CRRA2019

Strategic Advisor

Calla Rose Ostrander brings together philanthropists, government leaders and businesspeople to build new climate-beneficial social and economic structures.
She works to scale the healthy soils movement from California to the rest of the United States, with collaborators like Dr. Whendee Silver and John Wick of the Marin Carbon Project and the philanthropist Jena King.
Calla Rose has worked directly in climate policy, having co-authored climate action plans for the City and County of San Francisco and Aspen, Colorado. 
Her work is informed by a background in political economy, ecological systems theory and twelve years of Waldorf education.

As the Climate Change Innovations Advisor combined with her experience working with the Marin Carbon Project through the Rathmann Family Foundation, Calla Rose will present a refreshing perspective to integrate carbon farming into a Climate Action Plans.

Successes in Carbon Farming in Greater San Diego County Title: Dr. Chandra Richards

Dr. Chandra Richards is a Conservation Ecologist at the Resource Conservation District of Greater San Diego County and works on climate-smart carbon farming through education, technical assistance, and implementation. She also manages several riparian and habitat restoration projects to remove invasive species and boost urban greening and outreach efforts, especially along the San Diego River. Chandra has a Ph.D. in soil biogeochemistry from U.C. Berkeley and double B.S. degrees in chemistry and mathematics from Penn State University.

San Diego County is committed to taking action against increasingly frequent and severe wildfires, drought, flooding, and other climatic events that damage our soils, agricultural operations, and health. While multiple local stakeholders have initiated the San Diego Carbon Farming Task Force to active agricultural solutions towards resilience and greenhouse gas targets, the RCD of Greater San Diego County has specifically grown its carbon farming program through demonstration projects, technical assistance, and education on regional and statewide scales.

We will feature our Demonstration Project, a quarter-acre plot which highlights our progress in using sustainable soil management practices to boost soil moisture, soil health, and crop yields. We will also present our efforts to boost Demonstration Projects and carbon farming across the greater County with a diverse group of farmers/ranchers and agricultural operation types. We will also emphasize our work to encourage climate-smart ranching through prescribed grazing and outreach activities.

On a larger scale, we seek to increase implementation of carbon farming practices by refining the planning process and improving collaborative efforts with NRCS to develop support across agricultural operations. Moreover, we will outline our plans to implement a strategic guidance document that will streamline the process from planning to implementation and monitoring, while maximizing operational efficiency, environmental co-benefits, and carbon sequestration over time.

Soil Scientist

Will Bakx launched Bennett Valley Farm Compost in 1985. In 1993 he started the Sonoma county-wide yard debris composting program as Sonoma Compost Company (SCC) having diverted over 1,800,000 tons of organics towards soil amendments. He is currently working as Renewable Sonoma to set up a state of the art compost facility in Sonoma County.

Will earned a BA in Environmental Studies from Sonoma State University and a MS in Soil Science from U.C. Berkeley. He is the co-founder and current co-chair of the California Organic Recycling Council (CORC) and executive board member of the California Compost Coalition (CCC)