
 
You can listen to the show and subscribe to Land Matters on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts. 

Further reading 
 

The COP26 Climate Talks Are Opening. Here’s What to Expect  

UK to push plan to ‘halt and reverse global deforestation by 2030’ at Cop26 

In Search of Solutions: Water & Tribes Initiative Encourages Collaborative Approach to Colorado River Management 

Lessons from the Colorado River: Climate, Land, and Drought: A 75th Anniversary Lincoln Institute Dialogue

Anthony Flint is a senior fellow at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, host of the Land Matters podcast, and a contributing editor of Land Lines. 

Image: Bruce Babbitt Credit: Gage Skidmore via Flickr CC BY-SA 2.0

Mark Anderson, an ecologist who has conducted groundbreaking work to map climate-resilient lands and waters across the United States, has been named the new Kingsbury Browne Fellow at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy and the recipient of the Kingsbury Browne Conservation Leadership Award from the Land Trust Alliance.  

In his role as director of The Nature Conservancy’s Center for Resilient Conservation Science, Anderson oversees a team of scientists that has created detailed maps of areas whose topographies, elevations, and geologies are particularly suited for withstanding the impacts of climate change. These maps are used by government agencies, land trusts, and other organizations to prioritize conservation work. Anderson has also produced a deep body of scholarship in the field, including co-authorship of the National Vegetation Classification, an online inventory of plants and plant communities across the United States. 

“Mark is a global leader in applying the science of Geographic Information Systems to the art of land conservation,” said Jim Levitt, director of the International Land Conservation Network at the Lincoln Institute. “His insight has been invaluable in lighting the path forward.” 

“For years, Mark has been at the forefront of climate science and how to combine it effectively with ecology,” said Andrew Bowman, president and CEO of the Land Trust Alliance. “For his visionary climate work and his longstanding commitment to the land trust community, we are honored to name Mark this year’s Kingsbury Browne Conservation Leadership Award winner.” 

The fellowship and award, given since 2006, are named for Kingsbury Browne, a Boston tax lawyer and conservationist who served as a Lincoln Fellow in 1980 and helped form the Land Trust Alliance in 1982.  

Recent recipients of the fellowship include Fernando Lloveras San Miguel, executive director of the Conservation Trust of Puerto Rico; Jane Difley, who led the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests for 23 years; Michael Whitfield, executive director of the Heart of the Rockies Initiative; and Will Rogers, head of the Trust for Public Land. 

Photograph by DJ Glisson, II / Firefly Imageworks.

This summer, the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) declared the first official water shortage on the Colorado River. The declaration triggers mandatory cuts in withdrawals from the river, which supports more than 40 million people and 4.5 million acres of agriculture across seven U.S. states and two states in Mexico. While the announcement made both history and headlines, it came as no surprise to those in the Colorado River Basin who know the river best—the farmers, water utility managers, tribal leaders, state water management agencies, and others who have witnessed the severe impacts of the region’s decades-long drought and spent years making plans to address it.

“We knew this day would come, and it’s here,” said Brenda Burman, who served as commissioner of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, an agency of DOI that manages water in the West, from 2017 to 2021. “We need collective action on the river to address this situation.”

Burman joined former U.S. Secretary of the Interior and Arizona Governor Bruce Babbitt for “Lessons from the Colorado River,” a Lincoln Institute Dialogue hosted by Jim Holway, director of the Babbitt Center for Land and Water Policy, in early September. Their discussion was part of a series of virtual dialogues celebrating the 75th anniversary of the Lincoln Institute. It drew more than 500 registered participants from 43 U.S. states and 19 countries, including Turkey, Bangladesh, Colombia, and Kenya.

“We are at a critical juncture in the Colorado River Basin where we need to rethink our approaches and chart a long-term, sustainable course,” said Holway. “I can think of no one better equipped to help us understand these challenges than Bruce Babbitt and Brenda Burman, who have shaped Colorado River management, as both state and federal leaders, for over 40 years.”

Holway invited Burman to offer an overview of the Colorado River system, current conditions, and the complex 20th and 21st century agreements that govern its usage, including the 1922 Colorado River Compact that allotted water to each of the seven U.S. states in the basin; the 1944 agreement between the United States and Mexico that formalized the latter country’s rights to a share of the water; and the more recent interim guidelines of 2007 and Drought Contingency Plans (DCP) of 2019. The DCP, developed through a series of negotiations among the basin states, NGOs, tribal leaders, and the governments of the United States and Mexico, outlines how stakeholders along the river will share a resource that’s been depleted by a 22-year drought and is vulnerable to long-term climate change.

