Teaming Up For Training
Napa RCD Joins the Farmworker Foundation for Education Programs
Napa RCD has been taking stock of our programs, both internally and in the community, starting with our 2020–2025 Strategic Plan. One of the goals outlined in that Strategic Plan is to develop a shared culture of conservation that includes all of our community members in Napa County.
Sustainable Agriculture Program Manager Miguel García has been on the front lines of this effort. Since joining Napa RCD, Miguel has been expanding our Spanish-language education programming for farmworkers, including presenting on soil health and its connection to sustainable farming practices at a variety of locations, from under a tent in a vineyard to regional conferences.
For the past four years, Napa RCD has been invited to present during the Spanish sessions of the Rootstock conference organized by the Napa Valley Farmworker Foundation. Miguel and Ruby Stahel, Conservation Project Manager, have alternated years in the past and were both invited to speak on different topics during the 2022 Spanish-language track.
Conferences like Rootstock offer a great opportunity for farmworkers to receive information in Spanish, but Miguel would like to see more informal, small group trainings. To this end, Miguel has been working with vineyard management companies to coordinate in-the-field, hands-on trainings for smaller groups of farmworkers, allowing for a more in-depth experience that is easier to translate to daily operations.
What’s happening now?
This spring, Miguel is working with our friends over at the Napa Valley Farmworker Foundation to offer Spanish-language Train-the-Trainer courses, focused in March on Soil Health and Irrigation Assessment. Miguel will be working with small groups of farmworkers, providing Spanish-language training about collecting soil samples and how to assess soil health both in the field and through lab analysis. The group will also be talking about carbon sequestration, the importance of organic matter for soil health, and how to implement sustainable farming practices to adapt to the impacts of climate change.
Building on this new knowledge, the second day will be all about soil properties that affect water movement and retention and the role of soil health in irrigation water management. This focus on irrigation water management will include how to use current technology to determine the ideal irrigation time and amount of water used. And to finish off this two-day workshop, attendees will learn how to perform irrigation system distribution uniformity tests and how to address poor distribution uniformity in their vineyards.
We are very grateful to our friends at the Farmworker Foundation for inviting us into their programming, allowing us to reach a broader audience of farmworkers here in Napa County. We look forward to continuing this partnership, offering a wider range of hands-on trainings as we move forward.
And now for a bit of advertising- the Farmworker Foundation has spots left in their March 16–17, 2023 Train the Trainer Course, lead by Miguel. You can find more information and sign up 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.
