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AFT’s Pacific Northwest Region Awarded Three-year Collaborative USDA Grant  

(Bellingham, WA) The American Farmland Trust’s (AFT) Pacific Northwest (PNW) region, in partnership with AFT California, the Dry Farming Institute, Oregon State University Extension, the Washington Water Trust, the California Climate Hub and PNW Climate Hubs, received one of six grants awarded through the USDA’s Extension, Education and USDA Climate Hubs Partnership program. These grants support regionally led collaborative projects focused on scalable and sharable regionally focused approaches to address climate change.  

Throughout the western United States, shifting climatic patterns and events affect farmers and ranchers of all sizes, scales, and practices. The rapid acceleration of climate change imposes new constraints and demands on small and mid-scale producers, particularly to water availability in the western states. Additionally, small and mid-scale producers, particularly women and others from historically underserved groups, require tailored, targeted interventions and support to successfully respond, adapt, and succeed in the face of a changing climate. These challenges are not constrained by state boundaries and solutions are often constrained by a lack of coordination and communication between universities, agencies and farming communities facing similar challenges. 

“While water scarcity and the threat it poses to farm viability transcends geopolitical boundaries, the solutions to it are often hindered by lack of information and resource sharing across state lines,” said Addie Candib, AFT’s regional director for the Pacific Northwest and the project’s Principal Investigator. “This project – and the regional partnerships it represents – could not be timelier or more needed. American Farmland Trust is thrilled to play a role in facilitating this important collaboration.”    

Through on-farm learning events and informational support delivered to technical professionals, Advancing Water Resilient Strategies – supporting adoption of climate-smart farming practices by small and mid-scale underserved producers on the west coast will build a regionally-specific set of stories and case studies and support a network for producers of all sizes and scales. To learn more about this project contact Chantel Welch, Pacific Northwest Project Manager (cwelch@farmland.org).  

For general information on the grant program: NIFA Invests $9M in Extension, Education and USDA Climate Hubs Partnership | National Institute of Food and Agriculture.   

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American Farmland Trust is the only national organization that takes a holistic approach to agriculture, focusing on the land itself, the agricultural practices used on that land, and the farmers and ranchers who do the work. AFT launched the conservation agriculture movement and continues to raise public awareness through our No Farms, No Food message. Since our founding in 1980, AFT has helped permanently protect over 6.8 million acres of agricultural lands, advanced environmentally-sound farming practices on millions of additional acres and supported thousands of farm families.