California projects earn conservation grant funding Four projects in California, plus one straddling the Oregon-California border, have received funding through a federal program that provides grants to conserve water and soil, improve wildlife habitat and enhance climate resilience.
• The Rebuild NorthBay Foundation of Sonoma and 14 partners will work to reduce fuel loads, improve forest and rangeland health, prevent soil erosion and helpwildfire-damaged areas recover. The project will encourage participation by landowners and producers in seven Northern California counties: Colusa, Lake, Mendocino, Napa, Solano, Sonoma andYolo. Partner contributions fromlocal resource conservation districts will pro- vide technical assistance to landowners. • The Siskiyou Land Trust of Mount Shasta will use RCPP conservation ease- ments to address drought impacts of
climate change on water quality and en- dangered coho salmon habitat in trib- utary watersheds of the Klamath and Sacramento rivers. The project will at- tempt to improve habitat conditions for salmonwhileprotectingworking ranches in the region. • The California State University sys- tem will support the California Healthy Soils Initiative to help orchard/vineyard, rangeland, dairy and row crop produc- ers implement Soil Health Management Systems. NRCS said the project will use contributions from13partners to improve soil function, water infiltration and avail- Fisher saidhe is looking throughout the Pajaro Valley for sites that have plentiful runoff during storms and soil structure thatmakes for recharge. “We think intermediate-sized projects offer the best opportunity for economic collection of stormwater leading toman- agedrecharge,”hesaid. “Ourgoal is tohave many projects that add up to 1,000 acre- feet of recharge.” The recharge projects have the added benefitof improvingwaterquality,because the additionof cleanwater reduces nitrate concentrations intheundergroundaquifer. “Recharge benefits water quality,” Lockwood said. “Whenwe can’t recharge, we see nitrate levels spike.”
ability, and protect biodiverse habitats in Northern California agricultural ecosys- tems. Organizers said theprojectwill inte- grate carbon farmplanning activities and report on economic and social outcomes, in addition to conservation outcomes. In the Klamath Basin on the Oregon- California border, Ducks Unlimited will leadaproject toprovide temporaryhabitat for migrating waterbirds. Under the proj- ect, Ducks Unlimited proposes to offer financial assistance to farmers in Oregon and parts of Northern California to im- plement three- to five-year conservation projects to benefit habitat. The next step in the Recharge Initiative will be to find economical ways to further reduce nitrates by treating the runoff wa- ter before it travels down to the under- ground aquifer. “We are looking at running the water through carbon-rich amendments in the recharge area, like almond shells, wood chips, biochar or rice hulls,” Fisher said. “Oneof the thingswehavebeenworking onisimprovingwaterqualityasit isrecharg- ing,” he said. “Managed aquifer recharge with stormwater can benefit groundwater resources; it canalsobenefitwaterquality.” ( Bo b J o hn s o n i s a r e p o r t e r i n Sacramento. He may be contacted at bjohn11135@gmail.com.)
The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced last week it would sup- port the programs through its Regional Conservation Partnership Program, ad- ministeredby theUSDANaturalResources Conservation Service. ThroughRCPP, organizationsandagen- cies help farmers, ranchers and forest landowners implement a variety of con- servationprojects. Participatingorganiza- tions andagenciesoffermatching funds to undertake the projects. The four California-based projects include: • The Mission Resource Conservation District, based in Fallbrook, will work with seven partners to offer technical and financial assistance to farmers to improve soil health, irrigation water use efficiency and address soil erosion to enhance water quality. NRCS said the project builds on a prior RCPP project “and will continue to help producers increase the climate resiliency of their operations.” The project willmodel water quality and soil health, andmeasure wa- ter availability outcomes. Partner contri- butions from six San Diego-area water utilities will complement RCPP funding and be used to provide technical assis- tance to farmers.
Pajaro Continued from Page 23
that comes during high-intensity storms. “More rain is falling during intense storms, and we don’t capture as much,” he said. “Weare trying tomapwhereman- aged rechargemight be possible.” Fisher is a co-founder of the Recharge Initiative,whichwill reimburse farmers for the value of runoff water that is captured and diverted to ground where it will seep down and recharge the aquifer. One of the recharge projects already set up is at the Bokaria-Drobac Ranch, which has a goal of putting 100 acre-feet of water a year back into theaquifer during storms. Another recharge project started in 2019 at the 1,300-acre Kelly-ThompsonRanch.
CALIFORNIA IRRIGATION MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM CIMIS REPORT | www.cimis.water.ca.gov
For the week April 29 - May 5, 2021 ETO (INCHES/WEEK)
YEAR
3.0
THIS YEAR
2.5
LAST YEAR AVERAGE YEAR
2.0
1.5
1.0
0.5
0.0
MACDOEL II (236)
BIGGS (244)
DAVIS (06)
MANTECA (70)
FRESNO (80)
SALINAS-SOUTH (214)
FIVE POINTS (2)
SHAFTER (5)
TEMECULA (62)
IMPERIAL (87)
THIS YEAR LAST YEAR AVG. YEAR % FROM AVG.
1.47 1.35 1.31 12
1.78 1.50 1.50 18
2.10 2.03 1.72 22
1.89 1.71 1.54 22
1.80 1.73 1.43 27
1.98 1.60 1.57 27
1.83 1.91 1.51 20
1.51 1.60 1.18 30
1.33 1.20 1.26 7
2.19 1.96 1.96 14
W eekly reference evapotranspiration (ETo) is the rate of water use (evapotranspiration—the sum of soil evaporation and crop transpiration) for healthy pasture grass. Multiplying ETo by the appropriate “crop coefficient” gives estimates of the ET for other crops. For example, assume ETo on June 15 is 0.267 inches and the crop coefficient for corn on that day is 1.1. Multiplying ETo by the coefficient (0.26 inches x 1.1) results in a corn ET of 0.29 inches. This
information is useful in determining the amount and timing of irriga- tion water. Contact Richard Snyder, UC Davis, for information on coefficients, 530-752-4628. The 10 graphs provide weekly ETo rates for selected areas for average year, last year and this year. The ETo information is provided by the California Irrigation Management Information System (CIMIS) of the California Department of Water Resources.
For information contact the DWR district office or DWR state headquarters:
SACRAMENTO HEADQUARTERS: 916-651-9679 • 916-651-7218
NORTHERN REGION: Red Bluff 530-529-7301
NORTH CENTRAL REGION: West Sacramento 916-376-9630
SOUTH CENTRAL REGION:
SOUTHERN REGION:
Fresno 559-230-3334
Glendale 818-500-1645 x247 or x243
24 Ag Alert May 12, 2021
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