Resource conservation has been the ethos of this land since Chumash times, a tradtion that is more relevant today than ever.  Our environmental stewardship focuses on both encouraging a balanced biodiverse ecosystem, and on doing everything we can to minimize our inputs and advance carbon sequestration to help reverse climate change.

Our number one resource is water. We monitor our tenant farmers’ use of our water resources and support water-wise crops and farming operations.  When it is environmentally feasible, we utilize groundwater from the Santa Clara River to irrigate our orchards and tenant fields, which helps diminish the pressure on shared underground aquafers.  We have supported and encouraged the United Water Conservation District in their efforts to balance the needs of farmers, and habitat since 1947.

Regenerative farming is a critical aspect of our orchard operations.  Techniques include no-tillage, mulching, and cover cropping.  In partnership with the United States Department of Agriculture we have designed and created hundreds of feet of multi – species hedge rows which create habitat and support biodiversity for insects, songbirds, raptors and pollinators.  Thousands of flowering perennials turn unproductive margins in our orchards and along roadways into flourishing habitat for even more insects and birds.

In partnership with the University of California at Berkeley, we have established habitat gardens and riparian corridors to further support the biodiversity of our land.  A mile-long multi species riparian corridor connects the home ranch with the Santa Clara River basin, home to over 116 endangered and threatened species. Habitat gardens adjacent to our pastures serve as magnets for over 126 species of native pollinators and we have documentation of over 50 species now supporting the European honey bee in pollinating our avocado groves. 

We are collaborating with a number of agencies to restore riparian habitat in the Santa Clara River basin, including The Nature Conservancy, the United States Department of Agriculture, and the Santa Clara River Watershed Conservancy.   We are in the process of finalizing the first of several grants to remove non-native species of plants, including arundo donax and tamarisk to make way for a healthier cottonwood/willow complex, a critical feature of the aqueous riverine environment.

We live in times of movement, where global biodiversity is shifting poleward at unprecedented rates. We are in the process of planting hundreds—and potentially thousands of oak trees in an effort to mitigate habitat collapse as this migration takes place. Oaks are foundational to over 60% of North America’s habitat, supporting pollinators, vertebrate, anthropoids, plants and fungi more than any other terrestrial organism.  Our efforts include planting multiple species of oak—including the Cork Oak, the Mexican Blue Oak, and the Englemann Oak, all of which hail from more southerly, hotter drier climates, as a means of preserving habitat and supporting biodiversity for the benefit of our ranch and those around us.  

Finally, we recognize many of our environmental practices can not only encourage biodiversity, but in addition, help mitigate climate change.  Scientific studies have concluded that a healthier, more aqueous riverine habitat can reduce surface temperatures by 1 to 1 ½ degrees, which is considered to be substantially beneficial, especially when it covers over 500 acres. No till farming combined with cover cropping supports a healthy carbon/nitrogen cycle, potentially doubling the carbon content of our soils in quantities that are sufficient to make our farming operations carbon neutral.