Projects & Partnerships

The work of the Coalition's farmers and ranchers on the Central Coast is the result of close collaborations with partnership organizations.

Outreach & Education

The Coalition provides a variety of educational opportunities for growers, including:

Watershed Working Group Meetings
Irrigation Efficiency Workshops
Water Quality Workshops
Farm Water Quality Planning Short Courses

In partnership with University of California Cooperative Extension, the National Resource Conservation Service, and Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary

Linkage to Technical Assistance and Funding

Coalition coordinators assist growers with accessing sources of funding and technical assistance for the design and implementation of water quality protection practices including:

Cover Cropping
Irrigation efficiency evaluations

Irrigation Distribution Uniformity
Soil Moisture management

Irrigation efficiency evaluations
Vegetative Management Practices

Cover Cropping
Hedgerows and grassed waterways

Water quality monitoring

Coalition, RCD, NRCS, CAFF, and ALBA partners evaluate one of our conservation cover crop plantings on a hillside avocado orchard. (Photo by Chris Goodson)

Irrigation Efficiency

Distribution uniformity is a matter of how evenly the cups are filled. This concept can be adapted to all types of irritation systems. (Photo from www.turfgrass.com )

Soil Moisture Management

Using soil moisture probes and data loggers, irrigators and foremen are provided with the information they need to improve their water use efficiency. Coupled with weather station data, growers can schedule their irrigations such that they improve crop health while conserving water.

A typical soil moisture tensiometer bank installation at two depths of the crop root zone. (from Publication PNWO475, Washington State University Cooperative Extension)

Vegetative Management Practices

Vegetative Management Practices improve farm runoff quality. These practices include critical area plantings, cover crops, hedgerows, grassed waterways, and treatment wetlands that help reduce nutrient, sediment, and pesticide loads to waterways. Cost sharing, design, and implementation assistance for these practices is available for growers in the Pajaro River, Elkhorn Slough, and Salinas River Watersheds. This works is done in collaboration with Community Alliance with Family Farmers (CAFF) and local Resource Conservation Districts

• Currently funding is available in the Pajaro River, Elkhorn Slough, and Salinas River Watersheds.

Hedgerow of native Californian shrubs

A 17 acre cover crop, grassed access road and water bar

Cover Crops

Cover crops are used as a winter ground cover to protect fallow soils from the erosive power of rains. They usually consist of a mixture of legumes and grasses that are seeded in the fall. These plants help prevent soil nitrate losses from leaching out by "banking" it in their tissue. In this way, cover cropping is a cost-effective practice that helps growers to balance their soil nutrient budgets. Additionally, they increase soil carbon, tilth, and microbial diversity. Contact the Coalition for cover crop information and cost sharing program information.

A cover crop of bell beans, vetch, and barley.

Flail mowing a bell bean cover crop before tilling it under

Tilling under winter cover crops of cereals and legumes.

Young lettuce coexists with a grassed waterway.

Hedgerows

Hedgerows are lines or groups of native trees, shrubs, perennial forbs, and grasses that are planted along field edges, fences, roadways, drainages, and other non-cropped areas. Their primary functions include:

Stabilization of soil and providing ground cover
Improving water quality by reducing sediment, nutrient, and pesticide runoff
Creating wildlife habitat
Providing beneficial insect habitat
Suppressing weeds

Hedgerow Planting: This 1500 foot native plant hedgerow is being planted adjacent to strawberry fields on right and leafy greens on left. Serve as windbreak & soil erosion protection.

This hedgerow is a couple years old.

This is a mature hedgerow (left) comprised of shrubs that are shorter in stature.

Riparian Forests/Buffers

Riparian forests are lines or groups of riparian trees and shrubs that are planted near on-farm creeks, drainage ditches, reservoirs, and other perennial or intermittent streams that:

Stabilize channel banks
Reduce sediment, nutrient, and pesticide loads entering the stream
Create wildlife habitat
Providing beneficial insect and predator habitat

Riparian Forest and Grass Buffer Strip: This is a semi-mature planting. Planted at farm edge and adjacent to riparian corridor (at right). Provides both soil and water quality protection.

Grassed Waterways

Grassed waterways are drainages vegetated with perennial grasses, rushes, sedges, and other water plants that:

Improve water quality by filtering sediment and nutrients from runoff water and Prevent soil erosion while allowing water to drain from the agricultural field.

Before Photo: A typical, bare agricultural ditch known to be very prone to erosion, particularly during winter rains. Sections of the banks were smoothed and seeded.

After Photo: Taken 4 months later. These intermittent plantings help to slow water velocities, stabilize the ditch banks, and filter out nutrients and sediments.

Food Safety & Water Quality Compatibility

The Coalition completed a comprehensive research and implementation program aimed at gaining a better understanding of the compatibility of water quality and food safety protection.

Water Quality & Food Safety Program Fact Sheet

In-field and on-farm research trials were conducted to investigate water quality management practices, including grassed waterways, hedgerows, polyacrylamide, and vegetated treatment systems/wetlands.

Research trials investigated:

The effects of vegetative management practices on nutrient and sediment loads in runoff
The effects of vegetative management practices on the transport of pathogens

This work was implemented in collaboration with a team of experts from University of California Cooperative Extension, University of California Davis, and California State University Monterey Bay. The final report and presentations are linked below:

Young lettuce coexisting with a grassed waterway.

Wildlife coexisting with agriculture: a frog finds a wet spot inside of a rain gauge. Photos by Chris Goodson.

Links to Additional Food Safety Resources

For updates on food safety issues, visit the Western Growers Association website:
http://www.wga.com/

California Department of Food and Agriculture has information on California food safety regulations and links to the latest research:
http://www.cdfa.ca.gov/ahfss/ah/food_safety.htm

The Organic Center offers information on how organic leafy greens growers can deal with food safety issues:
http://www.organic-center.org/

Western Institute for Food Safety & Security in collaboration with the newly formed Center for Produce Safety act as the clearinghouse for produce safety research and plans to fund new scientific studies that investigate food safety risk reduction; more information:
https://wifss.ucdavis.edu/index.php

Resource Conservation District of Monterey County has conducted a literature and grower survey on the conflict between environmental protection and food safety:
http://www.rcdmonterey.org/

Our crew (Arnette Young, University of California Cooperative Extension and Sam Earnshaw, Community Alliance with Family Farmers) planting plugs of perennial native grasses for research trial to investigate the attenuation of sediments, nutrients and pathogens. Photos by Ruthie Schafer.

Michael Cahn, University of California Cooperative Extension, demonstrating how systems such as sediment basins and vegetative waterways function to improve water quality. Photos by Ruthie Schafer.

In the wake of E.coli 0157:H7 outbreaks, increasing pressure has been placed on growers to control the access of wildlife to production systems. Photos by Ruthie Schafer.

Demonstration of furrow dikes at the USDA Spence Research Station

Michael Cahn, Richard Smith (UCCE, left) and growers review impressive runoff water quality data from their furrow cover cropping research.

Photos above were taken by Christopher Goodson.