Little information on the benefits of reduced disturbance practices is available in California for organic production systems. The Regents of the University of California propose to increase soil health and resilience in organic vegetable production systems in California by demonstrating systems-oriented reduced disturbance approaches that have been shown to have significant conservation benefit in other regions. The project will demonstrate these innovative practices and increase their adoption through a process of on-farm discovery, a connected farmer network to share knowledge, and a targeted emphasis on specific questions or constraints that stakeholder farmers and supporters recognize as barriers to adoption.

The Marin Carbon Project (MCP) Sequestering Carbon in California Soils (Seq- C Soils) proposal engages agricultural producers as ecosystem stewards to provide on-farm ecological benefits and mitigate global climate change. MCP’s first four years of research demonstrated that agricultural land management practices can measurably increase rates of carbon sequestration, resulting in enhanced soil quality and soil water holding capacity and increased soil carbon and forage production (Ryals and Silver 2012). We propose to follow up on our research and planning efforts by completing Carbon Farm Action Plans for three (3) Marin County farms using NRCS resource assessment tools and criteria augmented with carbon sequestration capacity estimates derived from COMET-FARM, Marin Carbon Project research data (including the Century Model as calibrated for Marin soils), and other tools and data sources as appropriate.

The purpose is to reduce the phosphorus and nitrogen fertilizer applications in various cropping system by using Smart (Variable) Rate Technology.

Develop Best Management Practices and conservation projects that protect the Russian River watershed while retaining the economic viability of agricultural producers. Project will include outreach, data collection, and partnership development.

Implement long-term conservation initiative for multiple bat species in the southwestern United States. Project will use a partnership-based model to implement priority conservation actions.

The Stewardship Index for Specialty Crops (SISC) is a multi-stakeholder initiative to develop a system for measuring sustainable performance throughout the specialty crop supply chain. Renewal funding is requested to continue an unprecedented collaboration amongst the nation’s most influential grower organizations, NGOs and buyers of specialty crop products. The project is making progress toward providing a suite of outcomes-based metrics to enable operators at any point along the supply chain to benchmark, compare, and communicate their own performance in meeting sustainability goals.

Proposes to build on its recently developed avoided conversion of grassland protocol. In partnership with Environmental Defense Fund, the Climate Trust and others, CAR will develop a streamlined approach to lower barriers to entry for landowners – resulting in an initial pilot project generating substantial carbon credits.

The Freshwater Trust (TFT) will use the 2017 Conservation Innovation Grant (CIG) to develop a data-driven system for planning, managing and tracking the implementation of on-farm actions that help growers in California’s Solano County meet multiple water quality and quantity objectives.

The Freshwater Trust_CIG Fact Sheet    - Fact Sheet  

Cotton fields are generally sprayed with a diverse group of insecticides. Impacts on nontarget organisms, as well as soil, air, and water resources, can be significant. Pesticide expenses also represent a significant cost to cotton producers. The purpose of this project is to demonstrate and evaluate the efficacy of installing beneficial insect habitat plantings in and adjacent to cotton fields. Results from initial testing indicate that beneficial plantings, not commonly used by producers, can reduce pesticide applications by over 60%.

Final Report    - Final Report  

The project will accelerate the production of “high benefit” biofuels. “High benefit” biofuels have high net energy production values, large carbon emissions reductions, sustainable methods of feedstock production, and drive substantial rural economic (farm sector) income, investment, and jobs multipliers. This project will use the voluntary buyer market for environmental credits, in an agricultural-sector specific manner, to leverage biofuel production economics, and accelerate the shift from fossil fuels to biofuels. AgRefresh, the applicant, is already employing a parallel strategy to leverage and accelerate farm methane projects through the creation and voluntary market sale of composite environmental credits called Pure Farm Energy™ Shares. Now, AgRefresh proposes to duplicate this business model within the emerging biofuels sector. AgRefresh, via the BAP Project, will monetize the positive benefits of farm-based energy systems in order to maximize the cash flow to farm-owned feedstock and liquid biofuels production projects. The creative use of market-based environmental credits allows private consumer demand to leverage and accelerate feedstock production volumes and liquid biofuel production volumes. This private sector, market-based approach to biofuels is fully complementary to existing Federal and State initiatives. The project has three components. Component one is the development of three environmentally rigorous, peer-reviewed standards. These standards will cover the measurement of impacts, the project specific accounting rules, and the establishment of a registry. The second component is the actual implementation of the project by AgRefresh, including the tracking of quantified results such as: tunes of carbon emissions reductions, biofuel energy volumes, and incomes, investment, and jobs impacts for producers and the associated rural sectors. Project standards and concepts will be shared via the advocacy and education component, the final component.

Increasing the area of frequently inundated floodplains is an important element in state and federal plans to restore endangered species and reduce flood risk in the Central Valley of California. Restoring some 100,000 acres of floodplain habitat is a major focus of these efforts because of the demonstrated benefit for juvenile salmon and the other ecosystem services that floodplains provide, including flood attenuation, nutrient cycling, groundwater recharge, and habitat for other fish species. Collaboration with private landowners is essential to achieving the massive restoration goals of these state and federal plans. Establishment of a market, called the Central Valley Habitat Exchange, will provide a mechanism to compensate growers and ranchers for land stewardship activities that create quantifiable floodplain habitat benefits. The model and practices developed by this Exchange will be broadly applicable to floodplains and agricultural lands across the United States.

Provide outreach activities and new educational materials and technology, demonstrating innovative conservation practices that can be easily adopted by beginning, limited resource and small-farmers in California’s Central Coast region.

The Lava Beds Butte Valley Resource Conservation District will demonstrate and document the agricultural and ecological benefits of incorporating wetlands into commercial crop rotations in the Upper Klamath Basin of Southern Oregon and Northern California. The project involves three private farms totaling 2,282 acres. The focus of the project will be on annual per acre incentive payments to cooperating growers who will match those costs with deferred crop revenues and increased field maintenance costs while they are managed as rotational wetlands.

Keywords: wetlands, Klamath Basin, waterfowl, wildlife

Demonstrate practically and record scientifically the application of locally-produced biochar in an integrated system in diverse Sonoma County agricultural operations: to increase soil water holding capacity, improve soil organic content, create economical renewable energy, and sequester carbon.

Demonstrate the methodology, technology, and cost effectiveness of performing a water balance approach for seepage measurements from liquid dairy manure storage ponds, and to develop and disseminate a technical field manual to facilitate technology transfer nationwide.

Final Report    - Final Report  

Water Balance Methodology Fact Sheet    - Fact Sheet  

Protocols for Measuring Dairy Lagoon Seepage Using the Water Balance Method    - Technical Guide