California Agriculture With a Twist: ‘Carbon-Capture’ Farming
Scientists in California are setting out to create a new kind of agriculture: farming for carbon capture on degraded land in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.
The concept works like this: researchers will plant things like cattails and tules (a type of rush that grows in freshwater marshes) in parts of the delta that have been subsiding and giving off greenhouse gases thanks to unsustainable agricultural practices in the area. Over time, the marsh plants will reproduce, die, decompose and rebuild the region’s peat soils … all while also soaking up carbon dioxide and creating new, sustainable wetlands.
“This project is an investment in California’s future that could reap multiple benefits over several decades — for California, the nation and the world,” said Roger Fujii, director of the project and chief of the Bay-Delta program for the U.S. Geological Survey’s (USGS) California Water Science Center.
A pilot program that ran from 1997 to 2005 in the western part of the delta ended up rebuilding 10 inches of elevation on an island that had been sinking. Those results have now inspired a three-year, $12.3 million project being funded by the California Department of Water Resources (DWR).
The new project, set to start next spring, will aim to rebuild about 400 acres of wetlands on another island in the western delta. The effort will be led by the USGS and the University of California, Davis (UC Davis).
“The developing carbon market holds great promise for regaining land elevation in the delta,” said David Mraz, chief of DWR’s Delta-Suisun Marsh Office. “It could provide sustainable farming opportunities for delta farmers and an economic incentive to sustain the existing delta levee system.”
Besides creating a new potential market for carbon capture farming, the project could help reverse years of damage to the delta region. Farming practices in the area have caused delta soils to oxidize and sink, in some areas by more than 20 feet. The subsidence has required many areas to be protected by levees, which are now aging and feeling greater pressure.
The project could also help protect the region’s supply of freshwater: farms protected by delta levees convey a large portion of California’s water supplies, serving more than 25 million residents and millions of acres of agricultural land. The goal, Fujii said, is to “assess on a large scale the ability of re-established wetlands on delta peat islands to sequester carbon, reverse subsidence and provide an economically sustainable land-use practice.”
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About the Author
Shirley Siluk Gregory Shirley Siluk Gregory, a transplanted Chicagoan now living in Northwest Florida, represents the progressive half of Green Options' Red, Green and Blue segment. She holds a bachelor's degree in Geological Sciences from Northwestern University but graduated in 1984, just when the market for geologists was flatter than the Florida landscape. Just as well, though: she had little interest in spending her life either in a laboratory or, heaven forbid, an oil field. So, of course, she went into journalism. After extremely low-paying but fun and educational stints at several suburban Chicago weeklies and dailies, Shirley and her then-boyfriend/now-husband Scott found themselves displaced by a media buyout and spending the next several years working as freelancers. Among their credits: The Chicago Tribune, a publication for the manufactured-housing industry, and Web Hosting Magazine, a now-defunct publication that came and went with the dotcom era. Shirley's always been concerned about nature and conservation (and an avid pack-rat, as her family can attest to), but became even more rabidly interested in the environment primarily due to two factors: the growing signs that global warming was real and threatening, and the birth of her son, Noah, in 2003. Suddenly, the prospect of a world that might not be quite as habitable in 40 or 50 years took on a whole new, and personal, meaning. Living where she lives now also helped light the fire of Shirley's environmental awareness: her hometown was severely damaged by Hurricane Ivan in 2004, and beaten up again by Hurricane Dennis in 2005. That, and the fact that she and her family were vacationing in New Orleans until the day before Katrina -- and spent 12 hours driving home for a trip that normally takes 3 -- has made Shirley deeply appreciate how fragile our lifestyles are, and how dependent they are on sound management of natural resources and sustainable living practices. That's why she's become a passionate reader and writer about all things green and sustainable.
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