Welcome to Field Notes

Field Notes is Ma Earth’s living journal—a gathering of the latest updates, stories and learning from across the field of land stewardship and regenerative finance.

Each edition offers a glimpse into what’s emerging across the Ma Earth ecosystem as we cultivate economies that honor life and uplift those in service to regenerating Earth.

If that resonates, read on. If not you can unsubscribe at any time here.

Last month, our team gathered at Climate Week in New York City and recorded some deep-dive conversations highlighting new approaches in nature finance and philanthropy.

First up is Jennifer Menke, Executive Director at Regenerative Earth and co-founder of Sacred Contract, an initiative with Center for Environmental and Democratic Rights (CEDR) and Center for Ethical Land Transition (CELT). 

Building on the rights of nature movement, Jennifer shares about a mountain in Colorado that has become the first in the United States to legally own itself, and how this living precedent could inspire bioregional replication. Watch »

We also heard from Brandon Welch, co-founder of Mad Capital, about the successful close of their $78 million fund for scaling regenerative agriculture and organic farming. This financing model could address a critical gap in today’s regenerative funding landscape. Watch »

We got the scoop from Justin Winters, co-founder and Executive Director of One Earth, and Eric Berlow, CEO of Vibrant Data Labs. They released the Solutions Finance Tracker, a new tool analyzing $400 billion of private investments, philanthropy and government funding to 11,000 US-based climate nonprofits and companies, from about 14,000 funders. Their Minding the Gaps report offers a wide-lens view of the global funding landscape and highlights key gaps in conservation and nature-based solutions. Watch »

Keep an eye out for more episodes coming in the next couple weeks, including:

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Ma Earth has launched Learning Lab, a new space to share educational offerings designed for land stewards. Guided by Sophia Rokhlin, these online gatherings bring together experts and land stewards to share practical tools and living wisdom for regeneration. All sessions are recorded and available on our YouTube channel.

So far we've hosted sessions exploring land stewardship paradigms, bioacoustic data monitoring, community mapping, web3 for collective fundraising, Indigenous principles in environmental law, biochar, and landscape rehydration.

Learning Lab 08: November 19, 2025 at 4PM EST Live on Zoom

Our next lab is with Zebulon Horrell of Mangaroa Farms, exploring how permaculture practices can feed community, increase biodiversity, and improve the health of land.

Our website just got an upgrade to make it easier to engage with our offerings. We’ve added new search, filters, and AI integration, so you can instantly glean summaries or ask questions about an episode from GPT or Claude.

We also updated our social media handles to @maearthstudio to reflect this evolution. Stay connected on LinkedIn, X, and Instagram.

2025 has been a year of taking root and strengthening foundations to serve Ma Earth’s mission: to build a funding platform to resource grassroots communities who are regenerating Earth. 

If you're a land steward or nature funder, we’d love to connect. Reach out to explore partnerships and stay tuned for announcements about our third grants round. 👀

And if you're interested in working more deeply with our team on this mission, or know someone who might be a good fit, we’re currently open to collaborators in the following functions:

Thank you for journeying with us—for listening, learning and tending the living systems that sustain us. May these field notes find fertile ground and inspire deeper alignment with the economies and ecologies that honor life.

Until next time, touch grass 🌿
Ma Earth