Agriculture Archives - Sonoma County Groundwater Sustainability Agencies

Agriculture Groundwater User Survey Highlights Opportunities for Collaboration and Sustainability

Between August and December 2025, the GSAs conducted a joint survey of agricultural groundwater users to better understand priorities, concerns, and opportunities related to groundwater sustainability. The 21-question survey received 82 responses. Responses were well distributed across the basins: 46% from Santa Rosa Plain, 20.5% from Petaluma Valley, 17% from Sonoma Valley, and 22% marked ‘not applicable’.

Who Participated?

The majority of respondents (75%) identified as owners of agricultural property. Others included lessees (11.25%), agricultural support professionals (6.25%), staff of agricultural companies (3.75%), and representatives of governmental agencies or nonprofits working with agricultural operators (5%).

Farm sizes varied:

34% operate on less than 5 acres
23% farm between 10–50 acres
22% manage more than 50 acres
11% operate between 5–10 acres
10% selected not applicable

Agricultural production is diverse. Nearly half (45%) identified grapes or vineyards as a primary product. Other operations include specialty crops (31.25%), livestock/dairy/poultry (27.5%), orchards (18.75%), diversified agriculture (12.5%), and other uses such as native habitats, sheep wool fiber, hay, and grain (11.25%).

Ninety-two percent of respondents reported using groundwater.

Awareness and Engagement

Thirty-eight percent of respondents operate under a farm plan, certification, or permit program, including LandSmart, Fish Friendly Farming, and Certified California Sustainable Winegrowing. This presents a ready-made pathway for integrating groundwater sustainability actions into existing frameworks.

When asked whether they would support adding voluntary groundwater sustainability measures—such as monitoring or metering—into existing farm plans:

36% said yes
36% said no
27% were unsure

Preferred Strategies

Respondents clearly prioritized voluntary, incentive-based approaches over mandates.

Top-ranked strategies included:

Stormwater capture for groundwater recharge (clear #1)
Conservation and water-use efficiency incentives
Expanded recycled water availability

Mandatory metering—either basin-wide or for users pumping more than 2 acre-feet per year—consistently ranked near the bottom. Preferences skew toward voluntary metering or targeted metering in distressed areas. While a minority expressed opposition to any metering, privacy emerged as an important consideration; support increased when data would not be attributed to individual users.

What Motivates Action?

Key motivators for adopting groundwater sustainability practices include:

Better understanding of groundwater conditions on their property
Direct financial incentives
Cost savings, particularly reduced energy costs for pumping
Hands-on installation assistance
Practical, “how-to” education

With adequate support, respondents indicated strong willingness to implement:

Compost and mulch applications (66%)
Irrigation equipment upgrades (65%)
Cover crops (61%)
On-farm recharge projects (41%)
Consultations with technical experts (41%)

Barriers to Implementation

Participants identified several challenges to implementing new practices. Ranked from most significant to least, these include:

Cost of implementation
Fear of additional regulation
Permitting challenges
Concerns about sharing groundwater information with agencies
Limited capacity to implement changes
Perception that existing systems are already water efficient
Lack of technical knowledge
Time constraints
Lack of property ownership
Need for leadership approvals

Next Steps

Staff will continue analyzing the survey results alongside broader basin data to identify trends and actionable recommendations. A summary memorandum will be developed outlining key findings and potential next steps to inform future outreach, incentives, and program design.

The survey results underscore both the agricultural community’s strong interest in practical, incentive-based solutions and the opportunity to strengthen partnerships that support long-term groundwater sustainability across Sonoma County’s basins.

group of 6 farmers around table are holding a device they made from simple PVC materials at a workshop

Local Farmers Participate in Interactive ‘From Ground to Field: Know Your Water, Know Your Use’ Workshop

On a sunny and cool June afternoon, an eager group of 40+ people made up of local Sonoma County farmers and local agricultural organization representatives gathered at an orchard site for the workshop “From Ground to Field: Know Your Water, Know Your Use.”

a man in a plaid shirt holds a chart and explains something inside a barn building Hosted by the Community Alliance with Family Farmers (CAFF) in partnership with Sonoma Resource Conservation District (SRCD), Goldridge RCD, University of California Cooperative Extension, and the Sonoma County Groundwater Sustainability Agency (GSA), the event focused on getting small-scale farmers information on Sonoma County’s groundwater and sustainability plan while also zooming in on practical on-farm water efficiency management practices farmers could employ. It was a great mix of all things water, a topic that only increases in significance for California farmers every season.

