California Department of Food and Agriculture
Supported by a $565,470 grant from the California Department of Food and Agriculture’s Alternative Manure Management Program, Paul Danbom of Brindeiro & Danbom Dairy Farms in Turlock took a significant step towards improving the efficiency of his dairy operation and installed a new solid separation system. Instead of flushed manure being discharged directly into a settling pond and storage lagoon system, it is now pumped through a separator capable of capturing a large portion of manure solids, keeping that organic material from entering and decomposing in a liquid environment where it would produce methane.
State Coastal Conservancy
Thanks to $488,760 from the Climate Ready Program, the Big Sur Land Trust has taken a big step towards transforming Carr Lake into a new park and greenspace for residents in the heart of the City of Salinas. The community has long imagined transforming Carr Lake into a multi-benefit green space, serving as a “central park” in the heart of Salinas.
California Department of Food and Agriculture
James (Jim) Miller received a State Water Efficiency and Enhancement Program (SWEEP) grant award of $97,614 for improvements at an orange and avocado orchard in Cayucos, California. The farm was dealing with a high energy cost and wanted to utilize irrigation tools to support more precise and efficient irrigation scheduling. Using the SWEEP funds, Jim and his son Daryn oversaw the installation of two solar energy arrays (14.72 kW and 16 kW); one for each of the on-farm wells. In addition, the recipients installed new high efficiency electric pumps with screen filters, a flow meter at each well, soil moisture sensors, and a weather station. With the addition of these tools, the farm made improvements to both the energy efficiency of their irrigation system and can make more informed irrigation decisions by relying on the sensors.
Using a $65,000 grant awarded under the Coastal Resilience Planning program, the City of Morro Bay engaged with its community to update the City’s Land Use Plan, the first step to updating its Local Coastal Program to include updated adaptation strategies and land use policies that will protect coastal infrastructure and provide resilience to future coastal hazards.
People’s Self-Help Housing was awarded over $630,000 from the Low-Income Weatherization Program’s Multi‑Family Energy Efficiency and Renewables program to invest in the health and well-being of its low-income farmworker community in Santa Maria, known as Los Adobes de Maria. The homes of the 65 farmworker families living in Los Adobes de Maria will receive energy efficiency upgrades that will reduce energy consumption and lower their bills.
In 2021, the Santa Barbara County Association of Governments completed the Cool Blocks Try Transit project, a neighborhood outreach and capacity building campaign supported by a $25,000 grant from the Low Carbon Transit Operations Program and in partnership with the Empowerment Institute’s Cool Blocks program. This project brought the participating 25-block neighborhood of Isla Vista together over a series of workshops to learn about and consider climate change mitigation and resilience measures they could adopt as individuals and as a community, which included using public transit. The project inspired the community to act, which in part led to their successful application to the Sustainable Transportation Equity Project, another California Climate Investments program.
The North Campus Open Space (NCOS) project is restoring 54 acres of diverse coastal wetlands and upland habitat of native plants and grassland in Santa Barbara County. This restoration will increase Santa Barbara County’s coastal wetlands by 11 percent, which in turn will help adapt the coastal community to sea level rise by protecting inland infrastructure.
The Blue Carbon at Elkhorn Slough Project is restoring 66 acres of rare salt marsh habitat and native plants while buffering the surrounding areas against future sea level rise. The Tidal Wetland Program at the Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve guided the project with input from more than 100 local partners, scientists, regulators, and community members.
Netafim Irrigation, Inc. received a total of $2,011,647 from California Climate Investment through the Recycled Fiber, Plastic, and Glass Grant Program. This money supports its operations as a closed‑loop recycling solution for used irrigation tubing that serves commercial farming operations in the Central Coast region of California. Netafim’s grant is expanding an established and successful recycling operation. As a result of this expansion in Netafim’s operations, the project is estimated to divert 83,059 tons of material from landfills and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 66,447 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent.
In light of critical dangers to the city of Santa Cruz’s roughly 4.6 miles of coastline posed by climate change, the city is using a $200,000 grant from California Climate Investments through the Coastal Resilience LCP Planning Grant Program to develop strategies and policies intended to protect public beach access, prevent community displacement, and build resiliency against future coastal hazards.
In the fifth round of its Sustainable Agricultural Lands Conservation program, the California Strategic Growth Council approved a $1,550,000 grant from California Climate Investments to the Land Trust of Santa Barbara County to purchase an easement that will permanently protect the 999‑acre Jalama Cañon Ranch. This year, with support from the California Department of Conservation and in partnership with the White Buffalo Land Trust, the Land Trust of Santa Barbara County focused on laying the groundwork for the agricultural easement so it can protect these agricultural and natural lands from conversion to more greenhouse gas‑intensive uses.
Oya Organic Farms, an organic vegetable farm in Hollister, received a $76,446 grant from California Climate Investments through the Renewable Energy for Agriculture Program that, together with a 76 percent match from the farm, will finance the installation of solar panels to power an irrigation pump and storage/office building. Their new 27‑kilowatt solar system allows the farm to use zero‑emission electricity for their domestic well and re‑invest energy savings towards the farm. Furthermore, a standalone 6.4‑kilowatt solar system coupled with battery storage will power the off‑grid produce storage room and office on the farm.
Supported by nearly $2.6 million from California Climate Investments, the California Environmental Protection Agency is working with University of California researchers to carry out two studies that will help California reach its goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2045. In particular, these studies will examine ways to reduce emissions from the transportation sector, the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in California. The studies will also quantify air pollution and economic impacts for multiple greenhouse gas emissions reduction scenarios.
