Gratitude.

Happy new year to you and your family and friends! Thank you for being part of the Sustainable Conservation community. Our climate resilience matters now more than ever, and we’re grateful for your generosity and steadfast support as we chart a course for a more sustainable water future.

We are all connected by water: people, plants, birds, fish, insects, and even the soil beneath our feet. We need water to sustain our habitats and ourselves, and how we manage the water we have now and plan for our water future matters. We must balance all our needs for everyone’s benefit.

In an increasingly polarized and isolating public sphere, we’re pausing to reflect and be thankful that we’re here, working together to craft lasting solutions to our most pressing environmental problems.

2022 IN REVIEW

Thanks to you, we hosted another successful educational public webinar series. Many of you connected with us to learn how we’re meeting our climate challenges in California, and how restoration is one of our our paths to resilience. Thanks also to our generous 2022 webinar series sponsors Environmental Science Associates, The Foster, Holland & Knight, Iron Horse Vineyards, and Spottswoode Estate Vineyard and Winery for supporting our online gatherings.

Thanks to you, we expanded our California Conservationist community. Your generous, increased support helped meet our Emmett Family Foundation and dual end-of-year matching gift challenges, and deliver exclusive membership benefits all year. We loved seeing your faces at our Meet the Expert events!

Thanks to you, we capitalized on our watershed moment after a decade of groundwater recharge work to chart a path for our joint effort to expand our Merced River Watershed study to four additional watersheds in the San Joaquin Valley. Your support helped us transform our partnerships and vision for a sustainable California water future, and we’re excited to share our progress in 2023.

Thanks to you, we convened experts to understand what we know about soil health, and what we need to learn together to move this important work forward. We celebrated more recognition for our award-winning subsurface drip irrigation program, and learned more about how intersecting policies will inform and shape our water work, and the opportunities that follow.

Thanks to you, we celebrated dual milestones in our award-winning Accelerating Restoration program. We worked with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the State Water Resources Control Board on large and small aquatic habitat restoration projects for all of California. The power of these permits is enormous, and we look forward to continuing this vital work with more partnerships, comprehensive outreach for restoration proponents, and systemic change to restore our state.

Thanks to you, we honored Beretta Family Dairy this year with the Leopold Conservation Award, and celebrated two amazing finalists in their efforts to leave the land better than they found it for future generations.

And, thanks to you, we were able welcome new team members to Sustainable Conservation and share your stories! You shared your environmental journeys with our community and illuminated why Sustainable Conservation’s values align with your own. You are all are a beautiful reminder of our individual and collective power to be environmental champions.

Because of you, we kept working to safeguard California’s most precious natural resources for all.

THANK YOU.