Project Spotlight: Fox Sparrow Farm

Erin Roscoe and her partner Brennan are the owners & operators of Fox Sparrow Farm, a 12-acre farm in Sonoma County offering humanely raised pigs and lamb for meat, as well as duck eggs. It is important to Erin and Brennan to steward the farm in a way that improves and maintains critical habitat for native flora and fauna. They are proud to be utilizing regenerative, rotational grazing systems in their pastures to build healthy soil and a healthy ecosystem.

Gold Ridge RCD and Point Blue Conservation Science's Students and Teachers Restoring a Watershed (STRAW) are working with Fox Sparrow Farm to increase biodiversity through pollinator and other wildlife habitat on the farm, increase soil health and pasture productivity, reduce erosion and water quality impacts from stormwater flows entering the property, and increase carbon capture and storage in soils and woody vegetation.

In addition to the establishment of native vegetation and pollinator habitat along approximately 1,424 feet of the farm perimeter and within a 500 by 60-foot swale funded through STRAW, Erin received funding through the Healthy Soils Program to apply 30 tons of compost and seed in range plantings on 4 acres of the farm.

Erin shared, "We are honored to be included in the restoration work Gold Ridge RCD and Point Blue’s STRAW program are able to provide to us as land stewards. We are very passionate about California’s incredibly diverse ecosystem and integrating the natural world into our farm’s vision has been essential. Having this additional support and funding has helped to prioritize the health of our farm’s soil, water retention and quality as well as habitat value. Over the last several years of tending to this land, we have already noticed a significant increase in pollinator and bird species. We can’t wait to see what’s to come!”