Ventura County Climate Resilience

Small Grants Program

Are you a Community-based Organization, California Native American Tribe or Tribal leader, or community leader located in or serving communities in need of environmental justice in Ventura County?

Are you interested in building and funding your community’s resilience to climate impacts like wildfire, flooding, drought or extreme heat?

Do you need support in advancing or developing your resilience project or are you looking to increase your community’s engagement in climate action and planning?

If so, apply to our small grants program and receive $5,000 in flexible funding and technical assistance from Coastal Quest to advance your goals!

Apply Now

New Agriculture and Environmental Sustainability Specialist

Emily Nye is our Agricultural and Environmental Sustainability Specialist, a new position for the VCRCD. She loves empowering and collaborating with the community on produce knowledge, farming techniques, regenerative agriculture, and all things nature. She is passionate about finding equitable solutions to build resilient communities. Her undergraduate and graduate training was in Pennsylvania focused on Environmental Science and Sustainability.

Emily can be reached at Emily.Nye@vcrcd.org

New Conservation Ecologist

Monica Matthews, Conservation Ecologist, has an M.S. in Biology with experience in ornithology, herpetology, botany, wetland ecology, fire ecology and conservation biology. Prior to joining the Ventura County Resource Conservation District, she worked in environmental consulting, preparing and managing permit applications, preparing and executing restoration projects and managing Best Management Practices to protect water quality. Before that, her work focused on conservation of rare herpetofauna and rare birds of prey throughout the United States, as well as Central America. As of right now, her interests include landscape connectivity, rare plant and wildlife conservation, and ecology of all sorts.

Monica can be reached at Monica.Matthews@vcrcd.org

Fillmore Planting day

Come and help care for a 1-acre expansion of the Fillmore Fish Hatchery Nature Trail and native plant garden with the best views anywhere. With our partners Friends of the Santa Clara River, VCRCD sponsored local Boys & Girls Clubs to learn about, design, and create a native plant garden on disturbed farmland. Every 3^rd Saturday of the month we gather to care for the almost 300 young plants and spend time with the birds and butterflies discovering this new habitat. Type in “Fillmore Fish Hatchery” into your phone app for the best directions and watch for the sign near the turnoff of Highway 126. Tools provided.

Earth Day Event

The VCRCD will be hosting a table for the Love Your Planet Event at the Camarillo Grove Park. There will be guided nature hikes, animal demonstrations, and the VCRCD will have a table all about insects and butterflies. Stop by to make your own bug antenna.

Fire Garden

Come check out the VCRCD Somis Fire Education gardens! Not only are there many informative signs along pathways telling you about smart ways to reduce the chance of fire spread to your property and structures, the plants are looking quite nice now. The front area was planted in August of 2020 (see before photo). We used all drought-tolerant, primarily California native plants and got them established with a drip irrigation system. They essentially need no more artificial watering now, only if there is a long winter dry spell. Many plants have reseeded and those have thrived on their own. We have even had cars accidentally drive into this garden – 3 times! If you have questions about what native plants would do well where you live, you can email deb.barringer@vcrcd.org or just enter your address into CalScape.org. Our office address is: 3380 Somis Rd, Somis

Field Site Prep

VCRCD and Oak Park Unified School District staff worked together to spread cardboard and mulch on a section of school land next to their sports field. Laying cardboard and mulch will help suppress weeds and ready the soil for new native plants that will be planted later this year. These efforts will create monarch butterfly habitat.

Town Hall

The Ventura County Wildfire Collaborative in partnership with the City of Thousand Oaks hosted a a Wildfire Town Hall for local residents. The event featured presentations from the City of Thousand Oaks, Ventura County Fire Department, Southern California Edison, and others. To be alerted when other town halls are scheduled sign up at the link below.

Big Sycamore Planting Day

VRCD's HARMONEE project is in its implementation phase! This past month we had a community planting day where volunteers came out to the Big Sycamore Campground and planted nectar plants and trees. Big Sycamore campsite is one of many overwintering sites in California. The goal of this project is to fill in the Western Sycamore canopy with more trees for clustering protection and providing winter nectar sources for the migrating western monarch population. It was a beautiful day enhancing monarch and pollinator habitat we hope to get more volunteers involved.

Ventura County Resource Conservation District

Board Meeting

April 19

8:30am -11:30am

For more information email info@vcrcd.org

VCRCD offers several planting and weeding events throughout the year. To receive emails when these events arise please sign up at the link below.

Become a Volunteer

If you can't volunteer your time consider making a donation to the VCRCD. Donations can help pay for resources that may not be covered by grant funds.

Donate

VCRCD Is Launching Monarch Alerts

Would you like to stay informed on pollinators in our region? VCRCD is launching Monarch Alerts so residents can receive emails letting them know when monarchs migrate, when to reduce chemical use, how and what to plant, and much more. We will only send necessary information to you.

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