There are two sides to a levee, but a conservationist and a farmer have found common ground at the swampy mouth of the Pajaro River.

To some, they may seem like strange bedfellows. Some might see collaboration between a lifelong conservationist and a pragmatic farmer as unlikely, but the environmental organization called Land Trust Santa Cruz County and Lakeside Organic Gardens are working together at Beach Ranch to form the most natural alliance in the world and use nature to restore ecological and financial balance to the Pajaro Valley.

“What we want to do to tackle climate change is find win-wins,” says Land Trust Santa Cruz County Director Bryan Largay. “Working with Lakeside Organic Gardens is that kind of solution.”

Dick Peixoto (peh-SHUTE), owner of Lakeside Organic Gardens, concurs: “The Land Trust is good at what they do, on that side of the levee, and I hope we’re good at what we do on this side of the levee. There’s that levee that separates us, but we do good together, I think.”

How high’s the water, Mama?
Two feet high and risin’
How high’s the water, Papa?
She said it’s two feet high and risin’

We can make it to the road in a homemade boat
That’s the only thing we got left that’ll float
It’s already over all the wheat and the oats
Two feet high and risin’.

—Five Feet High and Rising, Johnny Cash

Let Old Man River Spread Out

The waters of the Pajaro River travel 100 miles. They start at Pinnacles National Park, the least-visited National Park in the state, where the condors live, to wind through the Pajaro Valley and empty into Monterey Bay just west of Watsonville. Levees were built along the Pajaro River to contain it and keep it from flooding. Except when they didn’t.

On March 11, 2023, the levees gave way near the town of Pajaro after storm surges caused massive flooding, causing $800 million in damage to the Pajaro area, flooding businesses and driving out hundreds of low-income residents. Since built in 1949, the Pajaro levees have failed five times: 1955, 1958, 1995, 1998 and 2023. Lakeside grower Peixoto says the March 2023 breach left 70 acres of his broccoli 10 feet under water, “Some of it was a month from harvest and we lost it all.”

Land Trust Santa Cruz County was established in 1978, a nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting the lands of Santa Cruz County. The Land Trust has directly protected 3,200 acres of land and protected with partners another 10,000 acres that include wetlands at the heart of the Watsonville Sloughs, and 1,400 acres of farmland in the Pajaro Valley.

In August 2024, the Land Trust purchased 247 acres at Beach Ranch, where the Pajaro River meets the Pacific Ocean. According to the organization’s website, “With the acquisition and conservation of 247 acres at Beach Ranch, the Land Trust aims to create a resilient physical landscape that protects prime farmland and buffers the surrounding at-risk community from some of the worst impacts of climate disruption.”

Beach Ranch is at the intersection of the fertile farmland of the Pajaro Valley and the productive estuary and wetlands of the Pajaro River mouth. Largay says that a wetland is an estuary where the river meets the sea, where the freshwater and saltwater mix.

Land Trust Marketing and Communications Manager Vicki Lowell says the idea is to transform marginal farmland into wetlands, restoring habitat to create living shorelines that improve water quality and help mitigate inland flooding. Lowell says that a lot of the farmland along the Pajaro River has repeatedly flooded, to the point where it’s become unproductive.

In addition to Beach Ranch, the Land Trust purchased some of that unproductive farmland to restore it back to wetlands, and that soft area will disperse the water before it hits land, so it doesn’t hit so hard.

Lowell says, “It’s a couple of things; taking unproductive farmland out of production to restore the wetlands, which is restored habitat, and that will also protect surrounding communities from future flooding from these storms.”

Director Largay says that restoring wetlands will help reduce flood risk because it allows space for the water to spread out. “If your levee or berm is back from the river to give it space to swell, the river puts less pressure on the walls of the levees.”

Near the Pajaro River, floods have become more intense in the past 10 years as big waves pour seawater into the Pajaro River and the wetlands around Watsonville.

Largay says, “These farmlands get hit by the river floods; they also get hit by these big ocean wave events when there’s not much fresh water in the river to push the salt water out. Saltwater will flood from the ocean coming in rather than the river coming down from the mountains.” This makes these farmlands unusable.

Working With Nature Works

American Rivers is a nonprofit organization that advocates for river protection. In 2006, it designated the Pajaro River as the most endangered river in America, because of pollution, problems with the levees, and neglect. Largay is excited by how much investment is happening to support the Pajaro River.

“The Pajaro River Flood Control Project is going to include a bunch of new wetlands and riparian forests as part of the Flood Control Project. What Watsonville Wetlands Watch, and the Land Trust are doing in the Watsonville Slough to restore habitat is making a really big difference.”

Largay says that wetlands are the nursery of wildlife. “One-third of all bird species depend on wetlands. Wetlands are where all the amphibians go to lay their eggs. The frogs and salamanders will lay their eggs there. The wetlands are where biodiversity happens. We think of them as a nursery for life. They’re the cafeteria and snack bar.”

Largay says the new wetland areas will be formed by using the current berm, which is a non-engineered, six-foot, snow-plowed pile of dirt that runs for about two miles between the farmland and the slough.

To create additional wetland area, they will be breaching it in several places and moving it back and allowing the water to come onto the marginal poor-performing farmland. And then they’ll propagate and grow plants in their nursery that occur in the wetlands in Watsonville naturally. The Land Trust will then work with the farm crews to plant these native species. One of these is pickleweed, adapted for the salty conditions—and it actually tastes like a pickle.

It’s About the Money, Honey

Dick Peixoto and family established their first Lakeside Organic Gardens farm in 1996 in Watsonville, California. While Peixoto has been a community leader for sustainable farming and community development all his life, Lakeside Organic Gardens must show a profit; his 350 employees (11 of them family) depend upon it.

