Guest post by Valerie Calegari, Director of Working Waterways, Audubon California

Students from Woodland High, their mentors from the Fish and Wildlife Service, NRCS, and local conservation groups passed around a plug of creeping wild rye, a native grass they are planting, along with wild rose, buckbrush, 3 species of native oak, red bud, and other native trees and shrubs, to stabilize the banks and provide wildlife habitat along a mile of Yolo County’s Cottonwood Slough.  Farmer Blake Harlan was there to talk with the group about the history of the site, the specifics of irrigation, and the service they were providing the farm by getting the slopes stabilized.

Over the past 15 years, Audubon California, in cooperation with local farmers, local partners and generous funders, has established over 300 acres of native forest along the unfarmed edges of private farms in the Central Valley.  The results are spectacular, and wildlife is responding.

Preliminary data from a study headed up by Audubon’s Karen Velas find that farm edges planted with native trees and shrubs support 4 times the number of bird species than unplanted edges do.  What’s more, we see 5 times the number of individual Song Sparrows and Loggerhead Shrikes, which are one of Audubon’s common birds in decline.

The problem is, despite great efforts of many people in planting their farm’s edges, many songbird and raptor species that use hedgerows and riparian areas are still declining, and we can’t plant fast enough to keep up.  Here is our dilemma: how do we get the Central Valley (shown on left) to look more like the English countryside (shown on right)?  If it did, we would inevitably see more of our song bird populations increasing.

Campbell Soup Company sees value in encouraging these kinds of projects .  They can bring farm edges to life, support  native pollinators, provide erosion control along waterways, reduce the need for costly weed maintenance, and bring a bit of shade for field workers.  Because Campbell works with a lot more farmers than we do, and have more influence as buyers of their crops, they can help us make a bigger impact than we can on our own.

Daniel Sonke, manager of Campbell’s Agriculture Sustainability Program, came to this work day with rubber boots and gloves to help with the planting.  He came to support Harlan, who sells his tomatoes to Campbell’s, carrying out this wildlife planting.   He sees this kind of work very much in line with the kinds of environmental stewardship Campbell’s believes in, and will continue to work with Audubon to come up with ways to make the tomato fields of the Central Valley more bird friendly.

“We are grateful to all of you for helping this to happen,” farmer Blake Harlan told the group.  “We’ve been wanting to do this for 8 years.  And I think Campbell would be a great partner to get more of these kinds of projects on the ground.”

Top photo of Audubon’s Kurt Vaughn with farmer Blake Harlan.