County Awarded Climate Smart Land Management Program Grant

11/16/23

Planning & Development Services (PDS) was recently awarded $1,732,298.16 as part of the California Department of Conservation inaugural Climate Smart Land Management Program (CSLM). The CSLM Program supports local and regional efforts to implement and develop plans that increase climate smart practice on natural and working lands, as well as planning and implementing 30x30 projects that contribute towards the State’s goal of conserving 30% of lands and coastal waters by 2030. These efforts are vital due to the importance natural and working lands offer in the fight against climate change.

The funding will support building capacity within the region to initiate new programs and improve existing programs that align with California’s Natural Working Lands Climate Smart Land Strategy. Examples of climate smart land practices, also referred to as carbon farming practices, include the application of compost, no tilling, and planting cover crops. These efforts will support natural and working lands to sequester and store carbon, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and build resilience to future impacts of climate change.

Department of Conservation

An overview of the planning activities is listed below:

1. Building and Sustaining Capacity: Projects include the development and institution of an agricultural ombudsman that will provide expertise in navigating agricultural needs and resources within the region, the expansion of a Native-owned plant nursery and the development of programming specifically for native youth, streamlining the application process for the County’s Purchase of Agricultural Conservation Easement (PACE) Program, and a mentorship project that will enable beginning farmers and ranchers to benefit from the knowledge of career producers.

2. Natural Working Lands Climate Smart Strategy: Funding will be used to build connections between natural and working lands through the development of a comprehensive regional connectivity plan. Through collaboration with partners, priority agricultural parcels will be identified that, if conservation practices were implemented, would support connectivity between existing conserved areas.

Carbon farming practices

3. Demonstration Projects: Funding will be used to support projects including the County’s CSLM. Soil sampling and implementing carbon farming techniques on a diverse set of pilot sites across the region will help verify and/or modify existing tools and methods. Additionally, CropSWAP (incentivize growers to switch to crops that use less water) will be piloted in San Diego county to demonstrate the benefits of adapting local agricultural systems to climate-smart food production. Funding will also be used to establish a prescribed grazing demonstration site in North San Diego County to monitor and showcase the effects of prescribed grazing on range conditions and soil carbon sequestration.

The grant effort will be led by the County’s Planning & Development Services, in partnership with the three local RCDs: Resource Conservation District of Greater San Diego County, Mission Resource Conservation District, and Upper San Luis Rey Resource Conservation District. Additional collaborators and partners include San Diego State University’s Conservation Ecology Lab to complete mapping efforts and California FarmLink to develop a local agricultural ombudsman position.

Access all the awardees. PDS thanks the Department of Conservation for selecting our application for an award and will continue to provide updates via our newsletter and CAP website as the projects progress.