Last week I shared information about the The Gold Ridge Resource Conservation District (RCD). Mostly connected to the Western portion of Sonoma County, I didn’t realize how wide spread this resource conversation effort is… Like, ALL of California, for instance, with 102 districts available.
Let’s find out more
Right after the story was published, Gold Ridge RCD’s Project Coordinator Adriana Stagnaro contacted me. She told me that John Green had shared my blog story Goldridge RCD – Opportunity Waiting to Happen for You, Wine Grape Growers with his agency. Adriana, rightfully so, decided to take it a step further.
From Adriana, of the Gold Ridge RCD’s
We do work very hard to serve the community, with our shared natural resources at the center of our focus.
I wanted to… share some information on the programs we offer specifically to grape growers. It’s good to note that while Gold Ridge RCD serves the western corner of Sonoma County, the majority of the county is served by our sister organization, Sonoma RCD. Both RCDs offer these services, so all grape growers in the county have access to them…
The Sonoma County RCDs offer many programs to vineyards to plan for holistic management, improve their soil’s health, conserve water, increase habitat for wildlife and desirable pollinator species, comply with regulation, and recover from the 2017 fire storm. You can see a consolidated list of services for Sonoma County vineyards here. [Great PDF, by the way.]
We also encourage vineyards to participate in the North Coast Soil Health Hub at www.soilhub.org. In 2017, RCDs from Sonoma, Napa and Mendocino County, NRCS, UCCE and other partners collaborated as the North Coast Soil Health Hub with funding from the CDFA Specialty Crop Block Grant to create an information-sharing network that would support farmers in improving their soil health. The network is currently laying the groundwork for soil health demonstrations, workshops with industry specialists, farmer-to-farmer forum discussions, an online resource library, and more. Farmers are invited to sign up to receive quarterly e-newsletters with regional information on vineyard-focused events, research, and community updates.
After this Email, I went a step further; otherwise I could perhaps risk more areas contacting me. As it turns out, it would have been many.
Natural Resources Conservation Service California
Here we go, boys and girls… YOUR district! “Get cracking” as the nut guys like to say.
- USDA Natural Resource Conservation Services
- State of California Resource Conservation
- Find your area here with the list
Reminder of why you’d be contacting the Resource Conservation District Assistance people:
- Watershed planning and management
- Water conservation
- Water quality protection and enhancement
- Agricultural land conservation
- Soil and water management on non-agricultural lands
- Wildlife habitat enhancement
- Wetland conservation
- Recreational land restoration
- Irrigation management
- Conservation education
- Forest stewardship
- Fuels management
- Urban resource conservation
California is certainly an agricultural state. We’re in what’s called a Mediterranean climate; and, all of agriculture – with viticulture being a subset – contributes to the US’s well being with foods and wines. Everyone in the US is benefiting, when it comes to healthy options on a breakfast, lunch, or dinner table… As the fifth largest economy in the world, California feeds everyone, and we need the best resources to do it.
From the LA Times:
[“2 million jobs and grown its GDP by $700 billion.”]
“California’s economic output is now surpassed only by the total GDP of the United States, China, Japan and Germany. The state has 12% of the U.S. population but contributed 16% of the country’s job growth between 2012 and 2017. Its share of the national economy also grew to 14.2% from 12.8% over that five-year period, according to state economists.”
We take farming seriously in California, and so do our agencies that support all agricultural efforts. Now, if you need help, just make that call. They’re waiting for you.
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