“Sustainable Conservation’s team is hard at work to scale recharge and its multi-benefit opportunities. Recharge allows us to capture water in wet years, store it underground, and make it available in dry years.”
With California’s landmark groundwater regulations coming into effect, pumping groundwater to irrigate agriculture at its current acreage is unsustainable in some regions. Without alternatives, land managers might be left with idling their land as the most affordable option, but this can contribute to dust, pollution, weeds, pests, and other negative impacts for neighboring farms and nearby communities — all while providing no earning potential.
Cover crops are a known practice in California agriculture for reducing water runoff, increasing the amount of water that can infiltrate and stay in the soil, improving biodiversity, limiting groundwater pollution, and supporting better air quality, among other benefits. But under the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA), concerns persist about whether cover crops “count against” growers’ limited water budgets and begs the question, is cover cropping worth the risk?
“There is no miracle prescription that will solve all of California’s climate and natural resource challenges, but a combination of science-backed solutions that can be feasibly scaled across the state is what gives me hope right now.”
Join our donor community for invites to future events like this and to help us advance the collaborative stewardship of California’s land, air, and water for the benefit of nature and people!
On November 5-6, 2025, over 120 water professionals, researchers, farmers, and agency representatives gathered for the Flood-MAR Network’s biennial forum. The energy in the room told a story years in the making: flood-managed aquifer recharge (Flood-MAR) is gaining widespread adoption across California. Mike Antos (Stantec) opened the forum with a quote from Charles F. Brannan,…
Each October 1st, the start of the new Water Year quietly slips by most Californians’ calendars — but not Sustainable Conservation’s Water for the Future Team!
Join us in giving Sustainable Conservation’s newest staff members, Wendy Rash and Kristen Murphy, a warm welcome!
On October 14th, more than 30 Sustainable Conservation community members, donors, Board members, and staff piled into a tour bus for a jam-packed day of sightseeing cutting-edge climate resilience projects throughout the Central Valley.
Join Sustainable Conservation in welcoming its two GrizzlyCorps Fellows for the 2025-26 term, Ryan Wakefield and Hayley Willner!
Read our 2024 annual report to learn what your generosity made possible last year.
What if we could make OFR even better? What if we could enhance water infiltration, reduce nutrient leaching, and improve soil health all at the same time? That’s exactly what we’re exploring through this Specialty Crop Block Grant Program project combining cover cropping with on-farm recharge in California pistachio orchards.