Fall Newsletter, MALT - 2023

New Small Grants Program for Climate Resilience

This August, we launched a new competitive small grants program to further protect and steward the working landscapes of Marin County. The first round of funding from this initiative builds upon our efforts to conserve the region’s farm and ranchlands through conservation easements, by offering grants to help all local agriculturalists implement proactive and innovative solutions to adapt to the changing conditions of the landscape.

The focus of this first round is Building Climate Resilience, funding climate-smart agricultural practices that improve operational resilience, increase water security, and build soil health. Rain catchment systems, vertical farming solutions, manure management, conversion of gas engines to electric power, solar panel installations, and robotic technologies to replace fuel equipment are a few examples of the projects we are looking to support — the impact of which will be realized in the landscape for decades to come. Applications will be submitted August through early September, and in October,

we will award up to a total of $200,000 for our inaugural round of funding, with grants ranging from $5,000 to $50,000.

The focus of future funding rounds (with the next planned for spring 2024) will align with our strategic pillars of preserving agriculture, protecting biodiversity, further building climate resilience, and connecting community. Of course, none of this would be possible without the partnership of our farming and ranching community and the ongoing support of our generous donors. Thank you for your continued support and we look forward to sharing more stories of impact in the coming months.

Our new small grants program is designed to build on MALT’s existing funding opportunities. Since its inception in 2002, our Stewardship Assistance Program (SAP) has granted more than $1.67 million to land holders with MALT easements for conservation practices that improve water quality and soil health. Continued on page 7.

A Letter from Lily

Dear friends,

Having grown up in the area, so many of my childhood memories are colored by the open spaces of Marin County. The smell of fog-wet hillsides in the summer, twisty drives through a landscape of towering redwoods, verdant pastures, wandering creeks, and small towns, each with their own unique heritage. This place is home.

As I reflect on my first year as MALT’s executive director, I feel a deep sense of accomplishment for all that we’ve achieved together furthering our vision of protecting this agricultural landscape. It is deeply satisfying to be involved in local land conservation in a region that is significant to me personally, and I know so many of you feel the same.

I am also excited about the growing awareness of land conservation's role as a natural climate solution. Natural climate solutions are actions that protect, restore, and improve land to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, store carbon, keep our air and water clean, and our soil healthy. Protection and stewardship of natural and working lands at the local level is now a fundamental component of state and federal efforts to adapt to climate change. The work MALT has done over our four decade history is part of the solution that can help us avoid the worst impacts of climate change. Now is our time to dig in and protect, steward, and restore agricultural lands in Marin County.

As we prepare for the fall season, our team is busy coordinating the launch of our new small grants program, preparing for eight new land protection projects totalling more than 4,000 acres, as well as building our capacity for deeper engagement with this incredible community. But none of this is possible without you and your dedication to this place and the future of the planet. Thank you for all you do.

Warmly,

Lily Verdone, Executive Director

Looking Beyond the 30x30 Initiatives

In 2020, both the federal government and the state of California committed to protecting 30% of all land and water by 2030 — goals that are now commonly referred to as the 30x30 initiatives.

These initiatives aim to protect the landscapes that science has confirmed are critical to slowing the rapid warming of the planet, preserve our biological diversity, and ensure communities have access to clean air, water, and safe outdoor spaces.

Protecting land offers hope. Like MALT, nonprofit land trusts across the country are working to protect critical natural and working lands. According to the Land Trust Alliance, land trusts have already conserved more than 61 million acres of private land across the nation, which is more than all of the U.S. national parks combined.

But land protection is not enough; we also need to better steward privately protected lands because healthy landscapes can sequester and store carbon, reduce future greenhouse gas emissions, and build resilience from climate impacts like drought, flood, and fire. Healthy landscapes include agricultural lands. Approximately 50% of land in Marin County is privately-owned agricultural land, which means we have a tremendous opportunity to promote a local economy, address climate change, and protect natural resources through voluntary, private lands conservation.

Now is the time to not only commit to protecting land to meet the 30x30 goal, but also to go beyond and double down by investing in the stewardship of agricultural lands in ways that build climate resilience, protect biodiversity, and create community connections.

Learn more: malt.org/30x30

Protecting the Land’s Connectivity

Since our founding in 1980, MALT has protected more than 55,700 acres of agricultural land across Marin County. In doing so, we have safeguarded a vast network of protected lands that sustain our local agricultural economy as well as one of the most biologically diverse regions of the planet.

