USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service awards Wolfe’s Neck Center for Agriculture and the Environment cooperative agreement to expand climate-smart grazing technical assistance and education throughout Maine, New England, and Eastern New York
Wolfe’s Neck Center for Agriculture and the Environment has been awarded a cooperative agreement from the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) as part of the Grazing Lands Conservation Initiative. Under this cooperative agreement, Wolfe’s Neck Center will receive funding to lead a coalition of grazing-focused organizations, called the New England Grazing Network (NEGN), to significantly expand managed grazing systems across New England and eastern New York, in partnership with NRCS.
Well-managed, or rotational grazing systems, involve the strategic movement of livestock across pasture, allowing the pasture time to recover and forages to re-grow. This practice improves soil health, and pasture forage biodiversity, which builds climate resilience and reduces environmental impacts of grazing. Wolfe’s Neck Center has been supporting the expansion of these practices as the coordinator and fiscal agent of the NEGN since 2021. The NEGN is a growing group of grazing and livestock-focused organizations focused on providing technical assistance, education and resource sharing, outreach and community-building, and shared strategic leadership to advance climate-smart grazing as a viable and sustainable approach to farming and a valued part of the regional food system.
Over the next four years, this collaborative effort will expand the climate-smart grazing community in New England and eastern New York by serving to grow the number of beginning and more established farmers adopting grazing practices and will prioritize expanding the grazing community, through outreach and targeted educational opportunities for new, beginning, historically underserved, and transitioning livestock farmers. This work will increase the acreage that is managed to address natural resource concerns through the use of climate-smart practices and principles. It will also connect the regional grazing community with Northeast and national partners to expand cross-region collaboration and increase farmer participation in the development of innovative strategies to quantify and monitor grazing conservation management.
The NEGN’s approach of working locally and connecting regionally has allowed partners to deliver high-quality regional programming that would otherwise not be possible if each state acted separately, and has successfully brought local and state-based educational programming to farms and partners across the region who would otherwise be unaware of or unable to participate in such opportunities. This award will help build upon this successful model to expand educational offerings and technical assistance capacity to support the grazing and livestock community across the region.
Wolfe’s Neck Center will continue to provide leadership to the NEGN, while also developing programmatic capacity and expertise to support the delivery of Maine-based and regionally impactful education and training programs. Wolfe’s Neck Center will develop a Farmer Advisory Committee to inform the content provided through the regional and Maine-based grazing educational offerings, as well as assist with outreach to the farming community about these opportunities.
About Wolfe’s Neck Center
Wolfe’s Neck Center for Agriculture & the Environment is a fast-growing, national nonprofit organization based on a campus of over 600 acres of coastal farmland in Freeport, Maine. Our work is dedicated to creating a world where agriculture and food systems support farmer viability, thriving ecosystems, and vibrant communities. Through regenerative farming demonstration and training, innovative research, and collaborations, Wolfe’s Neck Center works to advance agriculture – on our own farm, regionally, and nationally – to accelerate holistic change in food systems and mitigate the effects of a changing climate.
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