Event organizer and CAFF’s Sonoma County Groundwater Community Engagement representative Reyna Yagi said the event aimed not just to help farmers understand the current groundwater challenges facing Sonoma County, but also to provide practical management strategies and technology that farmers could literally take home with them.

three people representing the local Groundwater Agency pose for a photo “Groundwater can be a complicated and heavy topic, especially with the state legislation, the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) in effect, but we want folks to have access to the people and resources that can help them navigate the sometimes murky waters. And just as importantly, we wanted these local organizations to hear directly from farmers as well as cross-pollinate with each other on the topic of groundwater and irrigation.”

The event took place at Laura’s Apples, an orchard in Sebastopol that has been navigating different irrigation hurdles and is using sensors to aid in her water management needs. To start off the workshop, participants were given a presentation on Sonoma County groundwater by Santa Rosa Plain GSA Administrator Andy Rodgers and GSA Plan Manager Marcus Trotta. They covered SGMA, groundwater use and conditions across the county, and the Sonoma County Groundwater Sustainability Plans. The GSA was awarded grant funding to administer various sustainability focused and educational programs, like the “Level Up”! well level monitoring program, “Flow Smart” flow meter program, and newer Well Aware water use efficiency (WUE) program. All these programs are free and aim to help users understand their well levels and use, identify leaks and contribute helpful data to understand overall groundwater sustainability.

After, participants broke up into smaller groups to rotate through three different presenter stations:

Keith Abeles, Soil and Water Specialist, Sonoma RCD: presented on increasing water-holding capacity in your soil to maximize water use efficiency, like building soil organic matter to increase soil health.
Ellie Andrews, Specialty Crops Advisor, UCCE: presented and live demonstrated stem water potential as one of the most accurate & reliable methods to assess tree water status. It is a direct measurement of tree water stress – telling you how thirsty your tree is.
Helaine Berris, Water and Soil Advisor, UCCE: Gave an intro to Cloud-Based Soil Moisture Monitoring. Using the technology sensor already installed on the farm property, Helaine walked participants through how the sensors worked, the set up, and how to interpret the data.

Participants took a brief break to enjoy fresh lemonade from Farmer Laura’s lemons before diving into the DIY activity for the day: make your own tensiometer. A tensiometer is a sensor that measures soil water tension as a proxy for soil moisture. It measures how tightly the water is held in the soil, reflecting the amount of force a plant must exert to extract that water for use. As soil dries, the soil water tension increases, and plants must use more force to extract it. Tensiometers are easy, accessible tools for agricultural water management, helping farmers to irrigate at optimal times, reduce overwatering, and reduce plant stress. The DIY sensor showcased to farmers a low-cost, easy tool they could make themselves and use right now.

“This workshop was a great opportunity to showcase a range of accessible tools for measuring soil moisture, from DIY tensiometers made with hardware store materials to cloud-based monitoring with instant data visualization. Each option has pros and cons in cost, data retrieval, and maintenance. My goal was to present these tools so farmers can decide what fits best for their operation’s water management needs” says Helaine.

A sold-out workshop and positive reception from farmer participants. Most farmed annual vegetable crops and/or orchard crops with interest and questions on appropriate and affordable water infrastructure and practices to retain soil moisture. This showed a thirst for these topics and a desire from our small farmers that they want more technical, accessible help navigating water management.

Reyna adds, “Our small farmers face many different hurdles in facing declining groundwater levels in Sonoma County. Many depend on shallow irrigation wells and generally lack access to means to dig deeper wells or truck in water in times of drought. Compounded by the fact a large portion don’t own their land makes investment in better water infrastructure challenging. But nonetheless many small Sonoma County farmers are committed to conservation practices and show a strong desire to keep improving water management.”

CAFF began partnering with the GSA in Summer of 2024 alongside other local partners as another outreach arm to network with the small and underrepresented farming community on GSA programs, resources and general help navigating. The GSA is working diligently to reach out to every type of user out there to get to know more about groundwater. Find your basin, free program information, and sign up for a helpful newsletter and more at www.sonomacountygroundwater.org.

