August 25, 2017
CapitalPress.com
11
California
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State to hand out nearly $7M in grants for soil health
By TIM HEARDEN
On the Web
Capital Press
SACRAMENTO — The
state is taking applications
for nearly $7 million in grants
to help farmers and ranchers
adopt such soil health practic-
es as composting, cover crops
and reduced tillage.
Applicants have until Sept.
19 to seek $3.75 million in in-
centives or about $3 million
for demonstration projects
from the state Department
of Food and Agriculture’s
Healthy Soils Program.
Under the program, paid
for with cap-and-trade auc-
tion proceeds, projects would
be for three years, with the
third year of costs required as
matching funds.
“We think the Healthy
Soils Program is a great op-
portunity, and it’s something
that the farmers we work with
Online:https://www.cdfa.ca.gov/oefi/healthysoils/ . Applications
must be made through the State Water Resources Control Board’s
Financial Assistance Submittal Tool at https://faast.waterboards.
ca.gov/ .
California Climate and Agriculture Network: http://calclimateag.
org/
Soil Health Partnership: http://www.soilhealthpartnership.org/
Tim Hearden/Capital Press
Chrissy Freeman of the University of California Cooperative
Extension’s master gardeners program discusses the benefits of
composting for healthier soils during a presentation Aug. 12 at the
Nevada County Fair in Grass Valley, Calif. The state is giving out
money to growers for measures to maintain healthy soils, including
composting.
have asked for,” said Jeanne
Merrill, policy director for the
California Climate and Agri-
culture Network, which pro-
motes sustainable agriculture.
“They see the value (of
healthy soils), not only for re-
ducing greenhouse gas emis-
sions but also improving crop
yield and holding more wa-
ter,” Merrill said. “There are
economic benefits as well as
climate benefits.”
The state will provide
competitive grants to projects
that reduce greenhouse gases
and sequester soil carbon. El-
igible activities could include
the use of compost, mulch and
cover crops; reduced tillage;
and planting trees and shrubs
as windbreaks, according to
CalCAN.
The program was pro-
posed by Gov. Jerry Brown
in 2015 but didn’t get its first
funding until late in 2016,
when the Legislature allocat-
ed the money from Califor-
nia’s cap-and-trade auction
revenue.
Brown’s recent signing of
a bill to extend the cap-and-
trade program to 2030 pro-
vided some certainty about
the grants program, which
has captured the attention of
many of the state’s organic
and conventional farmers,
CalCAN officials said.
The grants come as the
Soils Health Partnership, a
farmer-led nationwide initia-
tive, has endorsed a set of 19
soil health measurements that
will help growers determine
the effectiveness of their ac-
tivities.
The group’s “Tier 1” mea-
surements include organic
carbon, soil texture, penetra-
tion resistance, nitrogen lev-
els, base saturation, bulk den-
sity, water-holding capacity
and infiltration rate, according
to the partnership’s website.
“I think it’s something
we’ve known for a long time
— if you increase your soil
organic matter, you’ll not only
help the climate but you’ll
help soil fertility and improve
crop yields,” Merrill said.
Panel to fund several water projects under Proposition 1
By TIM HEARDEN
Capital Press
SACRAMENTO — Now
that applications are in, mem-
bers of a state panel want to
give portions of $2.7 billion in
available water bond funds to
as many projects as possible,
a spokesman said.
The California Water
Commission received 12
applications by the Aug. 14
deadline for funding for stor-
age projects under Proposition
1, the $7.5 billion water bond
passed by voters in 2014.
That’s fewer than the com-
mission had expected earlier
this year, having received 44
separate “concept papers”
from groups considering
seeking funds for everything
from large reservoirs to local
groundwater recharge proj-
ects.
“Originally we thought we
might get upwards of 20 to
25,” panel spokesman Chris
Orrock said. “But as the pro-
cess continued on and we got
more toward the end of the
application period, we saw
that only 12 organizations had
started the process. So two or
three weeks ago we under-
stood that this was going to be
about the number we’d get.”
Some commissioners have
expressed a desire for “fund-
ing as many projects as we
can,” Orrock said, adding that
the number will be determined
when the panel gets through a
technical review next spring.
The commission expects
to make final determinations
in June 2018.
“It’s not a beauty pageant,”
Orrock said. “We’re going to
be looking at the public ben-
efits that projects say they
provide and ensure that the
public benefits are tangible
and able to be realized. Then
we’re going to look at what
the public benefits ratio is to
the overall project.”
Overall, the commission
received nearly $6.8 billion
in requests for projects that
would cost a combined $13.1
billion. The largest request
was for $1.66 billion for Sites
Reservoir west of Maxwell,
Calif., a planned $5.2 billion
project to create as much as
1.8 million acre-feet of off-
stream surface water storage.
The Sites Project Authori-
ty and U.S. Bureau of Recla-
mation are taking comments
through Nov. 13 on environ-
mental documents for the
proposed reservoir, and two
public meetings are sched-
uled to provide more infor-
mation.
Fuel Your Future participants work
in a lab as part of many activities.
Sudents work with Fuel Your Future
participants.
Participants in Fuel Your Future got an upclose view of college life.
Field work was part of the program
for Fuel Your Future participants.
By Gary F. Varrella, Ph.D.,
WSU Associate Professor of Extension Education in 4-H
Youth from military families across the state attended the
camp.
Fuel Your Future, a 4-H/Air Force Youth Camping
Program, is supported by the U.S. Department of
Agriculture; National Institute of Food and Agriculture; 4-
H National Headquarters; U.S. Air Force Child and Youth
Programs; and Washington State University Extension 4-
H Program through grant funding through Kansas State
University.
This camp was named “Fuel your Future!” in reference to
the Fairchild AFB, which is home of the KC-135 Air
Refueling Mission in the Northwest. This program
engaged the campers in hands-on STEM and college
preparedness opportunities at public and private
universities and a local community college. Eastern
Washington University was the program home, with the
military family youth and chaperones staying in the dorms
at EWU, dining in the commons, and enjoying
recreational opportunities in the evenings.
The competitive grant that funded Fuel Your Future was
awarded to the WSU Spokane County 4-H Extension
Program. The 141st Air Wing Air National Guard Family
Readiness Center from Fairchild Air Force Base was the
Spokane 4-H Program’s military partner.
The teens learned about opportunities and requirements to
enter each of the institutions. They met and discussed
college life with former 4-H members attending these
institutions, engaged in hands-on experiences in natural
and physical science, engineering, worked in college
laboratories on all the campuses and participated in an
ornithology study at Turnbull National Wildlife refuge.
The camp enhanced the resiliency of the military youth,
encouraging more informed career choices and the chance
to make new friends through evening sports and games.
Participants engaged in goal setting, team work, and
critical thinking abilities as they collaborated with the
EWU ROTC program faculty and students in challenge
Gonzaga University and the Spokane Falls Community
College hosted educational and informational programs as activities and through seminars.
an important part of the campers’ experiences.
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