Increasing Carbon Capture
on Sonoma County’s Working Lands
Carbon Cycle Institute www.carboncycle.orgGold Ridge RCD www.goldridgercd.org
Sonoma RCD www.sonomarcd.org
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Fertilizer
Production and Use
--- GtC830 Gt C870 Gt C
269 Gt C
*PNAS 114,36: 9575-9580
413.64 ppm
Sanderman et al. 2017*
https://scripps.ucsd.edu/programs/keelingcurve/
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O
Can Soil Carbon Sequestration
Stop Global Warming?
The 4 per Thousand Initiative:
French Ministry of Agriculture, Agrifood and Forestry
Increasing global Soil Organic Carbon by 0.4% annually
would offset all global CO2 emissions
The 4% Initiative: soils for food security and climate
http://agriculture.gouv.fr/agriculture-et-foret/environnement-et-climat
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Sonoma County
Regional Climate Action Plan 2020
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“A large fraction of the anthropogenic climate change
resulting from CO2 emissions is irreversible on a multi-
century to millennial time scale, except in the case of a
large net removal of CO2 from the atmosphere over a
sustained period.”
IPCC SPM 2.4 (2014)
“…enhancing soil carbon is the only viable option to
achieve negative emissions.”
Celine Charveriat, Executive Director,
Institute for European Environmental
Policy
International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD)
Global Soil Week, Bulletin Vol. 206, Number 5
Saturday, 27 May 2017 Summary of the Global Soil
Week
Berlin, Germany
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AGRICULTURE:
“The Art of moving carbon
between carbon pools
to produce
food, fuel, fiber, & flora”
-John Wick
Marin Carbon Project
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CARBON
The Key to Agricultural Productivity and Resilience
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All Farming is Carbon Farming
All farming is completely dependent upon atmospheric carbon dioxide
(CO2) in order to produce its products, but different farming practices, and
different farm designs, can lead to very different amounts of carbon
capture.
Carbon entering the farm from the atmosphere
ends up in one of three pools:
☼ in the harvested portion of the crop,
☼ in the soil as soil organic matter, or
☼ in standing carbon stocks on the farm
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Mendocino SoilSame soil, different management histories
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G. Batist photo, 2017
Carbon sequestration implications of increasing
Sonoma County agricultural soil carbon to 2.5%*
*From current baseline of 0.88% (52 Mg CO2e/acre)
1 Mg = one million grams, or one metric ton
(assumed depth: 30 cm)
**If the 104,443 acres of treatable Grazing Lands were included in the analysis,
an additional 3 MMT of CO2e could be sequestered on Sonoma County agricultural lands.
Crop &
Pasture
Acres
Metric Tons
C/acre @
0.88% SOC
Metric Tons
C/acre @
2.5% SOC
Metric Tons
CO2e @2.5%
SOC
Metric Tons
CO2e Seq
increase/acre
Total
Increased
Metric Tons
CO2e
160,250** 14.17 40.1 147.18 95.18 15,252,241
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Paige Green Photo
Carbon Farm Planning: Toward a Climate Beneficial
Agriculture
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FIG. 3. The black line shows simulated decomposition of the compost following application to grassland soils. Gray circles show
the monthly change in total ecosystem carbon, not including compost carbon. Values are averages across site characterizations ,
with standard error bars in light gray. Ryals et al, 2015. Ecological Applications, 25(2): 531–545.
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GHG Implications of Riparian Restoration in
Coastal California
1,044,399 MMT CO2e benefit from riparian restoration in Marin County
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Windbreak/Shelterbelt
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Hedgerow
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Silvopasture
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Paige Green Photo
Prescribed Grazing
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Conventional Tillage to No-Till
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Nutrient Management
Replacing Synthetic Nitrogen with Soil Amendments
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Cover Crops
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Grassed Waterway
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Alley Cropping
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Carbon FarmingQuantifying On-farm Carbon Capture Potential
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And LOCAL DATA, where available…
COMPOST: Ryals et al 2013; DeLonge et al 2013
CREEK CARBON: Lewis et al 2015
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Carbon Farming Co-benefits
• Water holding capacity1% organic matter in top 6” of soil holds 27,000 gallons per acre
• Increased grass production on rangeland
• Wildlife habitat/migration corridors
• Water quality improvement
• Increased marketing potentialclimate beneficial ag products
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Key Levers
Resources for ImplementationLarge up-front cost, but with long-term significant impacts and important co-benefits.
