
Sustainable Conservation 2025 Annual Report
Learn about our collective impact and environmental wins in Sustainable Conservation’s 2025 Annual Report!

Learn about our collective impact and environmental wins in Sustainable Conservation’s 2025 Annual Report!

Across the discussions, a common themed emerged: California’s climate and natural resource challenges are deeply interconnected, and the most effective solutions recognize and strengthen the connections between our watersheds, working lands, communities, and ecosystems.

Join us in giving Sustainable Conservation’s newest staff member, Em Whalen, a warm welcome!

Each year, the California Department of Food and Agriculture hosts Healthy Soils Week to spotlight the state’s sustainable farming efforts and demonstrate how focusing on soil health fosters long-term land stewardship.

On January 29, 2026, the California Natural Resources Agency (CNRA) hosted California’s first Nature-Based Solutions Summit, bringing together a diverse group of leaders to share experiences, offer insights, and discuss next steps. Nature-based solutions are not a side dish; they are the full meal. They are investments in public safety, economic resilience, workforce development, and cultural restoration.

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?

Join us in giving Sustainable Conservation’s newest staff members, Wendy Rash and Kristen Murphy, a warm welcome!

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.

Sustainable Conservation and the Community Alliance with Family Farmers (CAFF), along with UC ANR and other partners, have released a new guidance document — Cover Cropping in California’s Water Scarce Environments — to help growers harness the many benefits of cool-season cover crops while reducing water use. As farmers adapt to a changing water supply, this guide provides practical considerations about cover crop species, timing, and management to reduce runoff, increase infiltration and water retention, and bolster overall soil health.

On January 21st, growers agriculture professionals, and sustainability nuts (pun intended) converged on Burroughs Family Farms for their 4th Annual Regenerative Tree Nut Field Day!

Thank you for your support in 2024! Read what you helped make possible this past year with Sustainable Conservation.