From Water Scarcity, to Climate Resilience

As climate scientists have predicted, California is now experiencing new severities in its extreme weather events. From the fall of 2019 through 2022, the state experienced one of its driest periods in recorded history. This historic drought was punctuated by periods of unprecedented rain — including a 25-day straight barrage of atmospheric rivers this past December into March, that inundated our communities with flooding, persistent power outages, and even loss of life.

Our agricultural community is at the front lines of these extremes and is being forced to adapt to these new climate realities. To help meet this need, in April 2021, MALT launched the Drought Resilience and Water Security (DRAWS) initiative to help all Marin County ranchers and farmers with emergency drought relief.

“Through DRAWS, we were able to install rainwater harvesting off our barn, which helped fill the farm’s reservoir amid the unbelievable January storms. This is a huge improvement for our operation, not just for our business and livelihoods, but our family’s well-being.”

–Jessica McIssac, McIssac Ranch

With our DRAWS initiative, all Marin County agricultural producers are eligible for $15,000 grants for projects that develop water sources, add water storage, and increase water distribution. To date, we have committed more than $850,000 in 70 water infrastructure projects. These strategic investments are helping bolster our community’s resilience to this hydrologic whiplash.

Impact To Date

14 miles of piping

(the distance from Point Reyes Station to Bolinas)

69 watertanks

21 springs developed

246,250 gallons of additional tank capacity

25 water troughs

Now that we have helped address some of the most urgent water resource needs of our community, we are turning our attention towards how to adapt this emergency initiative into a more permanent program. Through this process, we’ve learned the importance of being able to quickly respond to the immediate needs of our entire agricultural community through a small grants program — something we plan to replicate in the future.

Drought resilience involves preparing for the worst in the best of times. We continue to work closely with landowners and ranch managers to determine operational water needs, ranch goals, and how to build more options into water management so they are prepared for a less predictable future.

Dive in and learn more about these efforts: malt.org/draws