Marin agricultural producers receive biodiversity grants

The Marin Agricultural Land Trust has awarded $200,000 in small grants to five agricultural producers in western Marin to support their biodiversity efforts.

The funding will be used to restore native grasslands, utilize inferior sheep’s wool for soil enhancement and provide habitat for native wildlife, including the western monarch butterfly, whose population has been plummeting.

Lily Verdone, executive director of MALT, said the grants highlight things that farmers and ranchers are already doing to promote biodiversity, such as fencing, rotational grazing and resting pastures.

“They make a really clear through line that natural and working lands are giving stacked benefits to biodiversity, climate resilience and the economy,” Verdone said.

The Marin Coast Ranch will use its $35,000 grant to purchase a device that converts wool that is too heavily soiled for use in clothing into pellets that can be used as fertilizer. Packed with nitrogen and carbon, the wool pellets will support grass growth and enhance the soil’s ability to retain water.

“We’re so excited to have a way to put this wool into productive use,” said Mandy Schmidt, who wrote the grant.

Schmidt, 33, works on the 1,000-acre ranch with her parents, Manuel Brazil and Jody Brazil; two siblings; and husband. Her family has been ranching in western Marin for six generations. Her great-great-grandparents emigrated to western Marin from the Azores islands.

The family has about 500 cattle, 40 sheep and some goats. Multi-species grazing is known to foster biodiversity and carbon sequestration. The sheep are sold for meat.

“The wool has historically been just a throwaway product for us,” Schmidt said. “It’s not usable for fabric or for textiles.”

The hope is that the additional income from the wool will make it financially viable to increase the size of the herd.

The Dolcini Jersey Dairy has received a $40,000 grant to remove invasive weeds, primarily French broom. If left unchecked, these invasive plants will take over native grasslands, increase the risk of wildfire and diminish the land’s ability to support regional biodiversity.

In addition to underwriting the removal of the invasive species, the grant will help pay for seeding with native grasses, adding compost to pastures and improving livestock water systems.

These improvements will be paired with additional fencing to enable the ranch to improve its rotational grazing, which will foster the land’s biological diversity.

Jennifer Beretta, a member of the extended family that operates the 3,000-acre ranch, said removal of the weeds will free up more of the land for grazing. She said that is important because the dairy must meet certain grazing specifications to maintain its organic certification.

Beretta said the daily milks 300 cows and has another 500 heifers and younger animals. West Marin dairies have been under intense pressure over recent years from drought and low milk prices.

“The drought was a really hard one for the dairy because we were hauling in water,” Beretta said. “That was the first time in over 40 years we had to haul in water.”

During the drought, MALT awarded about $1 million in grants to help agricultural producers to plan, design and implement conservation practices that protect soil and water quality and bolster agricultural productivity.

Rounding out the biodiversity grants were the Eames Ranch, which received $35,000 to fund wildlife-friendly fencing to protect sensitive habitat within San Antonio Creek as well as fencing to allow for rotational grazing of beef cattle; the Spaletta Beef Ranch, which received $45,000 to support the restoration of the ranch’s network of small ponds, removing excess sediment and reeds that have accumulated over time; and the Schell/Niman Ranch, which received $45,000 to support the ranch’s orchard and native pollinator plants that provide habitat and nourishment for western monarch butterflies.

“We’ve come up with this small grants program to really incentivize best practices on the land for farmers and ranchers, ”Verdone said.