On December 16, 2019 the Cedar Tree Foundation announced it was awarding the Iowa Tribe of KS & NE $225,000 to apply towards a Regenerative Agriculture project.
For many decades the Tribe’s monoculture crop practices have been focused on row crops and grass lands, producing mainly corn and soybeans. In traditional farming techniques, row crops have been easy to manage and predict harvest results. But this method has also required the heavy use of herbicides and pesticides for crop health which has resulted in large ecosystem collapse of soil function and water quality. There is tremendous historical evidence of the diverse and hydrated systems which were in place on the reservation lands less than 200 years ago. These systems implemented practices that mimicked how a natural system worked. The Tribe plans to reestablish those techniques to regenerate the health of the soil while using adaptive multi-paddock grazing (AMP).
AMP is considered one of the most regenerative systems for grazing livestock, in which the animals are managed to mimic the constantly moving, vast herds of wild herbivores that once grazed the prairies. That is, the animals stay to graze for a short period of time before being moved to another portion of the field, with the rest/recovery period being relatively long before the animals return for subsequent grazing.
The wide-spread adoption of soil health-improving, regenerative agriculture has the remarkable potential to restore the health of tribal lands while improving the health of our bodies, our food, and our community. It also provides the Tribe with the ability to better cope with weather extremes through the building of biological and ecosystem resilience.
This grant will allow the Tribe to move forward with AMP grazing and establishing a healthier environment from the below the surface of the ground upwards and creating a healthier tribal community.
Respectfully,
The Iowa Tribe of KS & NE Executive Council
