Fall Newsletter, MALT - 2022

723 Acres Protected for Local Agriculture

from the threat of development and will forever remain in agricultural production.

This latest easement builds upon a block of more than 9,000 acres of contiguous MALT-protected land, stretching from the county border to the mouth of Tomales Bay. As a cornerstone for conservation efforts locally, these large blocks of protected land offer ideal refuge for a host of vital biodiversity and are essential in our work to build regional resilience in the face of a rapidly changing climate.

We are thrilled to announce MALT’s protection of the 723-acre McDowell Ranch just east of Tomales near the Marin and Sonoma county line. In August, we acquired an agricultural conservation easement from the ranch owners, ensuring this land’s verdant, organic-certified grasslands are safeguarded

The Wilson family, the ranch owners, have depended upon this land—first a dairy, now home to organic beef cattle— since owner Kenny Wilson’s great-grandfather, an Irish dairyman, purchased the ranch in 1900. Today, nearly every acre of this property has been deemed “Farmland of Local Importance” by the California Department of Conservation, indicating its critical role in contributing to Marin County’s food economy. Continued on page 7.

Meet Lily Verdone, Our New Executive Director

After an extensive search process led by members of both our board of directors and staff, we are thrilled to announce that Lily Verdone has been selected as MALT’s next executive director, beginning August 30, 2022. We couldn’t be more excited to welcome her to our team.

Lily is a collaborative leader whose deep philanthropic, environ mental, and policy expertise has focused on building tangible solutions through partnerships, cutting-edge science, and on-the-ground conservation. Lily came to MALT from Coastal Quest, where she helped grow the startup nonprofit tenfold through fundraising and programmatic strategy development focused on building resilient coastal communities.

Prior to that, Lily was with The Nature Conservancy where she led teams working on a broad range of initiatives on the West and Gulf Coasts, including protecting agricultural lands, open space, and freshwater in California and Texas. She also helped reimagine the recovery of the Gulf oyster fishery for both commercial harvesting and habitat protection and helping develop a global planning tool for sea level rise and coastal hazard adaptation. Lily is a graduate of Sonoma State University and comes from a multigenerational Bay Area family.

“Having grown up here in Marin and Sonoma counties, this is truly a dream job for me,” Lily shared recently. With more than two decades of experience in scaling diverse solutions to meet major environmental challenges, Lily brings the perfect combination of skills to help guide our organization and contribute to the greater agricultural community. “MALT is in a unique position to act as a catalyst for conservation efforts regionally,” Lily shared, “and there’s never been a more important time for this work to thrive.”

“Lily’s depth of experience combined with her warmth and enthusiasm for MALT’s mission make her someone that the staff and board are tremendously excited to work collaboratively with in the years ahead,” said Tamara Hicks, the vice chair of the board of directors and the chair of our search committee. “I’m incredibly grateful to the Marin County-based Hartwell Group for leading the board, staff, and community in our executive director search. We spent many months taking a deep dive into understanding who we need as our next leader and we are grateful to have found her.”

Since our founding in 1980, MALT has invested more than $90 million in Marin County agricultural land protection and stewardship — the building blocks for a sustainable future for all Bay Area residents. We look forward to this next chapter and to building upon our strong foundation of success.

Learn more about Lily and watch her introductory video: malt.org/supporting-malt/lily-verdone

“MALT is in a unique position to act as a catalyst for conservation efforts regionally and there’s never been a more important time for this work to thrive.” –Lily Verdone

Measure A Renewed

A win for all of Marin County

In June’s election, Marin County voters approved the renewal of funding for Measure A, a one-quarter of one-percent sales tax set aside to help fund parks, open spaces, fire prevention, land stewardship and farmland protection.

For that immense support, we at MALT and our partners are truly grateful. It’s heartening that so many people in Marin continue to believe in protecting our local landscapes and we are humbled to collaborate with community partners to ensure that protection for the benefit of all residents.

Since its passage in 2012, Measure A has allowed Marin County to invest $15.1 million in grants for farmland preservation. With the support of the county’s Farmland Preservation Program (Measure A funding), our team here at MALT has protected 12 farms and ranches totaling 7,414 acres through the acquisition of agricultural conservation easements (including the recent protection of the McDowell Ranch, see cover page).

Through the extraordinary efficiency of MALT’s publicprivate funding model, tax-deductible contributions are often matched 1:1 with Measure A funds, doubling the impact of MALT’s privately-raised revenue.

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DRAWS Initiative— Your Impact to Date

The American West is currently experiencing the driest period in at least 1,200 years and climate change is largely responsible. In the last three years, most Northern California cities have received only half to two thirds of their historically average precipitation, which is the equivalent of losing an entire year of rainfall. And each passing year without significant rain is having a big impact on Marin County agriculture.

In the latest county crop report, the total gross value of agricultural crops and commodities produced dropped by 5% (from $101.8 to $96.6 million) due to reduced yield as a result of a lack of water. As ponds and wells continue to run dry, many farmers and ranchers resort to hauling water for their operations, a particularly expensive endeavor this year, as the price of fuel continues to rise. Combined with supply chain shortages, the rising cost of hay, and labor shortages, it is an incredibly difficult time to be producing food and fiber here in Marin County and across much of the western United States.

In response to the deepening drought conditions, we launched our Drought Resilience and Water Security (DRAWS) initiative in spring 2021. Through this initiative, all farmers and ranchers in Marin County are eligible for $15,000 grants to design and implement long-term water infrastructure projects. It is the support needed to install new water catchment and storage systems, revive old springs and better leverage the existing water resources on their properties.