Boots on the GroundWe need more carbon farmers, supported by technical service providers who have a
conservation planning background, understand agriculture, and have a depth of knowledge in
carbon farming and climate science (bridge builders), and a scaled Civilian Conservation
Corps to do the work on the ground.
Behavior ChangeAfter all the technical talk and discussion of science, this is about a producer/landowner
making a change and long-term investment …. This can take time, and they need to have
TRUSTED partners engaged for the long-term.
Alignment on Critical Science and Measurement NeedsWhat are the critical gaps in knowledge that would allow the private sector, producers and
government to advance this work at scale?
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Scaling Up: Carbon Farming with
Resource
Conservation
Districts
36 CFPs completed, 35,000 acres,
potential sequestration: 550,000 MT CO2e (20 yrs.)
31 CFPs in development, potential
sequestration: 472,000 MT CO2e (20 yrs.)
Additional 49 producers interested in
completing CFPs, sequestration potential:
750,000 metric tons
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Implementing 16 Carbon
Farm Plans in Sonoma County:
256,826 MT CO2e at 20 years
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Implementing 16 Carbon Farm Plans (256,826 MT CO2e at 20 years) would offset
all GHG emissions from the agricultural sector in that time frame.
Increasing agricultural soil carbon to 2.5%, resulting in an additional 15.25MMT CO2e sequestered, would offset all projected county emissions in year 2050.
Sonoma County RCDs Supporting Climate Beneficial Agriculture
• 16 Sonoma County Carbon Farm Plans Developed (256,826 MT CO2e, 20 yr.)
Implementation has occurred on 12 farms and ranches: 6 ranches, 2 dairies, 3 vineyards and 1 orchard.
• Soil Health Assessments through the North Coast Soil Health Hub:
www.soilhub.org
• CDFA Healthy Soils Program Demonstration Projects
1 dairy, 1 orchard, 1 cattle ranch, and 1 vineyard
• CDFA Alternative Manure Management Program Projects
4 dairies
• RCD Project Tracker: www.rcdprojects.org
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Estimated Carbon Sequestration
through Planned Practices
Ocean Breeze Dairy (Organic Valley Producer)
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Ocean Breeze Dairy
Riparian Restoration (9.6 acres)Estimated increase of 340 MT CO2e at 20 yrs.
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Estimated Additional Annual
Soil Water Holding Capacity
after 20 Years Ocean Breeze Dairy
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Farmland after rain different management
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Patrick Francis, Australian Farm Journal
Neighboring paddocks, waterlogging
due to poor structure resulting from
cultivation, compaction and lack of
soil cover (and roots!).
Denser groundcover, results in
higher soil carbon, leading to better
structure and improved water
absorbing and holding capacity.
Local ExamplesJackson Family Wines/La Crema
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RCD Project Tracker
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RCD Project Tracker
Carbon FarmingA Sonoma County Climate Mobilization
Strategy
• Agricultural and grazing land soils in Sonoma
County can store a conservative estimated of
61 to 69 metric tons of CO2e per acre.
• Across 156,553 to 264,693 acres of
agricultural land, this represents an additional
9.5 to 18.3 million metric tons of CO2e
removed from the atmosphere over time.
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Photo: CarbonFarmersofAmerica.org
Good NewsWe can meet our GHG reduction goals if we dramatically
reduce emissions and seriously invest in our soils and working
lands as
major beneficial sinks for atmospheric carbon.
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www.carboncycle.org
The climate crisis (and county resolutions)
requires we act swiftly.
Questions?
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Torri Estrada, Carbon Cycle Institute
Executive Director and Director of Policy
Brittany Jensen, Gold Ridge Resource Conservation District
Executive Director
Valerie Minton Quinto, Sonoma Resource Conservation District
Executive Director