Solutions in our Soil
For our water, food systems, and collective health.
Sustainable Conservation works in the soil-water nexus to understand how improving our soils can help California build a more sustainable water supply and protect water quality.
Soil experts know a lot about how soil can store carbon, but less about how soils can benefit our water supply and quality.
Healthier soil benefits the crops that grow out of it, the water that flows through it, and the people that depend on it. We envision a future where our soils can foster biodiverse ecosystems, build sustainable agriculture, strengthen community and environmental health, and increase our drought resilience.
Illustration: On the left, thriving soils hold water and nutrients to prevent nitrate leaching to groundwater. On the right, compacted soils can’t absorb water, and nitrate contaminates our critical drinking water reserves.
Credit: SayoStudio
A conversation with Liz Carlisle
Watch Sustainable Conservation’s Senior Director of Circular Economies Ryan Flaherty in conversation with author, agroecologist and professor Liz Carlisle.
Cover Crops
We built on our 2023 Soil-Water Report with “Cover Cropping in the SGMA Era,” co-authored by researchers and the agricultural support community, to explore the water benefits, policies, information, and resource gaps around cultivating cover crops.
About this reportFoundations for Scaling Up
- Policy and regulations informed by data and field experience
- Grower-friendly guidance based on the best available science
- Support for research to fill the most critical knowledge gaps
Related resources
See updates and media coverage about this project; the list of organizations partnering with us on this work; and reports and publications relevant to soil health.
- San Joaquin Valley Sun
California Water Institute partners with Sustainable Conservation to study on-farm recharge - Ag Alert
Cover crops offer water-holding benefits - Progressive Crop Consultant
Cover Crops, Groundwater and SGMA: A Complex Relationship - Valley Ag Voice
Regenerative Agriculture Offers Long-Term Solutions for Central Valley
- American Farmland Trust
- Braga Fresh Farms
- Burroughs Family Farms
- California Department of Food and Agriculture
- California Department of Water Resources
- California Farm Bureau Federation
- California Natural Resources Conservation Service
- California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo
- California State Water Resources Control Board
- CSU Chico
- CSU Monterey Bay
- CSU Sacramento, Consensus and Collaboration Program
- Driscoll’s
- General Mills
- GrizzlyCorps
- Madera Chowchilla Resource Conservation District
- Monterey County Farm Bureau
- National Center for Appropriate Technology
- Point Blue Conservation Science
- Pollinator partnership
- Project apis m.
- Public Policy Institute of California
- Regional Water Quality Control Boards
- Resource Conservation District of Monterey County
- Stewardship Index for Specialty Crops
- Taylor Farms
- The Nature Conservancy
- UC Berkeley, Environmental Science, Policy, and Management
- UC Berkeley, Goldman School of Public Policy
- UC Davis
- UC Davis, Dept Land, Air, and Water
- UC Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources
- UC Merced
- UC Santa Cruz, Environmental Studies
- University of California Cooperative Extension
- USDA Agricultural Research Service
- Western Growers
- Wilbur Ellis