Publications and Reference Guides

Over the years, the RCD and its collaborative farmer-partners have tested and refined a number of cost-effective, innovative practices that enhance agricultural operations, as well as watershed resources. Hundreds of landowners, Ag advisors, conservation professionals, and outdoor enthusiasts have benefited from the RCD's "Farming with Wildlife" workshops and the annual series of  "On-Farm Conservation Field Meetings", with presentations from practitioners and farmers, as well as field days and tours.

The RCD staff have also produced several  very informative and easy to use manuals and handbooks, that can be ordered by contacting the RCD (see below), or can be viewed and downloaded from this website.  Follow this link to the price list.

Materials currently available include:

• Bring Farm Edges Back to Life! Landowner Conservation Guidebook (100 pages; PDF version, 2.4 MB)
• Capay Valley Conservation & Restoration Manual (130 page; PDF version, 2.1 MB) Created for Capay Valley landowners, but easily generalizable to most Western U.S. landscapes.
  
• Know Your Natives: A Pictorial Guide to California Native Grasses: Full color images of seeds, seedlings, mature plants, and seedheads of 20 grass species on heavy glossy stock paper for field use ( link to introductory remarks). 
•  A supplement to Know Your Natives is also now available, adding 16 grass species to the original selection (17 pages; PDF version, 1.8 kB) and introduction.
• Monitoring on Your Farm - A Guide to Tracking and Understanding the Resources and Wildlife on your Land (Guide for low-tech soil, water, plant & animal monitoring techniques (127 pages; PDF version, 1.6 MB)
• Working Habitat for Working Farms (a comprehensive 25-minute video introduces current watershed problems and suggested solutions through on-farm practices and community coordination)
• Soil Survey of Yolo County CD or link to web soil survey OR  http://www.ca.nrcs.usda.gov/mlra02/yolo/ (note: this second site only works with the Internet Explorer browser)
  
• Brochures including: "Fighting the Weed Wildfire" (produced by Yolo Co. Weed Management Area), "Winning the War Against Roadside Weeds-Roadside Native Grass Establishment", and "Hedgerow Establishment: Practices and Costs for Field Crop Farms in the Sacramento Valley"

To request or purchase these materials (brochures are free), please request an order form from Sheila Pratt at the RCD at (530) 662-2037, ext. 117 or pratt(at)yolorcd(dot)org.