For the past three years, Napa RCD has been working with the California Department of Food and Agriculture’s Healthy Soils Program (HSP) to help local farmers adopt sustainable conservation management practices. The goals of the program are to sequester carbon, reduce emissions, and improve soil health by increasing its organic matter. In turn, healthier soil will be better at holding on to water and nutrients, making the land more productive without the use of synthetic fertilizers.
Soil-building practices such as:
- adding compost
- cover cropping
- reducing tillage
- planting woody vegetation
benefit farmers and make their land more sustainable in the long run. At the same time, they also help protect the environment by increasing the land’s resilience to climate change.
As the program enters its final month this March, we’re reflecting on the progress of many of the sites that participated in the program. Napa RCD has supported 20 projects across Napa County, all focused on regenerative farming techniques. Napa RCD’s role in the program has been to provide technical assistance throughout the process. This includes helping farmers apply for grants, collecting soil samples to track improvements in soil health, and sourcing materials like compost and plants for projects. Our team has worked closely with farmers/land managers to design conservation planting plans, where designs included planting hedgerows and a variety of trees and shrubs on local properties, tailored to the unique needs of each project site.
In total, Napa RCD has worked with a variety of growers throughout the process, many of whom focused on composting practices and hedgerow implementation. These practices aimed to improve soil fertility, prevent erosion, and create wildlife habitats on their property.
Napa RCD will be sharing more on this work, the challenges and the successes, through social media spotlights and articles to showcase what the journey entailed for one of our program participants, Karen Rippey. As the program concludes, the results are clear: these first 3 years were the beginning of a long journey, and the road towards tending to the land with the hopes of it becoming better prepared to handle a changing climate is long and winding, with many lessons learned. Stay tuned to learn more!