Both Burman and Babbitt emphasized the importance of a collaborative approach to managing the river. Burman identified the 1990s, and specifically Babbitt’s tenure at DOI (1993–2001), as “the time when we started coming together as a basin to find agreements, to find flexibility, to be able to use this resource.” Babbitt described cooperative management of the river as “a work in progress . . . working together, we’ve managed to come a long way.”

Babbitt was frank about the hard realities of the current situation, outlining serious potential impacts in the Lower Basin (which includes Arizona and parts of California and Nevada). For example, Babbitt said, agricultural operations in central Arizona that no longer have access to river water will pump groundwater instead, which will overtax groundwater reserves and dramatically reduce the amount of agricultural land in production. That shift could also curtail future development in the region because of state requirements that developers demonstrate adequate water supply for their projects. He voiced concern that a political and economic water war could result if speculators accelerate efforts to buy up farmland with senior water rights in other regions, with the goal of selling the associated water rights to others who need water.

Meanwhile, in the Upper Basin (which includes parts of Colorado, Wyoming, New Mexico, and Utah), Babbitt said the sheer number of small water districts is making it difficult to coordinate a response to the drought. He noted that in Colorado, urban areas could be the first to feel the impact of cuts due to the structure of various management agreements. “It isn’t easy to turn off the faucet, because there are so many hands on the faucet,” he said. Still, he struck a cautiously optimistic tone: “These changes don’t happen overnight. There is time still to find a pathway toward a more sustainable balance as these changes take place.”

During the conversation, Babbitt, Burman, and Holway identified several elements of successful watershed management—collaboration, diversity, public engagement, and nonpartisan approaches—and suggested that the Colorado River can serve as a model for other places facing complex resource management problems in an era of climate change. “The lessons we are learning here, and the binational collaborative approaches, serve as examples for other arid and semi-arid river basins throughout the world,” Holway said.

Some of the necessary next steps in the Colorado River Basin include agreeing to additional shortage reductions in individual state water allocations; improving water efficiency; settling outstanding tribal water claims; addressing tribal water infrastructure needs; and establishing fair and equitable water sharing arrangements between agricultural, urban, and tribal water users. The speakers agreed there are promising signs that these steps are achievable, including the ability to agree on previous rounds of Colorado River water cuts; an uptick in wastewater reuse and in local efforts to increase water efficiency and conservation; and growing recognition of the connection between local land use and water management policy. Holway cites Colorado’s Land and Water Planning Alliance as an excellent example of collaboration around actions local government and local water users can take.

As drought and climate change continue to put immense pressure on the Colorado River and other regional water supplies, stakeholders throughout the basin will have to confront not only the current shortage, but also the prospect of more to come. “We are facing a warmer, drier present and a warmer, drier future,” Burman said. “We have a history of coming together, but the time to do more is now . . . . I have a lot of faith that we can do it.”

A recording of the Colorado River webinar is available online, along with related links including the recently updated Colorado River StoryMap created by the Babbitt Center team. The special 75th anniversary Lincoln Institute Dialogue series continues on October 27 with a discussion about land-based financing. Learn more about the Lincoln Institute’s 75th anniversary and related events. 

Katharine Wroth is the editor of Land Lines. 

Photo Credit: Sean Pavone/iStock via Getty Images.

In this summer of 2021, land is being ravaged. Wildfires burn in the western United States, Canada and elsewhere, destroying whole towns and sending smoke across the continent. Meanwhile, the Amazon rainforest has been scorched so extensively for ranching and agriculture that it now emits more carbon than it absorbs.

These alarming events, and the UN’s latest report on rapidly accelerating climate change, underscore the critical role of land, land management, and land conservation in confronting the climate crisis, says Jim Levitt, director of the International Land Conservation Network at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy.

Sequestering carbon, mitigating heat islands and disasters, maintaining biodiversity, managing water resources stressed by drought—all are crucial jobs that land performs incredibly well, says Levitt, the guest on the latest episode of the Land Matters podcast. And that is why conserving and better managing forests, wilderness areas, and working landscapes is so important now, he says.

“I don’t want to sugarcoat this—it’s going to be a very challenging task,” he says. “It’s a situation, as many people have said before me, that will require all hands on deck.”

Levitt, author of the book From Walden to Wall Street, details latest and best practices in legal structures and conservation finance to step up land protection globally. Land conservation has been part of the Lincoln Institute’s portfolio for decades, but it has special relevance today in the context of global warming.

