With support from California Climate Investments, the California Conservation Corps (CCC) is reducing wildfire risks by removing hazardous fuels in Paradise, Lake Tahoe, and Arcadia as part of the Training and Workforce Development Program. Through fuels reduction projects, Corpsmembers have treated over 90 acres of fire-prone land, creating defensible space and improving community safety. These efforts not only protect residents but also provide young adults with hands-on experience in forestry and wildfire mitigation, preparing them for careers in fire management and conservation.
California Department of Food and Agriculture
Supported by a $565,470 grant from the California Department of Food and Agriculture’s Alternative Manure Management Program, Paul Danbom of Brindeiro & Danbom Dairy Farms in Turlock took a significant step towards improving the efficiency of his dairy operation and installed a new solid separation system. Instead of flushed manure being discharged directly into a settling pond and storage lagoon system, it is now pumped through a separator capable of capturing a large portion of manure solids, keeping that organic material from entering and decomposing in a liquid environment where it would produce methane.
California Air Resources Board
Thanks to over $3 million from the Sustainable Transportation Equity Project, the City of Commerce has partnered with Climate Resolve and TreePeople to provide more clean transportation options to the city’s residents. Situated in southeast Los Angeles County in an area known for its commercial and industrial operations, Commerce has a history of providing free and reliable public transit service to its residents.
California Workforce Development Board
The High Road to Tribal Forest Restoration and Stewardship project provides foundational training and skill building tied directly to work experience in forest health and landscape restoration. Through a partnership between Tribes, nonprofits, and regional employers, the project is working to increase employment opportunities and build capacity for Tribal Forest restoration crews. The project has formally engaged with fourteen Tribes, with training participants from over twenty Tribes.
California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection
A collaborative of landowners led by the San Diego Fire Safe Council and the Resource Conservation District of Greater San Diego County is implementing a landscape-scale restoration project aimed at improving forest health on Palomar Mountain. Forests in San Diego county have experienced heavy losses from catastrophic fires and invasive pest infestations. Now at the home of one of San Diego county’s last mixed conifer forests, project partners are working to ensure Palomar Mountain’s forests are resilient to future wildfires.
California Natural Resources Agency
TreePeople is transforming Pacoima Middle School’s asphalt schoolyard into a more green, vibrant and healthy learning space. The Pacoima Living Schoolyards Project will bring native shade trees, shrubs, pollinator gardens, and outdoor nature-based education and play areas.
California Strategic Growth Council
72 affordable homes for families and veterans are now available in downtown Riverside. The Mission Heritage Plaza project is a partnership between Wakeland Housing and Development Corporation, the City of Riverside, and Riverside Transit Agency, working to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through transportation mode-shift and construction of affordable housing within the urban core of Riverside.
California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection
A $5 million CAL FIRE Forest Health Program grant is supporting the Western Klamath Restoration Partnership in their efforts to restore fire resilience at the landscape scale along the Klamath River. This project is part of a larger effort by the Western Klamath Restoration Partnership to improve forest health and resilience across a 1.2 million acre planning area that includes much of the Karuk Tribe’s ancestral homelands.
California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection
Forest resilience treatments funded through a $2 million grant from CAL FIRE’s Forest Health Program helped to save some of the world’s most iconic trees in one of the world’s most famous national parks. Protecting the ancient, majestic giant sequoias in the largest and most popular of Yosemite’s sequoia groves was an immediate concern for land managers when the Washburn Fire broke out near Mariposa Grove on July 7, 2022. Fortunately, a partnership that includes the Mariposa County Resource Conservation District, the National Park Service and local tribal forest crews had completed the important fuels reduction work that reduced the fire’s severity and helped firefighters protect the invaluable trees.
California Department of Transportation
In 2022, the California Department of Transportation issued its 1,000th award through LCTOP to Stanislaus Regional Transit Authority (StanRTA) for their Free Fares Project. Through the Free Fares Project, StanRTA provides free, safe, and reliable transportation services for residents to travel to educational institutions, employment centers, medical offices, grocery stores, and shopping malls. Transit fares are often a barrier to residents in disadvantaged communities but with the support from LCTOP, the Free Fares Project has made it possible for riders to use public transportation without any financial hardship.
California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection
With a $100,000 grant from CAL FIRE’s Forest Health Research Program, Joelene Tamm a master's student at UC Riverside and Squaxin Island Tribal member, is partnering with the La Jolla band Luiseño Indians to investigate how indigenous cultural burning practices and traditional ecological knowledge can be used to support management of the invasive goldspotted oak borer, an invasive beetle.
