Land
Fallowing Program

Demand Reduction, Recharge, and Transitional Water

The participating GSAs are taking a multi prong approach to preserve farming, retaining and establish wildlife habitat and groundwater. while providing benefits to disadvantaged communities and socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers.  

Participating GSAs have established a “transitional” water allocation as a way to ease groundwater demand reductions on the road to full implementation of the Groundwater Sustainability Plan to meet SGMA requirements. Transitional Water allocations ramps down over time but still result in continued overdraft of the basin through the SGMA planning period. 

This program is designed to incentivize landowners to not use transitional water now, so that water demand reductions, groundwater recharge, and overall sustainability benefits can be achieved within the SGMA-measured timeframes.

Soil Quality Benefits of Cover Cropping

Lands enrolled in the program will plant prescribed cover crops designed to create secondary benefits, including dust reduction, increased surface water infiltration, soil aeration, pollinator benefit, weed control, and overall soil health improvements by relieving compaction and improving structure of overtilled soil, adding organic matter to encourages beneficial soil microbial life and enhances nutrient cycling. 

Wildlife Habitat Value

The Central Valley of California is a key migration stop over and winter location for millions of migratory birds along the Pacific Flyway, which extends from Alaska and the Arctic down to the tip of South America. Millions of ducks, geese, shorebirds, wading birds, and cranes use this migratory corridor to move between their summer and winter ranges. They depend on the Central Valley - one of the most important inland stopover sites on the Pacific Coast - for safe places to find food and rest in the wetlands and agricultural lands of the Valley. Many other birds depend on these same landscapes for safe places to breed during the summer.

Cover crops can provide valuable habitat for wintering birds looking for safe places to rest and forage. They can also provide vital areas for summer breeding birds like waterfowl and some grassland birds to nest and raise young, or for migratory birds of prey to find food.