As part of the 75th anniversary year, the Lincoln Institute is taking a look at a wide range of programs and how they have evolved over the years—and how they are being applied now to some of the world’s most serious problems.

You can listen to the show and subscribe to Land Matters on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Anthony Flint is a senior fellow at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, host of the Land Matters podcast, and a contributing editor of Land Lines.

Photograph: California and other states in the U.S. West are enduring longer wildfire seasons, a trend fueled by climate change. Credit: CAL FIRE via Flickr CC BY-NC 2.0.

Related Content

How Land Conservation Reduces Climate Change

Bridging the Divide: Why Integrating Land and Water Planning Is Critical to a Sustainable Future

Sustainably Managed Land and Water Resources, one of six strategic goals

Workshop Report on Biodiversity and Climate Change, a report of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services and Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

Across four decades as an aerial photographer, I have been drawn to documenting agriculture for the way it reveals important clues about region, climate, topography, soil, and the passage of seasons and time. This work has increasingly focused on the connections between land use and climate change, as attention to shortening food miles—reducing the distance between producers and consumers, with the goal of lowering carbon emissions and minimizing supply chain disruptions—visibly plays out across rural–urban transects. The images in these pages represent the first steps in an inquiry into how food production in and around urban areas in the United States is changing.

In recent years, the intensification of small-scale growing in the region around Boston, Massachusetts, has been increasingly apparent. From the air, I’ve seen hoop houses spring up on small farms seeking to meet demand and expand productivity; I’ve seen drab commercial and residential rooftops become vibrant gardens; I’ve seen historically nonproductive urban land like vacant lots and lawns become cultivated spaces. When added up, these small-scale operations seem to hold real potential for productivity gains through the power of increments. Green spaces in and near urban areas don’t just provide people with fresher, more accessible food; by filtering stormwater, absorbing carbon dioxide, and providing other environmental benefits, they can also make cities healthier, more resilient places.

Despite these promising changes, what is commonly understood as the locavore movement has done more to create a sense of place, build community, and educate around food than it has to increase food security or shorten food miles at the scale necessary to confront climate change. While demand and enthusiasm for local food has grown over the last decade, an estimated 90 percent of food in the Boston metro area comes from outside the region, according to Food Solutions New England (FSNE), a regional network based at the nearby University of New Hampshire. But policy makers, investors, farmers, and entrepreneurs in the area are working to change that, and FSNE is advocating for “50 by 60”—referring to the percentage of food that could be regionally sourced by 2060.

One trend that could help reach that goal, also visible from the air, is indoor farming. Most commonly located in undervalued industrial neighborhoods, indoor farms use technologies like hydroponics and LED lighting to enable year-round cultivation. The companies behind them are increasingly demonstrating that a lack of open space does not have to be a constraint on food production. The indoor farming industry attracted $1.9 billion in global venture capital in 2020, three times the amount committed in 2019.

Boston is home to some of the companies gaining the most momentum. Freight Farms, for instance, further democratizes proximity to production through the use of retrofitted shipping containers that can be tucked beneath elevated highways or squat next to school cafeterias. In 320 square feet, these containers yield as much produce as two cultivated acres. Such innovative solutions give insight into what alternative growing can look like as climate change degrades farmland and shrinks water supplies. However, indoor farming has its drawbacks; it can be energy intensive and, although its yields are often marketed as “local,” in some senses it replicates the centralization and corporate influence against which local and regional agriculture advocates have long chafed.

As an aerial photographer, I hope some form of outdoor food production will always be integrated into our landscapes. Whether viewed from the ground or from the air, farms and fields help us understand the key elements of the natural world that sustain us, providing a connection to the planet and an impetus to protect these places. But from above, it is increasingly apparent that a reimagining of agricultural systems is underway, and that we will need many different approaches for “local food” to evolve into an equitable model of regional food sovereignty.

The Boston metro region imports 90 percent of its food from outside the region. Above, box trucks and refrigerated trailer units line the New England Produce Center warehouses in Chelsea, just north of downtown Boston. Among the largest wholesale produce markets in the world, the complex receives shipments from across the United States and internationally. Produce is then redistributed to food outlets throughout New England and southeastern Canada. Credit: Alex MacLean.

The renowned Fenway Victory Gardens along the Muddy River in Boston’s Back Bay are made up of over 500 plots that remain on land that was dedicated to food production during World War II. Fenway was one of over 20 million victory gardens across the country that contributed to growing roughly 40 percent of the nation’s produce at the height of the war. The history speaks to the potential to adapt and to grow local produce on a large scale. Credit: Alex MacLean.

