Carbon Farm Planning Workshop to Be Offered April 12 at Cal Poly’s Swanton Pacific Ranch

For Immediate Release
March 14, 2017

Contact: Center for Sustainability
(805) 756-5086; cfs@calpoly.edu

DAVENPORT, Calif. — The Cal Poly Center for Sustainability and the Carbon Cycle Institute will host a daylong Carbon Farm Planning Workshop led by Jeff Creque on Wednesday, April 12, at Swanton Pacific Ranch near Santa Cruz.

Carbon farming uses cutting-edge agricultural practices to build healthy, carbon-rich soils and profitable farms and ranches, as well as to improve the rate at which carbon dioxide is removed from the atmosphere and converted to plant material and/or soil organic matter. A Carbon Farm Plan evaluates and quantifies how on-farm practices can sequester carbon while providing other environmental co-benefits such as increased on-farm resilience, water retention and natural fertility.

The Carbon Farm Planning Workshop will include a series of presentations, group discussions and field activities to introduce participants to the scientific and applied basis for carbon farming, conservation practices that sequester carbon in row crops, rangelands and forests, how to measure greenhouse gas (GHG) benefits using COMET-Planner, and how to develop a Carbon Farm Plan. Creque, who will lead the workshop, is a director at the Carbon Cycle Institute and co-founder of the Marin Carbon Project. He holds a doctorate in rangeland ecology from Utah State University and is a California State Board of Forestry Certified Professional in Rangeland Management.

COMET-Planner is a tool developed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service and Colorado State University as a user-friendly way to inventory GHG emissions based on various management practices on farms and ranches. The California Department of Food and Agriculture and the Air Resources Board are working together to make those demonstrating GHG reduction and carbon sequestration on working lands to be eligible for cap and trade funds.

The cost for the full-day workshop is only $75, including lunch, because of the generous support from the Clarence E. Heller Charitable Foundation. Space is limited. For more details and to register, visit cfs.calpoly.edu/carbon_farm.html.

About the Carbon Cycle Institute
The Carbon Cycle Institute (CCI) advances science-based carbon cycle solutions in agriculture that reduce atmospheric carbon while promoting environmental stewardship, social equity and economic sustainability. This includes the development of working models of alternative practices, technologies and economic value chains that can produce food and fiber in ways that are climate- and carbon-beneficial. CCI focuses on early research on promising solutions, developing partnerships with existing organizations to demonstrate the efficacy of these solutions, and implementation of them through education, training and on-farm projects. Learn more at www.carboncycle.org.

About the CAFES Center for Sustainability
The Center for Sustainability (www.cfs.calpoly.edu) is a cross-disciplinary initiative in Cal Poly’s College of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences that is dedicated to advancing education on sustainable food and agricultural systems through curriculum, professional development and on-farm education.

About Swanton Pacific Ranch
Swanton Pacific Ranch is a 3,200-acre landscape composed of a majestic redwood forest, lush riverine ecosystems and expansive coastal grassland overlooking the bay and the Pacific Ocean just north of Santa Cruz along California’s scenic Highway 1. Recognized for its high biodiversity and abundant resources, the ranch provides a valuable opportunity to study the methods of resource conservation applied through sustainable management techniques. The late Al Smith, a Cal Poly graduate and founder of Orchard Supply Hardware, donated the ranch to Cal Poly in 1993. For more on the ranch, visit: http://www.spranch.org.


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