1) Serve on the Marin RCD Board of Directors

A seat on the Marin RCD Board has opened up! RCDs are empowered to manage natural resources at the local level and RCD directors play a vital role. As representatives of their community, directors must possess a keen understanding of the community, a commitment to assessing conservation needs and developing programs to meet those needs. More info here.

Please fill out an application by 5pm on March 11th, if this describes you!

Contact us for an application at marinrcd@marinrcd.org.

2) Join the North Bay Climate Smart Agriculture Coalition

A new North Bay Coalition is seeking 8 local agricultural producers – four crop farmers (orchard, vineyard, fruits and veggies) and four local dairy/rangeland producers – to join its Implementation Technical Advisory Committee working to advise your local RCD staff. This is a special opportunity for producers to play a critical role in driving the success of climate-smart agriculture within these two counties. Read more here.

Interested applicants should complete the online form by March 22, 2024. Committee Members will be selected by April 2024.

3) Volunteer with STRAW

Volunteering with Point Blue's Students and Teachers Restoring a Watershed (STRAW) at the Novato Baylands is a fantastic way to get involved in wetland restoration along the shore of San Pablo Bay, through field work and our native plant nursery, while meeting new people who share a passion for this important work.

Reoccurring volunteer programming is offered Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays between 8am-12pm, and Wednesdays 1-3pm.

If you're interested please email novatobaylands@pointblue.org.

Fnd more information on Point Blue's website.

Grazing Waiver Renewal

Public Meeting

When: Friday, March 15, 2024, 1:30 - 3:30 PM

Where: virtual meeting on Zoom

The San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board is holding a virtual public meeting on the Conditional Waiver of Waste Discharge Requirements for Grazing Operations (Grazing Waiver) in the North San Francisco Bay Region, and the upcoming renewal and geographic scope expansion.

Listen to and watch the meeting using the link provided in the public notice. 

See the public notice for more information.

Contact: René Leclerc

Rene.Leclerc@waterboards.ca.gov 

(510) 622-2410

Free Pesticide Disposal Event!

The Marin County Department of Agriculture, in partnership with Napa and Sonoma Counties, is planning to host an Agricultural Pesticide Collection and Disposal Event in late April of 2024. This event is an opportunity for commercial operations to dispose of agricultural-use (unwanted or legacy) pesticides for free. 

IMPORTANT:

If you are concerned about bringing banned or otherwise illegal-to-use products, please don’t be: this is an amnesty event, and no regulatory action will be pursued because of your participation!

Please note that this is not an empty container collection event; the containers must contain pesticide products in order to be accepted for disposal.

Soil Health Academy by Understanding Ag

March 19-21, 2024 in Tomales at Stemple Creek

Event educators are Gabe Brown, Allen Williams, and Chuck Schembre.

Wildfire Preparedness for Agricultural Operations

by UCCE Fire Network

Wednesday, March 20 from 12:00-12:45pm

Wildfires are a part of California’s landscape, and properties can be adapted to reduce their vulnerabilities. 

Join a webinar with UCCE Fire Science Advisor, Tori Norville to discuss the new UCCE Fire Network’s Fact Sheet on Wildfire Preparedness for Agricultural Operations. Topics will include fire behavior, strategies for structure hardening and defensible space as well as ideas on how to get started. We will also discuss what producers are already doing to prepare their operations for fire.

The 2023-24 Coho Salmon spawning season ended in late January, with the last two salmon seen in San Geronimo Creek. In Lagunitas Creek, Marin Water survey crews haven’t seen any salmon since January 10th, or rather, we haven’t been able to get into the creek to see them. The wet winter has been great for filling Marin Water’s reservoirs, but since Kent Lake started spilling, stream flows have been too high to walk in the creek or see spawning areas. 

The Coho Salmon data collected over the past three months still need to be verified and analyzed, but the results so far are very encouraging. In the streams surveyed by Marin Water, 170 Coho Salmon redds (gravel nests) were observed, compared with 158 seen three years ago, when the previous generation spawned. Combined with observations from our colleagues at the National Park Service (NPS) and the Salmon Protection and Watershed Network (SPAWN), a significant generational improvement is clear. On Olema Creek, a tributary to Lagunitas Creek, NPS surveyors observed 70 Coho Salmon redds, compared with 12 seen three years ago. SPAWN surveyors observed 43 redds in the tributaries to San Geronimo Creek, compared with only three redds in 2020-2021. In total, 283 Coho Salmon redds were observed throughout the watershed this year, which was a 63% increase from three years ago! 

Steelhead, which spawn later than Coho Salmon, have so far been scarce. To date Marin Water surveyors have observed only 19 steelhead redds, which is far less than the 100-plus redds typically seen by late February. Our inability to survey Lagunitas Creek explains some of that decline, but spawning in tributary streams is also down. Surveys will continue for another few weeks, weather permitting, and hopefully we’ll find those some of those missing steelhead.