Are you a farmer with questions on groundwater? Contact Reyna Yagi at CAFF: reyna@caff.org

This workshop was funded in part by the Department of Water Resource’s URCTA Program.

Photography credits: Lan Ngo

three collaged photos of a farm, a well and two women taking about something indoors

Community Alliance with Family Farmers works to support groundwater sustainability for small farmers across California

This article is reposted with permission from the Community Alliance with Family Farmers (CAFF) website.

The passage of the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) in 2014 started California’s first steps toward sustainable management of our critical groundwater resources. Groundwater, the water pumped from underground wells, makes up 40-60% of California’s annual water usage, the rest coming from snowmelt and surface water. Reliable groundwater access is critical for drinking water supplies, healthy ecosystems, and the success of small farms and agricultural production around the state.

2024 marks ten years since Governor Brown signed the legislation that created SGMA and it also marks the beginning of CAFF’s SGMA and Small Farms Program. Funded by the Department of Water Resources, we are excited to be collaborating with the Water Foundation, UC Agriculture and Natural Resources (ANR) Small Farms Network, UC Davis Law School, and Dudek Engineering on groundwater education, outreach, and technical assistance for small-scale and underserved farmers.

As detailed in the 2022 report SGMA and Underrepresented Farmers, small farms and their unique needs are often not captured in Groundwater Sustainability Plans. The challenges that small farms face include the shallow depth of their irrigation wells, lack of financial means to dig deeper wells, leased instead of owned land, and technological, language, or social barriers to accessing the Groundwater Sustainability Agencies that create local plans for groundwater.

With this new program, CAFF aims to uplift the voices of and offer direct support to small-scale, limited-resource, women-owned, beginning, and underserved farmers. CAFF is sharing this work with the UC ANR Small Farms Network. UC ANR will be covering the San Joaquin Valley with additional coverage in Santa Clara and Riverside Counties. To start, CAFF is focusing on the Sacramento Valley up to Tehama, Salinas Valley including Paso Robles, San Luis Obispo Valley, Sonoma County, and Cuyama Valley. If you are outside of these regions and need support, please reach out to CAFF so that we can include you in outreach efforts moving forward.

Alongside UC ANR, the goals of our SGMA and Small Farms Program include:

Analyzing risks, barriers, and opportunities for small and underserved farmers in local Groundwater Sustainability Plans
Mapping small farms at risk from SGMA implementation
Educating farmers on what the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act is, how it may impact their wells and groundwater access, and what changes may be coming to their region
Facilitating meetings between local Groundwater Sustainability Agencies and farmers
Supporting the development of legal resources for small and underserved farmers at UC Davis Law School, particularly for groundwater adjudication cases
Connecting underserved farmers with Dudek’s technical engineering resources for groundwater level monitoring, analysis of well interference, and more
Creating tools for Groundwater Sustainability Agencies and the Department of Water Resources to better understand the needs of small and underserved farmers

CAFF’s ongoing water work

As noted in CAFF’s 2024 Policy Platform, access to water is a key issue for California’s local food producers and is one of CAFF’s top priorities for current and future legislative cycles. In addition to the SGMA and Small Farms Program, CAFF is working with the California Sustainable Winegrowing Alliance on research, network building, and outreach for dry farming wine grapes. We continue to coordinate the California Agricultural Water Stewardship Initiative (CAWSI) and are excited to be updating this website and its resources in the year ahead. At the state level, CAFF remains engaged in policy advocacy for bills that impact small farms’ water access and sustainable water management.

__________________________________

Pictured, above: Community Alliance with Family Farmers is reaching out to local farmers with information about sustainable groundwater. In this photo, CAFF’s local outreach coordinator Reyna Yagi discusses water with family farmers at a local grange hall.

CAFF is a California-based nonprofit dedicated to building sustainable food and farming systems through policy advocacy and on-the-ground programs that create more resilient family farms, communities, and ecosystems. Sonoma County’s three groundwater sustainability agencies are partnering with CAFF on outreach to farmers for some of the programs that were funded last year by the Groundwater Sustainability Plan Implementation grant from the California Department of Water Resources, including the Level Up! Voluntary Well Monitoring Program.