Peixoto says, “I got into organic because I thought it was a viable business decision. That business decision led to a byproduct of improving health and well-being for people and the earth. But working with the Land Trust makes it easier to be profitable.” He says the relationship with the Land Trust is unique, “A lot of people shy away from working with Land Trust, thinking that they’re a competing deal. I don’t. We look at them as a partner in managing the ranch.”

Regarding Beach Ranch, Largay says that once the growers said they were on board, the Land Trust felt comfortable purchasing the ranch and moving forward with the project.

“We own that land outright and lease the best of it to farmers. Then we will steward the rest. We’re going to convert 47 acres on Beach Ranch to wetlands. We’ll take care of that land and ensure that it’s good for farming where it’s appropriate and good for nature and biodiversity where it’s appropriate.”

The Land Trust partnered with the State of California Wildlife Conservation Board, Coastal Conservancy and California Department of Conservation to fund this project. Not only has the land been fully protected, a grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will provide the Land Trust with $6 million to begin restoration at Beach Ranch. The grant is part of over $71 million awarded to the California Marine Sanctuary Foundation to address the highest priority climate risks in the Monterey Bay region.*

Peixoto says, “We have been farming the whole ranch [Beach Ranch] for about 10 years from the previous owners, and then the Land Trust bought it. When they were in the process of buying the property, they came to me and said, ‘What part of the property is not really valuable farmland? Like what’s too wet to farm; where’s your challenges?’ So we talked about where our challenges are, where the toughest ground to farm is; it’s right up against the slough and stays real wet and floods in the wintertime. We kind of went over the property piece by piece and drew a line and said, ‘These are the properties we’d rather not farm.’ We have a tough time making a profit on the part of the property that floods, and so by them increasing the slough area, that will become a bigger floodplain outside of our farming area to protect the farmland a little bit from flooding.”

Peixoto explains that he has worked with the Land Trust before when they leased land to farm on the Harkin Slough Ranch. They had what he calls “a symbiotic relationship” where they both benefited. The Land Trust removed from their lease the “marginal,” unproductive land so they only had to pay rent on the best-producing land. Then the Land Trust turned that marginal land back into wetlands—a win-win-win for the farmer, the conservation folks and the wildlife.

On Beach Ranch, Largay says they will widen the whole channel and make 47 more acres of wetland. That’ll give a lot more space to hold the water. They’re going to work with engineers to use computer models to determine how deep the water is going to get when they give this land back to the wetlands. And one of the things that the wetlands are great for is absorbing those big flood flows. “Take a berm about eight feet tall—it’s a pretty big pile of dirt. A berm can be much shorter because we’re going to double the amount of land available for those floodwaters.”

Elections and Consequences

The Heritage Foundation–driven Project 2025 has a 922-page handbook that is a crafted manual of actions the next president’s appointees could take, and it details the steps to take them. When Trump and his administration return to power, they say they intend to go after federal funding for projects like this one.

Project 2025 wants to abolish the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and they would love to kill this project. What impact might a Trump administration have on this Land Trust project?

Largay says, “It is exciting that the entire county is all pulling in the same direction. Over the past three years, the Land Trust has secured about $40 million in grant funds. Over 85% of our funding is from state and foundation sources. Federal grants were about 15% of our grant funding. If 15% dries up, you’re still in business. So, California is taking care of itself pretty well. We can do an awful lot with locally led conservation and at the state level.”

This Beach Ranch Project brings it all together and connects the city of Watsonville to the ocean. It will restore the natural relationship between the water and the land. Community-wide commitment to nature doesn’t happen in very many places, but Santa Cruz County is on board.

In November, 67.7% of voters in Santa Cruz passed Measure Q, the Santa Cruz County Water and Wildfire Protection Initiative. The measure will raise about $7.3 million annually for land management, cleanup and conservation projects in forests, streams, beaches and other open spaces.

The success of Measure Q is a testament to the deep commitment of Santa Cruz County residents to environmental stewardship and an understanding that it is integral to community resilience. In addition, California is committed as well; Prop 4, the $10 billion climate change initiative, passed with 60% of the statewide the vote. Now we have a consistent funding source that will provide a reliable stream of money, which is critical for long-term conservation efforts.

With the passage of both Prop. 4 and Santa Cruz County’s Measure Q, two funding sources come together to bring significant investment to conservation.

Lakeside Organic Gardens grower Dick Peixoto says, “Dealing with climate change, the rising sea levels and the flooding, that’s what we want. I’ve been on the Farm Bureau board for 25 years and I’m one that always believes that everybody has to survive around here. We’re going to have to build housing, but let’s direct them away from our prime land and put them on the marginal lands. The Land Trust has the right idea.”

Largay and the Land Trust Santa Cruz County would love people to join them. He says, “We’ve got about 2,000 members. Anyone can join. The membership amount is $1. I gave a speech at Cabrillo College last week and I mentioned a dollar is all it takes. One of the students in the front row opened up a wallet, handed me a buck and said, ‘Sign me up.’ We’d love people to stay involved and celebrate renewal.”

In the midst of this uncertain political climate, one may wonder, “What can we do?” We can preserve our farmland, our rivers, our coastlines and our community. We can gather around something that’s real. We can discover more options for helping conserve the unique beauty of our area and support the environment, economy and quality of life for future generations.

To get involved with Land Trust Santa Cruz, become a member, staff information tables at events, sign up for the Land Trust newsletter, and volunteer to help maintain the properties (such as removing invasive species and replanting native plants—like pickleweed!). We can make a difference. It’s the most natural thing in the world.

*This passage was changed on 12/18/24 to address an error in describing what the NOAA grant money will fund.