As forecasters begin calling for another dry winter for 2022/2023 we are working to double down on our efforts to build water resilience in the agricultural working lands of our community. In April 2022, the MALT Board approved an additional $250,000 allocation in funding to have even more impact, bringing the total to $750,000 in funding for DRAWS since spring 2021. These timely investments are essential—not just for our local agricultural producers— but for the entire region’s public health, environmental well-being, and economic vitality.

Dive in and learn more: malt.org/agriculture/drought-marin-county

$1 Million Our Largest Annual Stewardship Investment

In July, MALT’s board of directors committed $1 million toward agricultural stewardship grants over the next year, the largest annual allocation of stewardship funding in the organization’s history. Through your generous support, we are increasing our investment in important ecosystem services provided by Marin farm and ranchland, including improved water quality and soil health, enhanced wildlife habitat and carbon sequestration.

“While using agricultural conservation easements to permanently protect the land from development and ensure

continued agricultural production is the first step in our long-term strategy, investing in agricultural stewardship projects is the next step,” said Zach Mendes, acting director of conservation. “With the generous support of our community of donors, we actively make grants to Marin ranchers and farmers for projects that build the future of farming and food in the county. And this year we are upping our investment.”

These investments are organized and distributed through three stewardship initiatives:

STEWARDSHIP ASSISTANCE PROGRAM (SAP)

The flagship Stewardship Assistance Program that funds a wide range of projects for ranches and farms with a MALT conservation easement in place. Since its start, SAP has contributed more than $1.39 million toward 138 different projects on 56 ranches across Marin.

DROUGHT RESILIENCE AND WATER SECURITY (DRAWS)

The responsive Drought Resilience and Water Security initiative that has been key in helping ranchers and farmers in Marin (whether or not they have a conservation easement) quickly build the water infrastructure to survive emergency drought conditions and build long-term resilience (learn more on page 4).

SPECIAL INITIATIVES PROGRAM (SIP)

The emerging Special Initiatives Program (like the DRAWS initiative) will be highly responsive to current community needs and open to all farmers and ranchers in Marin. This program will be launched in early 2023.

A Spotlight on Our Community

action to protect Marin's agricultural land. They became MALT supporters in 2000, and are continuing to help write a different story here in Marin.

David, Lydia, and their daughter Julianne have been MALT supporters for over two decades. Their connection to West Marin started when David would take the family out on drives to enjoy the open space and farmland that MALT has helped preserve. David, having spent time on his grandfather’s farm in Virginia as a small boy, felt especially connected to Marin's agricultural landscape. As Julianne has grown up, she continues the tradition of taking drives out to West Marin.

After years of observing productive farmland developed into towns and cities, David and Lydia were inspired to take

The Bells also share a special connection to agriculture through their love of food. Lydia is a phenomenal chef who can creatively improvise with anything in the fridge and make it un forgettable. Julianne, influenced by her time visiting West Marin and her mother’s love of cooking, now works at State Bird Provisions as a pastry cook, where they serve Stemple Creek beef and quail eggs from Little Wing Farm, both raised on MALT-protected ranches. Julianne has grown to understand that farmland preservation and local food production go hand in hand and are essential components of a healthy community. She hopes to continue to educate the next generation about the importance of this connection.

The Bells continue to support MALT because, as David says, “We all need to chip in so we can retain the treasure we have over the hill.” We hope that you too will bring your families and friends out to West Marin and share the treasure we have in Marin County!

Did You Know?

Grazing Animals Make the Best Firefighters

We are all too familiar with the catastrophic wildfires that have engulfed much of the state in recent years. It has been difficult to watch as so many fellow Californians experience a devastation unseen in our lifetimes, the realities of decades of fire suppressions and a rapidly warming climate.

In Marin County, well-managed rangelands are one of the most important ingredients to mitigating the potential for devastating wildfire. Grazing animals shorten grass height and prevent shrub encroachment, reducing excess fuel loads that stoke massive wildfires. Our agricultural operations and their animals are key to maintaining this balance in our grassland ecosystems that, in turn, protect our communities from uncontrolled wildfire.

Through MALT’s conservation easements, we are ensuring the land we protect from the threat of development remains in agricultural production in

perpetuity. Not only is this work helping to capture and store planet-warming gasses from the atmosphere, it is also one of our best defenses against the threat of catastrophic fire.

The ranch also includes a 1.5-mile stretch of Stemple Creek. As one of the main waterways in the northern portion of the county, the creek offers refuge for a host of special status species including California freshwater shrimp, northwestern pond turtle, tidewater goby, Myrtle’s silverspot butterfly, and California red-legged frog. “Stemple Creek is one of the main arteries for life in this landscape,” shared Zach Mendes, acting director of conservation. “Careful stewardship of this habitat is key to sustaining local biodiversity.”

This easement was funded through Marin County’s Farmland Preservation Program (Measure A) and through the generous support of donors like you. To date, we have completed 92 agricultural conservation easements totaling 55,182 acres of MALT-protected land—a legacy we will build upon with your continued support. Thank you.

Post Office Box 809

Point Reyes Station California 94956

Give. Protect. Repeat.

Monthly giving to MALT is an easy and affordable way to protect and steward the land you love.

Visit malt.org/ways-to-give/ or call (415) 663-1158 Ext: 318 to sign up today.

Marin Agricultural Land Trust is a member-supported, nonprofit organization created in 1980 to protect Marin County farmland. Some of the Bay Area’s most highly acclaimed meats, dairy products and organic crops are produced on farmland protected by MALT's 92 agricultural conservation easements, totaling more than 55,000 acres.

To learn about Marin’s working farms and ranches and the food they produce, visit malt.org

MALT news is published quarterly by Marin Agricultural Land Trust, a nonprofit tax-exempt organization.

Editor: Matt Dolkas

Graphic Design: shirleycreative.com

Printer: ThirdBay Letterpress Inc.

Photos: malt.org/photo-credits

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