Winter 2023: Edition 21

The North Coast is hosting our 5th annual Soil Symposium in late 2024. Help us design a successful gathering by making your voice heard on which topics are important to you. Click the link below for a brief survey.

In California, most precipitation occurs in the winter, and in the North Coast region, vineyard managers frequently plant cover crops or allow naturalized vegetation to grow in vine middles (strips between vine rows) during winter months. Vineyard managers choose these plant cover systems based on many factors including cost, convenience, and the potential for competition with vines for water and soil nutrients. These systems also have the potential to change soil health, impacting the soil’s organic matter content, structure, nutrient cycling, water infiltration and storage, and erosion potential. In Boonville, in California’s North Coast vineyard region, a replicated field demonstration compared commonly used plant cover systems (PCS) that differ in tillage requirements and plant cover.

Soil health tests with the greatest sensitivity to plant cover systems after five years were:

• water stable aggregates, showing a trend toward greater water stable aggregates in no-till than tilled plant cover systems, and
• mineralizable carbon, 96 hour rate, with higher rates in tilled than no-till plant cover systems.

The Soil Hub is proud to announce the launch of a new series of stories highlighting efforts of local farmers and ranchers to implement climate-friendly practices across the North Coast region

One of our goals at the Soil Hub is to elevate the efforts of local farmers and ranchers who are experimenting with climate-friendly agriculture to share practical information and knowledge. These stories are meant for fellow farmers and ranchers - we hope you find them useful and inspiring!

The first three stories are centered in Marin and Sonoma counties and we will be building out the series to include stories from across the North Coast region over the next few years.

If you are interested in sharing your story with us and the broader community, please reach out to Emilie Winfield at [email protected] or contact your local Resource Conservation District.

Lake County RCD is hiring an Executive Director

The Lake County Resource Conservation District (RCD) is hiring an Executive Director! This is an exciting opportunity to join the North Coast RCD community and play a part in shaping agriculture and forestry programs in Lake County.