North Coast Soil Hub Receives 2022 Outstanding Conservation Planning Partnership of the Year Award from USDA’s Natural Resource Conservation Service
This month at the 77th Annual California Association of Resource Conservation Districts statewide conference, the North Coast Soil Hub was awarded the 2022 Outstanding Conservation Partnership of the Year from USDA-NRCS California. The North Coast Soil Hub is a regional network dedicated to advancing the adoption of climate-friendly agriculture in California’s North Coast region that is coordinated by a seven-way partnership of Resource Conservation Districts (RCDs) — Gold Ridge RCD, Humboldt RCD, Lake RCD, Marin RCD, Mendocino RCD, Napa County RCD, and Sonoma RCD. In order to meet the demand for knowledge about how to build and maintain healthy soils on working lands, RCDs provide farmers and ranchers with outreach, education, planning, and implementation services through the North Coast Soil Hub.
The Soil Hub network includes farmers and ranchers, technical assistance providers, educators, researchers, industry organizations and associations, and other innovators who collaborate to address region-specific needs and opportunities. Agricultural producers in California face increasing challenges due to climate change impacts and the Soil Hub has stepped up to support the establishment of field trials and regional demonstration sites, facilitate peer-to-peer learning, and create avenues for sharing information and strategies for how to apply soil health principles on agricultural lands.
RCDs in the North Coast region provide one-on-one technical assistance to agricultural producers to help plan and implement climate-friendly management practices. The North Coast Soil Hub has also completed a widespread soil sampling effort in vineyards throughout the region to create a locally calibrated soil health database where growers can get information on how their soil health compares to other vineyards with similar site conditions. This database has been used to create custom soil reports for wine grape growers throughout California’s North Coast.
Through the North Coast Soil Hub, RCDs in the region have forged integral partnerships with USDA-NRCS, UC Cooperative Extension, Santa Rosa Junior College, the Carbon Cycle Institute, grower groups, local county governments, and nonprofits to support more holistic services for farmers and ranchers. The Soil Hub was formed out of the idea that we can create better solutions when we work together and build partnerships to increase agricultural resilience. The Resource Conservation Network is honored to be a part of the North Coast Soil Hub to help agricultural producers in not just Napa, Marin, and Sonoma counties, but also across Humboldt, Lake, and Mendocino counties as well.
Watch the video that NRCS created to honor the North Coast Soil Hub here and check out the North Coast Soil Hub website here.
The Resource Conservation Network gathers and shares the stories and ideas from its partners and colleagues. The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the RCDs managing this publication.
