Drought Funds Available

Attention farmers and ranchers of Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties! Ventura County Resource Conservation District (VCRCD) has reimbursement funding available for agricultural and working lands impacted by drought.

For more information on CUSP Drought Relief eligibility, please visit our webpage: vcrcd.org/cusp/

Pollinator Habitat Program

Recently, the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) awarded $1.6 million through its Pollinator Habitat Program (PHP) to the Cachuma Resource Conservation District, and its partners (Community Environmental Council, Santa Barbara Botanical Garden, and Ventura County Resource Conservation District), to boost pollinator habitat on agricultural lands.

 Interested farmers and ranchers in Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties can reach out today to be considered for up to $200,000 in funding to plant and maintain pollinator habitats such as hedgerows, cover crops, or riparian forest buffers on your land. We are here to support you through every step of the process, from application to implementation. Check out more on our webpage: vcrcd.org/php/

Planting Day Success

We love our volunteers, without their support many of our habitat programs would not be possible. Most recently many dedicated volunteers showed up at our planting day in Camarillo.

Half of the volunteers were still K-12 students who not only gave back to their community but were able to spot monarch butterfly eggs on our recently planted milkweed. Local community members helped our staff finish digging holes, and install irrigation. Their hard work impressed our staff members and helps demonstrate the strength of our community.

Exhibit at the Fair

Thank you to everyone who visited our booth at the Ventura County Fair. Our staff supplied several displays for the Ventura County Wildfire Collaborative on top of the VCRCD exhibit space which featured our agriculture and pollinator program.

The Ventura County Wildfire Collaborative and the Ventura County RCD exhibits were awarded First and Second place in their assigned classifications.

You may intentionally, or accidently, dig up a sand crab at our local beaches. These animals can dig their body into the sand backwards so that they are able to catch and eat plankton found in the crashing waves. Their biggest predator are several species of shorebirds who can use their long slender beaks to pull the sand crabs out of the ground.