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State Awards $5.1 Million in Grant Funding to Preserve Salinas Valley Farmland

On Thursday, December 15, 2022, the California Strategic Growth Council awarded three grants to the Salinas-based nonprofit Ag Land Trust that will help preserve nearly 600 acres of farmland in the Salinas Valley. This week marked the program’s eighth round of annual funding, which totaled more than $74 million granted to land trusts and conservancies across the state – including $5.1 million earmarked for Monterey County. The local investments are part of a state initiative known as the California Sustainable Agricultural Land Conservation Program.

Including recently awarded funds, the Ag Land Trust currently has 13 ongoing grant projects – totaling around $26 million – facilitated through the state’s Sustainable Agricultural Land Conservation Program that it is gearing up to see through over the next 12 months. Statewide, through just the latest round of Sustainable Agricultural Land Conservation Program funding alone, 25 agricultural easements will be created in 17 counties. Together, the slate of easements will total approximately 54,030 acres. Safeguarding this agricultural land will avoid an estimated 619,227 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent over the next 30 years, which amounts to taking 133,424 cars off the road for one year, according to a press release from the California Department of Conservation.

https://www.montereyherald.com/2022/12/16/state-awards-5-1-million-in-grant-funding-to-preserve-salinas-valley-farmland/