John Chacon / California Department of Water Resources
Sustainable Conservation recognizes that healthy soil is foundational to the state’s water system, agricultural production, and human health.
Agriculture is the backbone of our state’s rural communities, food supply, and economy. However, California’s farming future and our collective health hinge on how we steward our precious water and healthy soil resources amidst rapidly changing environmental and regulatory conditions.
Farming practices like cover cropping, compost application, and low-impact tillage can enhance soil’s ability to capture and store water, retain nutrients, and maintain or even increase organic matter. This organic matter supports an active and biologically diverse microbial environment, helps store carbon, and protects our groundwater quality.
Meet the Team
We launched our Solutions in our Soil program to bring together researchers, growers, industry groups, and non-profit organizations to jointly conserve our state’s soil and water resources. While we know a lot about the carbon sequestration potential of our soils, our team is investigating the soil-water nexus in California’s unique climate and cropping systems.
Sustainable Conservation’s SioS team, L to R: Modibo Keita, Elliot Grant, Sarah Castle, Ryan Flaherty, and Sam Williams at our 2023 program launch party in San Francisco, CA.
Publications
We first spoke to California growers to understand the challenges around adopting practices that boost soil health, and conducted a comprehensive literature review to identify what’s known, and where we have research gaps and opportunities. In our subsequent report, “Collaborative Solutions for California’s Climate-Resilient Agriculture: Harnessing the Water-Related Benefits of Soil,” we identified six key barriers to soil health practice adoption, and recommended ways to address each.
From there, we convened a multi-disciplinary authorship group to publish a report, “Cover Cropping in the SGMA Era,” comprised of literature review, policy analysis, and recommendations pertaining to the water impacts of cover crop practices in California’s Central Valley under the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA).
Print & Video Resources
Read our newsletter digging into the soil-water nexus, and learn how soils are key to everything we do at Sustainable Conservation
As we build a more climate-resilient California, it’s important we look at the solutions living beneath our feet. Healthy soils lay the groundwork for sustainable agriculture, thriving ecosystems, and resilient communities. Stream our discussion, “Climate Resilience Through Regeneration,” with Amy Siliznoff with Madera/Chowchilla Resource Conservation District and Karen Lowell from the NRCS!
A presentation sharing the contents of the Cover Cropping in the SGMA Era report, including key findings and takeaways
Special thanks to CDFA, CARCD, NRCS, and UCANR – among many, many others – for your partnership in this work to leverage healthy soils for the environmental and economic resilience of our state.
