Expand Cachuma Resource Conservation District Capacity

The Cachuma Resource Conservation District (CRCD) plays a critical role in our community as a partner to and bridge between farmers, ranchers and other landowners and conservation groups and agencies focused on the health of our land, water, soil, wildlife, agriculture and food systems. While other communities have robust RCD's with multiple staff members and significant dedicated funding to enable landowner support and land stewardship efforts at a large scale , CRCD is a one-person organization with very limited dedicated funding that depends largely on project grants and contractor partners. CRCD accomplishes A LOT of critical resilience work with such small funding and capacity, including the Regional Priority Plan where this project is posted. But as the RPP itself enumerates, there is far more the team could accomplish if better resourced and staffed. By comparison, the Monterey County RCD has hired key full time staff who are exclusively focused on fire resilience efforts in that region. The CRCD should also receive funding to similarly staff these efforts in Santa Barbara County. Note that this suggestion is not coming from the CRCD team itself, but from its core partners in the RPP who work with them day in and day out and are intimately familiar with the critical role they play and the breadth and depth of demand for what they do. The RPP opportunity matrix makes clear the need for substantially more capacity to write and manage grants, convene partnerships and implement projects. Alongside of and in partnership with the Santa Barbara Fire Safe Council, the Cachuma RCD is particularly well positioned to play these roles. If we don't expand the capacity of these two key community institutions, we will not move at the pace and scale needed to advance this project portfolio and build Santa Barbara County's resilience to wildfire, drought, heat and flooding.

The CRCD is a highly entrepreneurial enterprise as is, with the team working hard on an ongoing basis to put together the projects, grants and contracts that bring in the funding required for their budget. They are governed by a board appointed by the County Board of Supervisors. Expanding the capacity of the CRCD will need to be done thoughtfully to create a sustainable and resilient business model, with capacity growing alongside of increased grant flows that help sustain the organization. We propose that the CRCD engage a consultant to develop a strategic plan to expand capacity responsibly and to explore the potential for philanthropic funding to bridge the gap between current funding levels and expanded funding from increased grant flow over the next two to three years.

Status: Recommended

Cost: Medium

Partners: Cachuma Resource Conservation District

Permitting: None

Funding Sources: State wildfire resilience funding via various channels including potentially the Coastal Conservancy