State Coastal Conservancy
Thanks to $488,760 from the Climate Ready Program, the Big Sur Land Trust has taken a big step towards transforming Carr Lake into a new park and greenspace for residents in the heart of the City of Salinas. The community has long imagined transforming Carr Lake into a multi-benefit green space, serving as a “central park” in the heart of Salinas.
California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery
Thanks to $1,315,378 from the Recycled Fiber, Plastic and Glass Grant Program, Suay is expanding their operations diverting textiles from landfills. Suay is a closed-loop recycling operation in Los Angeles that collects used garments and cleans, repairs, and re-sews these textiles remaking them into new products. The finished products are repaired clothing and remade products, such as pillows and dog beds that use stuffing from shredded garments that could not be repaired.
California Department of Fish and Wildlife
The California State Coastal Conservancy is restoring wetlands at Ocean Ranch along the Eel River with support from a $2 million grant from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Wetlands Restoration Program. The Eel River was once one of the Pacific Coast’s greatest producers of salmon and steelhead. Over the years, extensive human activities have reduced the Eel River Delta. As the estuary shrank, so did populations of salmon and other native species, and carbon sequestration rates. At the same time, non-native species proliferated.
California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection
A $2.5 million grant from CAL FIRE’s Forest Health Program is supporting the San Mateo Resource Conservation District (RCD) and a network of regional partners in their efforts to improve forest resilience, increase carbon sequestration, and reduce wildfire risk to vulnerable communities in the Santa Cruz Mountains.
California Department of Food and Agriculture
James (Jim) Miller received a State Water Efficiency and Enhancement Program (SWEEP) grant award of $97,614 for improvements at an orange and avocado orchard in Cayucos, California. The farm was dealing with a high energy cost and wanted to utilize irrigation tools to support more precise and efficient irrigation scheduling. Using the SWEEP funds, Jim and his son Daryn oversaw the installation of two solar energy arrays (14.72 kW and 16 kW); one for each of the on-farm wells. In addition, the recipients installed new high efficiency electric pumps with screen filters, a flow meter at each well, soil moisture sensors, and a weather station. With the addition of these tools, the farm made improvements to both the energy efficiency of their irrigation system and can make more informed irrigation decisions by relying on the sensors.
San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission
With support from Climate Resilience Program, the Adapting to Rising Tides project at the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission is providing research, guidance, tools, and staff support to help Bay Area agencies and organizations understand, communicate, and begin to resolve complex climate change issues.
In 2019, the California Energy Commission awarded Pacific Coast Producers (PCP), the largest tomato canning facility in the country, a $5,721,713 grant from the Food Production Investment Program (FPIP) under the state’s California Climate Investments program to install an advanced energy-efficiency evaporation technology at PCP’s Woodland facility. The grant was supplemented by $3,080,923 in match funding from PCP.
The California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle) awarded $488,635 of California Climate Investment funds to Habitat for Humanity East Bay/Silicon Valley, Inc. as part of the first cycle of the Reuse Grant Program. This project is diverting wood products from landfills to their ReStore retail stores for reuse by the community. Habitat for Humanity East Bay/Silicon Valley, Inc. is a nonprofit, donation-based collection, and resale operation with three sites in Oakland, Concord, and San Jose, serving the San Francisco Bay Area.
The California Conservation Corps (CCC), in collaboration with CAL FIRE, American Forests, and the Mojave Desert Resource Conservation District, helped plant 70,000 seedlings in the San Bernardino Mountains. Supported by $200,000 in California Climate Investments funding, the project’s goal was to re-plant an area in and around the Eaton Scout Reservation in Cedar Glen. The project is the result of interagency coordination and collaboration and helped invest in Corpsmembers from underserved areas by providing information about tree planting and reforestation and providing them with experience in the mountains to help cultivate interests in forest health.
California Department of Food and Agriculture
Thanks to $3 million in funding from the Dairy Digester Research and Development Program (DDRDP), a California Bioenergy dairy digester and Bloom Energy fuel cell technology have been installed at the Bar 20 Dairy in Fresno County and are now capturing methane and generating renewable electricity without combustion. This innovative project was made possible through state incentive programs and private investors including the DDRDP administered by the California Department of Food and Agriculture, and the Self Generation Incentive Program, administered by the California Public Utilities Commission, and access to revenue generated by California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) credit.
