by Bryanna Whitney & Adria Arko of the San Mateo Resource Conservation District
Photo courtesy of the San Mateo RCD.
San Mateo County’s agricultural roots run deep. The very character of this place is defined by its history of ranching, farming, and fishing, as reflected by the many local plans that call for maintaining the region’s agricultural character, conserving coastal farmlands, and supporting the economic viability of local producers.
Our long farming tradition is being supported today by the growing local food movement, which depends upon the healthy water, soil, and farms that are the foundation of a vibrant and thriving agricultural community. The HEAL Project is a part of that movement as it plays an important role in sharing the joys of growing food with the next generation.
The San Mateo Resource Conservation District (RCD) plays a part as well. Our mission is to help people help the land, and we do so in many ways, from monitoring local water quality, to improving habitat for our local wildlife. When someone comes to us and asks for help, we work with them to make a holistic plan that can help their property to be more resilient.
One of the ways that we can do this is by teaching landowners and land stewards about carbon farming.
Carbon farming takes carbon from the air where it’s a harmful greenhouse gas and puts it into plants and soil where it’s helpful. By storing carbon, improving soil health, and reducing erosion, carbon farming can increase agricultural productivity and resilience while also fighting climate change and its ill effects.
The truly remarkable thing is that it does all of this by harnessing the way that plants and soils already work together.
Through photosynthesis, plants remove carbon from the air and store it in their leaves, stems, and roots, which then help enrich the soil. As plants die and decompose, this carbon can either stay in the soil or be released back into the atmosphere. Carbon farming applies centuries-old agricultural solutions to the modern problem of excess carbon. Techniques such as windbreak and streamside plantings, rotational grazing, and manure and tillage management create healthier soils and help store carbon for a long time.
Illustration of how plants sequester carbon in soils and potential for mitigation. Source: Mother Jones.
A carbon farm plan gives landowners recommendations and guidelines that can maximize the land’s capacity to store carbon. Our working lands (such as places where livestock are grazed in a managed way) have an incredible ability to convert carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere into soil carbon that can be stored underground for centuries if managed correctly.
What’s in it for landowners and land stewards?
Besides contributing to a viable climate solution? Healthier soils hold more water and are less susceptible to heat and drought. This reduces irrigation costs and local water demand. Managing plantings, grazing, tillage, and waste to store more carbon and nutrients can increase productivity, as well provide wildlife and pollinator habitats. By preventing erosion, and even catastrophic property loss, these practices also protect a farmer’s most precious asset: their land. Combined, these investments mean a more resilient farm, both now and in the face of future changes.
Jarrad Fisher, Senior Program Manager for the Water for Farms Fish and People program, surveys a property in San Gregorio with a landowner looking for opportunities to conserve and store water for agriculture. Photo courtesy of the San Mateo RCD.
Although agriculture has been singled out as a significant greenhouse gas contributor, the good news is that its climate impacts depend largely on how it is done. Carbon farming is a win-win practice that makes farms a part of the solution to the excess of carbon in the atmosphere, and the abundance of carbon becomes part of the solution to protecting farmland. Through carbon farming, agricultural producers can become climate heroes.
So how do you do it?
Carbon farming begins with understanding a landowner’s vision and their production and economic goals. A resource inventory helps identify ways to protect and enhance both land and water, while also capturing more carbon. A customized and flexible plan is then created to help the landowner respond to both environmental and economic changes as well as opportunities. After the plan has been developed, it’s time to put it into action.
For nearly a century, this is what the San Mateo Resource Conservation District has been teaming up with local farmers and ranchers to do.
Adria Arko, Agriculture & Climate Program Manager for the RCD listens to a landowner while gathering information for a conservation plan on the property in Pescadero. Photo courtesy of the San Mateo RCD.
TomKat Ranch crew and RCD staff participate in a workshop with NRCS Soil Scientist Ken Oster. Photo courtesy of the San Mateo RCD.
In 1939, visionary farmers in San Mateo County formed the first conservation district in California and one of the first in the nation. The Dust Bowl crisis had just destroyed millions of acres of cropland by drought and subsequent soil loss. In response, the USDA established the Soil Conservation Service (later renamed the Natural Resources Conservation Service, or NRCS). Local counterparts were set up across the nation to ensure that local priorities were served. Thus were born conservation districts.
The RCD’s origins in soil protection lie at the foundation of carbon farming. But our long history and deep understanding of the region’s working lands also mean that we know how to provide the on-the-ground support that local landowners need. Our whole-farm approach includes fire management, wildlife habitat, water and soil health, and agricultural production. This comprehensive set of services creates an effective regional solution to global greenhouse gas reduction while supporting local communities, food, and water resources.
Through carbon farming, the Resource Conservation District and local producers are reversing climate change while nourishing the lands and people of San Mateo and beyond.
Cover crop protects a farmer’s soil during carbon farming trials in Half Moon Bay. Photo courtesy of the San Mateo RCD.
You can learn more by visiting the RCD’s Carbon Farming webpage or contacting Adria Arko, Agriculture & Climate Programs Manager at adria@sanmateoRCD.org.