The community garden at the First Parish Church in Lincoln, Massachusetts, seen in four seasons. Changes in the garden throughout the year are a time marker that affirms our awareness as we transition through seasons. Parishioners grow individual plots and collectively grow a donation plot that provides an average of 600 pounds of food each year to Boston-area homeless shelters and soup kitchens. Credit: Alex MacLean.

The Largest of Mill City Grows’ four farms, “Big Farm” is situated on 2.8 acres leased from the city of Lowell, Massachusetts. The food from these farms is distributed through mobile markets, a Community Supported Agriculture farm share program, and donations. In working toward local food justice, Mill City Grows also partners with schools to support educational and community growing initiatives. Credit: Alex MacLean.

The city of Lawrence, Massachusetts, helped establish the Cross and Cedar Street Garden in 2011. The garden, which is tended by local residents, occupies two vacant lots where dilapidated housing had been torn down. Raised beds help protect against the hazards of contaminated soil. Credit: Alex MacLean.

The Nightingale Community Garden in Dorchester, Massachusetts, owned by statewide conservation organization The Trustees, is part of a citywide initiative to increase access to local produce, and to make community gardens a prominent feature of unbuilt urban spaces. Credit: Alex MacLean.

Planted terraces on top of The Esplanade, a condominium complex in Cambridge, Massachusetts, demonstrate the potential for commercial roof spaces to accommodate urban agriculture. Credit: Alex MacLean.

Chicken tractors and containment pens are moved each day at Codman Community Farms in Lincoln, Massachusetts, one of the sustainable practices that goes into producing 800 to 1200 eggs per week. Located 15 miles northwest of Boston and dating back to 1754, the farm sits on 18 acres. An additional 120 acres of fields and pastures scattered throughout the town provide hay for livestock and open spaces for those living in the surrounding area. Credit: Alex MacLean.

Over 95 percent of greens consumed on the East Coast come from California and Arizona, often spending over a week in transit. Little Leaf Farms is working to disrupt reliance on West Coast produce through year-round hydroponic growing in a 10-acre greenhouse in Devens, Massachusetts, 40 miles west of Boston. The growing process is entirely automated; greens are planted and harvested without touching human hands. The company’s success thus far has brought in $90 million in debt and equity financing to expand operations down the East Coast, beginning in Pennsylvania and North Carolina. Credit: Alex MacLean.

Freight Farms manufactures vertical hydroponic greenhouses inside 40-foot shipping containers. Equipped with precise climate control and optimized lighting for select plants, the containers can yield up to two acres of conventionally grown produce in 320 square feet. The mobile greenhouses can be placed anywhere, such as beneath highway underpasses or adjacent to schools. Credit: Alex MacLean.

Built on what was once a contaminated brownfield site in Providence, Rhode Island, Gotham Greens—the white structure at bottom left of image—provides New England with year-round hydroponically grown greens and herbs. The greenhouse is powered by renewable electricity and uses 95 percent less water and 97 percent less land than conventional agriculture. Credit: Alex MacLean.

Gaining Ground Farm in Concord, Massachusetts, grows produce for Boston-area shelters and food pantries. Using high tunnels, hoop houses, row covers, and soil nourishment, Gaining Ground has increased production by over 100 percent over a four-year period. In 2020, Gaining Ground grew and donated 127,429 pounds of produce, compared to 61,764 in 2016. This photograph, taken in 2016, shows the farm’s early adoption of hoop houses. Credit: Alex MacLean.

This photograph, taken in 2020, shows the intensification of production at Gaining Ground Farm in Concord, Massachusetts. Gaining Ground, which grows produce for Boston-area shelters and food pantries, more than doubled the amount of food it grew and donated between 2016 and 2020. Credit: Alex MacLean.

This community garden in Allston-Brighton, Massachusetts, is on land owned by the state Department of Conservation and Recreation. The mid-October foliage foretells the end of the growing season and the onset of winter. Credit: Alex MacLean.

Alex MacLean is a pilot and internationally exhibited photographer whose work has appeared in Land Lines and the Lincoln Institute book Visualizing Density. He specializes in documenting changes to the land brought about by human intervention and natural processes.

Lead Image: Boston’s community gardens have created a stronger sense of place within city neighborhoods. The Worcester Street Community Garden in Boston’s South End is one of 56 community gardens owned by The Trustees. Managed by volunteers, the Worcester Street garden has more than 130 plots available to Boston residents on a first-come, first-served basis. Credit: Alex MacLean.