Final report for WPDP22-003
Project Information
Regenerative agriculture (RA) is increasingly recognized as a necessary tool for mitigating and adapting to climate change. Multiple international, federal, state, and local efforts acknowledge the need to scale RA for its climate benefits to build a more resilient food system. For many farmers and ranchers, transitioning to RA will require evaluating their property and management practices in a new way. Agricultural producers need access to trusted, reliable, and relevant technical assistance to make this transition. In California, Resource Conservation Districts (RCDs) and the US Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) are widely respected and trusted by producers to offer high-quality technical assistance and funding services to support farmers and ranchers adopting conservation practices. As a result, these entities are well poised to provide RA technical assistance.
NRCS and many RCDs develop conservation plans with producers to evaluate, plan and develop a path towards implementing agricultural conservation practices. These property-scale plans, which integrate natural resource protection with agricultural production. This already established conservation planning process offers a significant opportunity to scale the adoption of RA.
This project aims to ensure that agricultural producers from across California have access to skilled and knowledgeable technical assistance providers to help them incorporate regenerative agricultural principles into their operations. This project will increase RA competency amongst RCD and NRCS professionals across California through 1) a Conservation Planning for Regenerative Agriculture course for 40 staff at TomKat Ranch, 2) a "Technical Assistance for Regenerative Agriculture" webinar for 50 staff, and 3) RA educational material disseminated to at least 200 NRCS and RCD staff. As a result of this project, farmers and ranchers will have greater technical support available as RA scales across the state.
This project aims to ensure that agricultural producers from across California have access to skilled and knowledgeable technical assistance providers to help them incorporate regenerative agriculture into their operations. This project will increase regenerative agricultural competency amongst CARCD and NRCS professionals by 1) building a new cohort of conservation planners who are knowledgeable about regenerative agriculture through a Conservation Planning for Regenerative Agriculture course, and 2) increasing the number of RCD and NRCS professionals’ understanding of regenerative agriculture principles and practices through a webinar and the development of educational products focused on RA for technical assistance providers.
The objectives of this project are:
Objective 1: NRCS will have a curriculum for a Conservation Planning for Regenerative Agriculture course which will increase the number of RA knowledgeable technical assistance providers.
Objective 2: 40 RCD and NRCS employees from across California will have an increased ability to help agricultural producers adopt regenerative practices through their participation in the Conservation Planning for Regenerative Agriculture training led by NRCS, TKREF, and SMRCD.
Objective 3: RCD and NRCS employees from across California will have an increased understanding of regenerative agriculture through at least one educational product developed and disseminated to 200+ NRCS and RCD employees and through a webinar reaching 50+ NRCS and RCD employees.
Objective 4: Reduce the barrier of RCDs participating in conservation planner courses by increasing access and reducing financial burdens with stipends to 25 RCDs to participate in the Conservation Planning for Regenerative Agriculture course, increasing RCD conservation planners and organizational capacity statewide.
The two training opportunities and educational materials developed through this project will result in an TA providers that are more knowledgeable and skilled about RA. This project provides a range of learning opportunities (in person, online, educational materials) to engage TA providers about RA principles.
The primary inputs for this project are human (staff time and partnerships) and financial. Staff time is primarily SMRCD's for project management, planning, outreach, and hosting of the two trainings, development of educational products, and project evaluation. SMRCD’s time on Tasks 1-2 (below) will be supplemented by in-kind staff time of NRCS and TKREF to plan and execute the trainings, develop a handout, and assist with outreach, and CCI, who will assist with the curriculum development for the CP for RA training. Human resources also includes the time of participating RCD and NRCS employees engaging with this project. Financial inputs include funding for stipends, lunches, training supplies, and mileage. Physical resources include the use of TomKat Ranch facilities, training materials, and AV equipment.
RCD and NRCS employees are the primary audience for this project. The primary mechanism for outreach for the trainings and dissemination of educational material will be staff listservs, operated by California Association of Resource Conservation Districts (CARCD) and NRCS, reaching over 200 employees.
Since space and lodging at TKREF are limited (40 trainees max), prospective trainees will submit an application that will consider the following: need for conservation planners, geographic location, number of producers they anticipate being able to serve, need of stipend, and ability to serve socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers. SMRCD, CARCD, NRCS, and TKREF will evaluate the applications.
The tasks and timeline for this project are:
Task 1: Conservation Planning for Regenerative Agriculture training
- Curriculum development- Oct’22-Jan’23
- Planning, application and evaluation development- Nov’22-Feb’23
- Outreach, accept and evaluate applications- Mar-Apr’23
- Training at TomKat Ranch- Sept’23
- Curriculum revision- Dec’23-Jan’24
Task 2: Technical Assistance for Regenerative Agriculture Webinar and Educational Products
- Assess existing RA educational resources- Oct’22-Jan’23
- Develop 1+ handout and post with other RA educational resources on TKREF website- Feb-July’23
- Plan webinar- June-Aug’23
- Outreach about educational resources and webinar- Aug’23
- Host webinar- Sept’23
Task 3: Evaluation
- CP for RA trainees and webinar participants take WSARE survey- Sept’23
- Develop draft report on survey results- Nov’23
- Post-mortem discussion- Dec’23
- Final evaluation report-Feb’23
Task 4: Administration
- Contract execution-Sept’23
- Invoices and progress reports - Quarterly
- Final report- Feb’23
Cooperators
Education
This project integrated the NRCS Conservation Planner training with regenerative agriculture training curricula to teach California Resource Conservation District and Natural Resource Conservation Service employees how to better assist regenerative agricultural practitioners and to help other producers how to adopt regenerative agricultural practices.
