Farmers and ranchers have taken the initiative to help protect water quality in several watersheds in the state. A plan by the California Farm Bureau Federation, Non-Point Source Initiative 2000, has helped landowners form local watershed working groups to restore, enhance and protect all watershed resources. Landowners in several watersheds are helping to identify and prioritize pollution sources and to apply the appropriate controls, to monitor and assess results and to improve controls to obtain water quality efficiency. Farm Bureau is using this voluntary approach to implement a statewide program to organize and enroll agricultural landowners into agricultural watershed working groups to undertake voluntary non-point source planning and control under the guidance and direction of their regional water quality control boards, and in cooperation with other jurisdictional agencies and interested stakeholder groups. In several areas of the state, farmers and ranchers have planted trees and native plants to prevent streambank erosion and provide habitiat for fish.
Farmers remove trash and debris from streams and provide gravel to provide spawning beds for fish.
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