fighting climate change means dealing

with greenhouse gas pollution like

carbon dioxide that's causing the earth

to warm new jersey has laid out plans to

slash the state's contribution to the

problem by transitioning away from

burning fossil fuels but finding ways to

pool harmful gases out of the air is

just as important and that's where

researchers and state officials are

hopeful that the garden states farmers

can help as part of our ongoing series

on the human stories of climate change

pearl and promise melissa rose cooper

reports

it's time for this young cow to quench

his thirst he may not realize it but he

and the other cattle running around the

grasslands here at duke farms in

hillsborough are helping to fight

climate change we know cows when they're

pasture rays are healthier for the

animal's sake we also know that the

vegetation and the soils are often

healthier too because they help increase

organic matter which helps plant life

in the soil food web which makes the

plants healthier deeper roots more

carbon storage deeper down an overall

benefit to the environment as carbon

dioxide which is one of the main

greenhouse gases driving climate change

is removed from the air climate change

is real it's happening it's happening

all over the world marjorie kaplan is

the associate director of the climate

institute at rutgers her team conducted

a study over the last year and a half

looking for ways farmers could assist

with mitigating climate change by

pulling carbon dioxide from the air and

storing it in vegetation and the soil in

general what farmers can do is they can

put down cover crops they can do no-till

agriculture the different kinds of

practices that i mentioned can

help to

not only sequester carbon but they can

provide for uh soil health they can help

reduce erosion and sediment

making its way into streams at duke

farms they're using the practice of

rotational grazing a method in use at

farms in the midwest with bison they

decided to give it a shot using cows

after realizing hay was causing harm to

endangered grassland birds agroecology

is basically using the principles of

ecology and what we know about natural

systems on the farm itself so what we

looked at is

historically where these birds came from

that are threatened endangered is in

those big great prairies that we had out

west the midwest

and what was

the common denominator what helped

maintain those habitats was those bison

herds that moved through periodically

and they would do a different kind of

grazing but this is a way of mimicking

that basically the idea is you move the

cows around

based on different things but usually

it's the height of the grass the idea is

to

move them to let the pastures rest and

re-vegetate soil organic matter is one

of the most important

soil quality factors

so generally more soil organic matter in

the soil

makes for better conditions for plant

growth and the resilience of

agricultural production

at the same time that organic matter is

a storage place

for the carbon and so the more carbon we

can get into the soil

through

photosynthesis through the plants and

get it

into the soil stored in the soil for

long term that will help us to some

extent

draw down the carbon dioxide levels in

the atmosphere the state department of

environmental protection and department

of agriculture have proposed a natural

and working land strategy which

officials estimate could remove nearly

11 tons of carbon from the air through

proper management of forests wetlands

and farms like this one it's just like

putting the pieces of the puzzle

together you need to reduce fossil fuel

use you need to

do better land management practices stop

removing trees what better way to

help out those plans by figuring out

what practices

can help mitigate

climate change for nj spotlight news i'm

melissa rose cooper

lead funding for paralymp promise is

provided by dr p roy vagalos and diana t

vagalos

major support is provided by the mark

haas foundation and sue and edgar

wachenheim iii and the cheryl and philip

milstein family

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