Central Coast Vineyard Team BIFS project wins EPA award
A group of farmers, researchers and agricultural consultants in Monterey, San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties have been awarded a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) award for reducing pollution and pesticides and promoting biologically integrated farming practices in winegrape vineyards.
Pomar Junction Vineyard, a member of the awardwinning Central Coast Vineyard Team.
"We are thrilled to know that EPA officials consider our monitoring project groundbreaking," said Kris O'Connor, executive director of the CCVT and principal investigator of the project. "They will be using our 2005 strategy as a model for adoption for the other PESP members."
In their award notification, EPA representatives said the project "stands alone in the Pesticide Environmental Stewardship Program for the capturing and reporting of pertinent, comprehensive indicators to measure.progress." and singled out the CCVT's "exceptional outcome measurement reporting system."
The Lodi-Woodbridge Winegrape Commission, which received BIFS funding through the UC SAREP program nine years ago, is also a 2005 EPA PESP award winner.
O'Connor said CCVT's overall goal is to reduce environmental and health risks associated with ag chemicals by increasing the use of the CCVT's trademarked Positive Points System (PPS) practices in Central Coast vineyards.
"PPS is our 1,000 point self-assessment tool for evaluating the extent of sustainable vineyard practices used in the vineyards," O'Connor said.
CCVT has found that growers who evaluate their acreage for multiple years improve their PPS scores over time.
"This suggests that the process of self-assessment motivates growers to adopt reduced risk practices," she said. The PPS was conceived and developed collaboratively by a partnership of growers, wineries, UC Cooperative Extension personnel, educators, consultants, and environmental interests.
CCVT member Willy Cunha manages Sunview Shandon, 800 acres of wine and table grapes that are part of a large family farm in Shandon.
"My continuing involvement with the CCVT and the PPS has helped me implement, evaluate and expand innovative farming practices that help reduce pesticide applications and runoff and enhance the quality of my crop," he said. "The process of growers working together on the PPS expands our exposure to practical applications of good practices. We educate and encourage each other as we implement and expand these positive farming techniques."
Cunha noted that by documenting the outcomes of their experimentation, CCVT members have created a database of practical information proving or disproving the worth of new practices, which guides them toward further innovations.
O'Connor reported that more 12,000 acres have been evaluated using the PPS in the last several years. Growers who have participated in the PPS process manage approximately 70,000 acres on the Central Coast. She noted that growers have increased their PPS scores and reduced their use of high-risk materials targeted by the Food Quality Protection Act over time.
"Growers enrolled in our BIFS project nearly eliminated their use of chlorpyrifos and diazinon during the project period," O'Connor said. "We believe it is critical to communicate their success to other mainstream growers in the region."
CCVT's BIFS project, which concluded in March 2005, demonstrated the use of PPS practices including treatment decisions based on monitoring, eliminating or reducing use of preemergent herbicides, and the development of beneficial insect habitats in and around vineyards. Project results were shared with the larger grower community through tailgate meetings, newsletters, articles, and formal presentations. According to O'Connor, CCVT reached 1,383 growers at tailgate meetings alone, and more than 7,900 growers and pest control advisers through other industry events.
CCVT will continue work on this project with a three-year $680,000 pesticide mitigation grant from the Regional Water Quality Control Board.
"Much of the agriculture on the Central Coast is in soils susceptible to erosion above water-sheds that drain into the Monterey and Morro Bay estuaries or into rivers listed for salmon and steelhead protection," O'Connor said. "We're helping farmers reduce off-site movement of water and soil through various cover-cropping strategies."
For more information about CCVT strategies, see the EPA website. For more information on the BIFS program, see the UC SAREP website.
