Food and Agriculture

We depend upon farmers, ranchers and working lands to produce the food and fiber our communities need, but we often fail to protect and steward our local agricultural lands and economies and instead rely upon industrial agriculture and the global food system, a risky proposition in the face of pandemics, fertilizer shortages, and global supply chain failures. We work to ensure that local farms and ranches remain in production and adopt practices that build soil, absorb carbon and water, and provide habitat for wildlife while reliably producing nutritious food for our communities.

Food and Agriculture Projects and Insights

Featured

Community Resilience, Climate, Food and Agriculture

Lompoc Resilience Gardens

Community Resilience, Climate, Food and Agriculture

Late in 2021 LegacyWorks Group began connecting with local groups in the Lompoc community to understand challenges, needs, strengths and opportunities.

Community Resilience, Climate, Food and Agriculture

Water, Food and Agriculture

Upper Snake Collaborative

Water, Food and Agriculture

Teton Valley Declining snowpack and increased downstream water demand threaten the Upper Snake River watersheds. The Upper Snake Collaborative, a group of nonprofits and stakeholders, aims to address these challenges by creating a 60,000-acre foot carry-over in Island Park Reservoir to allow water managers …

Water, Food and Agriculture

Teton Basin Water Users Association

Water, Food and Agriculture

Teton Basin The Teton Basin Water Users Association was formed in 2018 to address water availability issues in Teton Valley. Population growth and changing land use are depleting the aquifer, causing shifts in groundwater hydrology. The association, along with LegacyWorks Group, Friends of the Teton River,...

Water, Food and Agriculture

Food and Agriculture, Wildlife and Biodiversity

Landowner Outreach Series

Food and Agriculture, Wildlife and Biodiversity

Cody The East Yellowstone Collaborative organizes landowner and community outreach events aimed at in-depth discussions on various topics of interest while fostering social connections among landowners, NGOs, and community members. The first gathering, held in October 2022, focused on cheatgrass to...

Food and Agriculture, Wildlife and Biodiversity

East Yellowstone Collaborative

Food and Agriculture, Wildlife and Biodiversity

Cody Working with private landowners and partners, EYC was formed to catalyze landscape-scale conservation along the Absaroka Front while enhancing the economic viability of ranches and their important role in wildlife conservation. EYC is committed to finding conservation solutions that work for …

Food and Agriculture, Wildlife and Biodiversity

Food and Agriculture, Wildlife and Biodiversity, Regenerative Economies, Community Resilience, Climate

Catch Together Collective

Food and Agriculture, Wildlife and Biodiversity, Regenerative Economies, Community Resilience, Climate

Since early 2022, LegacyWorks Group has been playing a central role in the evolution of Catch Together, a nonprofit program helping small-scale fishermen and heritage fishing communities ensure they retain access and continue to steward and conserve their local fisheries.

Food and Agriculture, Wildlife and Biodiversity, Regenerative Economies, Community Resilience, Climate

Land Conservation, Wildlife and Biodiversity, Climate, Community Resilience, Food and Agriculture, Regenerative Economies, Water

Sentinel Landscapes

Land Conservation, Wildlife and Biodiversity, Climate, Community Resilience, Food and Agriculture, Regenerative Economies, Water

Sentinel Landscapes are federally designated priority areas that contain high priority lands for multiple federal and state agencies along with military installations of national importance to the Department of Defense. LegacyWorks Group is supporting the evolution of the program at the national and local levels to better enable each Sentinel Landscape Partnership to set and achieve highly ambitious, landscape scale conservation, community and climate resilience goals.

Land Conservation, Wildlife and Biodiversity, Climate, Community Resilience, Food and Agriculture, Regenerative Economies, Water

Climate, Food and Agriculture, Wildlife and Biodiversity, Community Resilience

Prescribed Herbivory

Climate, Food and Agriculture, Wildlife and Biodiversity, Community Resilience

Prescribed herbivory and grazing is a unique tool that can reduce fire fuels, create mosaics of open space in thick brush, reduce invasive species, improve soils and native habitat, and reduce the risk of high-severity fires.

Climate, Food and Agriculture, Wildlife and Biodiversity, Community Resilience

Community Resilience, Food and Agriculture, Climate, Wildlife and Biodiversity, Water

Goleta Riparian Corridor Wildfire Risk Reduction & Restoration Project

Community Resilience, Food and Agriculture, Climate, Wildlife and Biodiversity, Water

The Goleta Riparian Corridor Wildfire Risk Reduction & Restoration Project was funded by a California Coastal Conservancy Grant and builds on initial planning work by the Environmental Defense Center that identified wildfire risks and restoration opportunities in numerous sites within twelve watersheds.

Community Resilience, Food and Agriculture, Climate, Wildlife and Biodiversity, Water

Water, Food and Agriculture

Adapting to Our Changing Hydrology

Water, Food and Agriculture

Wyatt Penfold is a lifelong Teton Valley farmer, just like his father and grandfather. He grows potatoes, quinoa and other grains in the fertile soil that abuts the west slope of the Tetons. Wyatt is feisty and entrepreneurial and struggles to sit still. He lights up when he talks about water. With a combination of flood irrigation and center pivot sprinklers systems, Wyatt can produce amazing crops even in our extreme conditions.

Water, Food and Agriculture

Food and Agriculture

Congratulations White Buffalo Land Trust on Their Acquisition of Jalama Canyon Ranch

Food and Agriculture

We are thrilled to share the news that our good friends at White Buffalo Land Trust acquired the 1000-acre Jalama Canyon Ranch last week after a successful $6 million capital campaign.

Food and Agriculture

Food and Agriculture, Land Conservation, Wildlife and Biodiversity, Community Resilience

White Buffalo Land Trust Jalama Canyon Ranch

Food and Agriculture, Land Conservation, Wildlife and Biodiversity, Community Resilience

LegacyWorks supported White Buffalo Land Trust’s campaign to acquire the Jalama Canyon Ranch. Together we worked to understand and articulate the vision, purpose, principles and goals of the White Buffalo Jalama Ranch Project.

Food and Agriculture, Land Conservation, Wildlife and Biodiversity, Community Resilience

Land Conservation, Community Resilience, Food and Agriculture, Wildlife and Biodiversity

SBC Conservation Blueprint Facilitation and Project Design

Land Conservation, Community Resilience, Food and Agriculture, Wildlife and Biodiversity

In 2015, LegacyWorks was engaged by the Land Trust for Santa Barbara County and its partners to develop a strategy for creating a report on the community’s natural resources and an online mapping portal to enable us to proactively conserve natural resources.

Land Conservation, Community Resilience, Food and Agriculture, Wildlife and Biodiversity