Education & Outreach Initiatives
NRCS will have a curriculum for a Conservation Planning for Regenerative Agriculture course which will increase the number of RA knowledgeable technical assistance providers.
As a result of this curriculum development, and the overwhelmingly positive feedback from the training, NRCS has begun to look at ways to incorporate more similar trainings for RCD partners throughout the state, and are intending to begin funding this work more broadly.
40 RCD and NRCS employees from across California will have an increased ability to help agricultural producers adopt regenerative practices through their participation in the Conservation Planning for Regenerative Agriculture training led by NRCS, TKREF, and SMRCD.
This pilot Conservation Planning and Regenerative Agriculture course for Technical Assistance providers was held at TomKat ranch from October 16-19th, 2023. 40 TA providers were in attendance, including 29 from RCDs throughout California, 9 from NRCS, 1 from CSU Chico, 1 from Point Blue Conservation Science (PBCS), and 1 from Carbon Cycle Institute (CCI). Presentations were given by 19 conservation professionals from the San Mateo RCD, NRCS, TomKat Ranch, PBCS, and CCI.
Participants were asked to complete the WSARE Survey Form on the final day of the training. 38 out of 39 respondents said that they would use some aspect of this project in the next year. It is estimated that respondents will share some aspect of what they learned with 1070+ people in the next 12 months.
In addition, participants were asked to respond to a survey developed by the project team about the learning and action outcomes that came from this training. 17 out of 40 participants responded to the survey. The results were overwhelmingly positive and showed that on average, participants were very satisfied with their experience. Graphics of some survey question responses can be seen here: Participant Survey Results_graphs
When asked what some of their goals/expectations were for this training and if they were met, some responses included:
"I wanted to make more connections with professionals working for the NRCS and RCDS and this training exceeded my expectations. I met so many wonderful people that I can now connect with should I need advice or creative ideas for my projects."
"My goals going in were to develop a foundation for regenerative ag planning. I feel like a got a good, broad introduction to a lot of interesting and relevant topic."
"I am new to conservation planning and programs, so I did not know what to expect. The training was diverse, technical, and engaging. I hope this event can be repeated, and I would recommend it to anyone."
RCD and NRCS employees from across California will have an increased understanding of regenerative agriculture through at least one educational product developed and disseminated to 200+ NRCS and RCD employees and through a webinar reaching 50+ NRCS and RCD employees.
A Conservation Planning and Regenerative Agriculture webinar --WSARE Webinar Final Slides_1.24.24 --was hosted on January 24, 2024, which received 132 registrations, and was attended by 75+ people from RCDs, NRCS, other conservation-related organizations or individuals. The webinar agenda included the following topics:
- RCDs and Regenerative Agriculture - SMRCD
- NRCS 9 Steps to Conservation Planning- NRCS
- Steps 1-4: The Role of a Land Doctor – Point Blue
- Steps 5-8: Making & Implementing Decisions in Complex Environments – TomKat Ranch
- Step 9+: Assessing the Status of Regenerative Outcomes- Point Blue
- Overview of Available Resources- NRCS
Additionally, an educational resource was developed in partnership with TomKat ranch. The resource is a flashcard/cheatsheetr with the tenets of Regenerative Agriculture and Adaptive Management defined. This was disseminated to 200+ RCD and NRCS individuals via the October training, the CARCD annual conference, and the webinar.
As a result of this curriculum development, and the overwhelmingly positive feedback from the training & webinar, NRCS has begun to look at ways to incorporate more similar trainings for RCD partners throughout the state and are intending to begin funding this work more broadly.
Reduce the barrier of RCDs participating in conservation planner courses by increasing access and reducing financial burdens with stipends to 25 RCDs to participate in the Conservation Planning for Regenerative Agriculture course, increasing RCD conservation planners and organizational capacity statewide.
Of the 29 RCD participants in the training, 25 were awarded $2600 stipends to pay for costs including meals, travel, and to compensate for their staff time to attend the event. Without these funds, many of the RCD participants expressed that they would not otherwise have had funding or have been able to attend the 4-day event.
This initiative showcased the need for funding RCD staff time and expenses to attend trainings, and was met with overwhelming gratitude from those who would not have otherwise participated. Additionally, we shared about this initiative at a conference for California RCDs with over 60 people in attendance, helping to broaden the impact of this initiative.
Educational & Outreach Activities
Participation Summary:
Learning Outcomes
Project Outcomes
As a result of the Training program and Webinar produced through this grant, the project team was approached to present at two additional venues-- the California Association of RCD Annual Conference, as well as the California Coalition of Land Trusts Annual Meeting. Through these sessions, an additional 120 people were introduced to the curricula as well as the need for more training opportunities for NRCS and RCD TA providers in the subjects of Conservation Planning and Regenerative Agriculture.
As a result of those subsequent presentations, the SMRCD was approached by key state Conservation Planners (NRCS) and are currently in discussions about how to create more institutionalized versions of this training and broaden access.