Carbon Cycle Institute

Programs: The carbon cycle institute (cci) made significant strides towards advancing its mission and goals for 2017. 1) cci convened several trainings in 2017 for staff of resource conservation districts (rcds), natural resource conservation service (nrcs) and other farmland managers. Cci developed and convened a curriculum and training for 30 participants in april 2017 at swanton ranch, cal state university. 2) in early 2017, we brought together our statewide partners into a more formal network to share on-farm innovations, such as data collection and monitoring techniques, and advocate for local and state investments in carbon farming. 3) cci staff worked closely with marin carbon project's implementation task force to develop carbon farms plans (cfps) for five new ranches and farm in the county, including the training of two mcp member staff and two consultants. 4) cci worked with alameda rcd to develop a successful $300,000 proposal to the usepa that will enable them to develop a regional carbon farm program and develop carbon farm plans (cfps) for 6-8 ranches in eastern alameda county. Additionally, cci finalized an mou with contra costa rcd to develop carbon farm plans for a prominent organic vegetable producer and a ranch in contra costa county in 2018. 5) cci provided technical support and co-developed carbon farming templates and guidance for mendocino (forest management template), napa (vineyard template), and sonoma (orchard template) rcds; these rcds are on-track to finish at least 20 new carbon farm plans by year- end. The templates developed will also be shared with rcds in over 20 counties throughout california, to enable them to initiate carbon farming in their regions. In the south bay, cci worked directly with the san mateo rcd to develop a carbon farm demonstration ranch at tomkat ranch, owned by tom steyer. Lastly, cci worked in partnership with the solano land trust to establish carbon farm research plots on rush ranch to demonstrate the groundwater, water quality and habitat benefits of carbon farming practices in their watershed. 6) cci partnered with fibershed to develop a comprehensive carbon farm plan (cfp) for the bare ranch in modoc county (the largest wool producer in ca). This cfp has created the documentation and quantification to validate the wool produced at bare ranch as climate- beneficial (the wool is a net sink for carbon and greenhouse gases). As a result, bare ranch was able to secure a long-term contract with a major retailer for the purchase of their wool (at a significant premium) that, in turn, will be used to produce a new line of climate-beneficial wool garments. 7) working with our partners describe above, cci was successful in securing $1. 75m in funding from ca's healthy soils program (hsp) first round rfp for carbon farm planning and implementation. This will support a wide range of projects and climate-beneficial practices across the state. We are expecting the same success in securing funding during the second round of the hsp, slated to be released in mid-2018.