Happy New Year to you and your family and friends! 2025 was a year full of firsts, lasts, and every milestone in between for the Sustainable Conservation community. Most notably, December marked the last month for longtime CEO Ashley Boren, who has retired after 28 transformative years with the organization.
Ashley’s departure opened a door for the organization to welcome new CEO Dr. Josette Lewis. Thanks to all of you who have expressed your excitement for the organization’s next era of natural resource stewardship with Josette at the helm.
But before we dive headfirst into 2026 and beyond, we want to take a second to celebrate all that you helped us accomplish in 2025!
2025 YEAR IN REVIEW
Thanks to you, we completed the innovative San Joaquin Valley watershed studies to transform regional water management and invested in a community-driven multibenefit recharge project in Fairmead. These public-private partnerships show what communities can do to achieve local water resilience. Your generosity helps us build a bridge toward collective water security in California!
Thanks to you, we’re exploring solutions for our soil health and water quality by piloting our first-of-its-kind manure drip irrigation system on almonds, publishing a grower-oriented guidance document that gives region-specific recommendations on cover crop implementation, and exploring the intersection of cover cropping and groundwater recharge to maximize water and soil benefits. Your support helps us research, test, and scale promising practices that can even lead to regulatory wins like water incentives for farmers.
Thanks to you, the co-developed restoration-specific programmatic permits were used over 150 times across the state, enabling projects like a salmon habitat enhancement project on Mendocino County’s Ten Mile River, a fish barrier removal on San Luis Obispo County’s Arroyo Grande Creek, and salmon habitat and flood control improvements to a half-mile stretch of Siskiyou County’s Scott River.
Thanks to you, we hosted hands-on field trips to connect our community to on-the-ground solutions. In June, we hosted a tour of Marin County’s Lagunitas Creek to see the recent improvements to native fish and stream habitat. In October, over 30 Sustainable Conservation community members embarked on a Climate Resilience Tour to sightsee water security, sustainable agriculture, and riparian restoration projects across the Central Valley. These events are incredible opportunities to pull back the curtain and show you, our supporters, how your investment increases community and ecosystem resilience!
Thanks to you, we hosted two educational webinar series in 2025. The spring series explored how California can strengthen its climate resilience by understanding and acting on our ever-shifting climate realities, improving forest health for lessened wildfire risk, and restoring rivers and floodplains to better protect communities and ecosystems. The recently wrapped fall series, People, Place, and Policy, featured two conversations on community water security and habitat restoration. These webinars would not be possible without your engagement, dedication, and enthusiasm. Thank you!
Thanks to you, we welcomed three new staff members to help us achieve our mission: Chief Financial Officer Tammy Chan, Water for the Future Project Director Wendy Rash, and Soil Health + Water Project Manager Kristen Murphy! We’re also delighted to have two GrizzlyCorps Fellows, Ryan Wakefield and Hayley Willner, who have already made terrific contributions to our water and restoration teams, respectively.
Of course, these highlights are just the very beginning of all that your support enabled in 2025. To learn more about the conferences and field days we participated in or our role in policymaking, visit our blog or newsletter. Thank you for co-creating lasting change for California’s land, air, and water by being part of the Sustainable Conservation community!
From your friends at Sustainable Conservation,
THANK YOU.