Carbon Management Program

Carbon is the key element in all agricultural and ecosystem productivity, resilience and health. Like the hydrologic cycle, the District has now recognized that co-equally there is the carbon cycle that needs to be understood and managed for ecological and economically beneficial purposes as well. These broad landscape processes within the Central Valley and Sierra Nevada are inseparable and cannot be de-coupled.

Guided by the establishment of a District-wide Carbon Management Program (CMP), the District will develop strategies to meet the long-range objectives described above, by understanding and engaging with the flow of carbon into and through the natural and working lands in the District.

To read more about the program’s action plan, download the complete overview here.

The District will also develop the expertise to implement and utilize analytical and planning tools such as COMET Planner and COMET FARM to assist private landowners in improving the natural resources vital for their farming, ranching and forestry operations.

For instance, soil erosion can be reduced by increasing the soil’s organic matter content, which allows for increased water infiltration rates and groundwater recharge, which in turns improves water yield and quality.

Increased soil organic matter also increases agricultural productivity and resilience, which may reduce the need for off-farm inputs and the likelihood that agricultural lands are converted to urban.

Forests can also be managed through a carbon lens; reducing fuel loads and decreasing wildfire risk reduces the amount of GHG releases to the atmosphere, which in turn affects air quality.

Carbon sequestration in the land base has been recognized as one of the pillars in the California Climate Action Plan and SB859 CDFA’s Healthy Soils Initiative, which could bring resources for the management of the District’s natural and working lands for carbon sequestration.

The District will strive to advance this focus on the carbon cycle as a lens through which to manage natural and working landscapes for the provision of multiple ecosystem services and the health and resilience of the county’s rich rural heritage.