In July of 2023 we announced that Yolo Land Trust (YLT) was awarded a $10,000 grant from American Farmland Trust (AFT) to participate in AFT’S Soil Health Stewards Program. Read the news article to learn more.
January 2023 – AFT’s Soil Health Stewards Program is an ambitious national effort to engage and support agricultural land protection practitioners in promoting soil health practices with the farmers, ranchers, and others who own and manage permanently protected agricultural land—and on the agricultural land their agency or organization itself owns.
AFT’s Soil Health Stewards Program, in partnership with United States Department of Agriculture – Natural Resources Conservation Service (USDA-NRCS), is focusing on basic strategies such as cover cropping, compost applications, mulching, no-till or reduced tillage, native hedgerows or windbreaks, nutrient management and irrigation management that conservation farms could adopt. USDA-NRCS finds that adopting these strategies for increased soil health can result in increased soil organic matter, a higher diversity of soil organisms, reduced soil compaction, increased capacity to absorb and hold water and a more efficient cycling of nutrients for your crops.
YLT has put together a robust outreach plan for conservation easement landowners to provide information on Soil Health Practices and connect them with funding opportunities to improve soil health on their working agricultural lands. The plan’s primary objectives are to educate, engage, and evaluate soil health practice implementation on conservation easement lands.
After completing AFT’s Soil Health Steward Program Training, YLT staff have learned about the economic and environmental benefits of soil health practices while building skills to support farmers, ranchers, and landowners in adopting these practices. Additionally, the training provided a review of the basic challenges farmers experience with soil health practice adoption and tools for helping farmers successfully implement soil health practices such as connecting with technical advisors, cost-share programs, and other resources.
Over the next three months, YLT will be contacting landowners on conservation easement lands to share information on how to effectively keep farmland soil at its healthiest – both sustainable and productive. After conducting this educational outreach, YLT will follow-up with a brief survey to get an understanding of which USDA-NRCS practices related to soil health landowners have employed in the past, as well as learn which practices landowners might want to employ in the future. This survey will be mailed to landowners and also accessible online via an emailed link. Finally, YLT will partner with landowners interested in utilizing Healthy Soil practices on their farm, and assist in connecting them with training and grant funding opportunities.
Healthy soils can improve both on-farm productivity and environmental health by preventing the loss of soil and nutrients to our waterways, protecting water quality and water quantity, and restoring soil biology and function. We recognize our conservation easement landowners’ role as stewards of the prime farmland that provides valuable resources for our global community. Thank you to all conservation easement landowners for their time and interest, we look forward to their feedback on stewarding one of the most valuable assets on Yolo County’s agricultural land – the soil.
RESOURCES
NRCS Soil Health Basics and Benefits – Defines soil health and summarizes the benefits farmers can expect from implementing Soil Health Practices.
NRCS Soil Health Checklist for Growers – Use the checklist to determine if you’re using some or all of the core Soil Health Practices.
AFT’s Soil Health Basics webinar – The purpose of this session is to introduce the meaning and broad benefits of “soil health,” and to explore how soil health relates to regenerative agriculture, climate resiliency, and other environmental benefits. Also reviewed are the four soil health management systems principles, what conservation practices improve soil health, and what some of the barriers to adoption are that farmers face.
USDA Soil Health – Principles to improve soil and soil health practices for working lands. Offers short case study informational videos on each soil health practice.
CDFA Grant Programs for Farmers – Information about CDFA grants that are available for farmers and ranchers throughout California.