Preserving our landscape’s connectivity, the extent to which these protected agricultural and natural areas are connected, is one of our greatest measures of success in our land preservation efforts. This is especially true as our climate continues to change and species are forced to migrate through connected spaces to find suitable

climates, food sources, or mates. Each ranch we conserve is another key piece in this complex mosaic of protected lands.

As we continue to build upon our land preservation efforts, we look for opportunities to conserve key pieces in our landscape’s connectivity — the lynchpins for Marin’s natural functions. Amid the rapid change in local climate, these land preservation efforts have never been more crucial than they are today.

Discover more: malt.org/where-we-work

Critical Habitat Linkages

Core Habitat

Critical Habitat Linkages

Core Habitat

MARIN COUNTY

MALT-protected farmland

Critical Habitat LInkages

PATHWAYS FOR LIFE

Habitat loss is the leading threat to biodiversity. Countering this threat requires maintaining and restoring connections between natural areas to form networks of open spaces.

This map illustrates the region’s core habitat areas and the critical linkages between them. MALT’s work conserving our agricultural landscape is essential in preserving these pathways.

A Spotlight on Our Community

MALT depends on our community to fullfill its mission to permanently protect Marin’s agricultural land for agricultural use. The organization exists within a tight-knit fabric of ranching families, partner organizations, and an invaluable community of supporters. It is only together that we are able to create and sustain a healthy, vibrant agricultural community for the benefit of everyone in Marin County.

West Marin Fund Award

Thanks to Jordan Martinelli, an eighth-grader at Bolinas Middle School, MALT is the recipient of a $1,000 grant through the West Marin Fund's Giving Through Youth program. Jordan’s persuasive pitch convinced his classmates to vote for MALT as this year’s grant recipient. Great work, Jordan, and thanks for your support!

West Marin Scholarship Program Gift

This year, in honor of board member emeritus Ralph Grossi’s many years of service on the MALT board, we gifted $5,000 to the West Marin Scholarship Program, an initiative that provides college scholarships to West Marin residents. Megan Donaldson who was awarded the scholarship in honor of Ralph is in her second year as an Agricultural Communications and Leadership major at California State University, Chico.

Stay Connected!

Find the latest stories, local food tips, activities, and more at malt.org/blog

New Small Grants Program for Climate Resilience (Continued)

We’ve structured this new initiative as a complementary funding opportunity available to all Marin County agricultural producers.

We’ve also modeled this new program around learnings from the emergency launch of our Drought Resilience and Water Security (DRAWS) initiative. Over a two year period, we granted more than $916,000 to 75 water infrastructure projects that built long-term resilience to address the growing impacts of climate change. The success of DRAWS is a testament to the value of a small grants initiative well-tailored to the needs of our community and our ability to quickly adapt and support that need.

Preserving agriculture and the careful stewardship of our farm and ranchland benefits all Marin County residents. Through this new funding mechanism, our team at MALT now has a new resource to continue strengthening our community’s resilience amid a changing climate, safeguard a critical part of our local economy, and sustain the vibrancy of our local food system.

Learn more: malt.org/small-grants

Did You Know?

This fall, thousands of birds will flock to California, most of whom are escaping the freezing temperatures of their northern summer ranges.

Some are coming to stay for the duration of the winter season but many will stay only for a brief, but much needed rest before continuing south, sometimes as far as Central and South America.

For millennia, migratory birds have followed the same flight paths, converging every year within “flyways” on their journeys north and south. California lies within the Pacific Flyway, an area that stretches from the Arctic to the coast of Mexico, and from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific. North to south it is over 4,000 miles long and, in places, over 1,000 miles wide.

The San Francisco Bay is a critically important stopover for birds moving along the Pacific Flyway. As the largest estuary (tidal mouth of a large river) on the Pacific coasts of both North and South America, the Bay offers an abundance of habitat for tired migrating birds. And it is not just wetlands that make the Bay Area so attractive. There’s a diversity of habitat types here, including Marin’s agricultural lands, that offer refugia for birds of all kinds.

Protect. Repeat.

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 93 agricultural conservation easements, totaling more than 55,700 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: Matt Dolkas, Isabel French, Paige Green, and Jeff Lewis.

Printed on recycled paper using soy based inks.