Sonoma Mountain Institute

It was clear from January that this was going to be a very challenging year as it relates to water systems on the ranches. At that point we made the decision that we would just hit it head-on and work to develop as many additional water systems and support structures as we could. When Sonoma and Marin County are typically blessed with 30 – 50-inch rain years the water infrastructure is not that robust on most of the ranches we manage. So as a result, there was a lot of room for improvement. We were engaging in water development at 4 ranches simultaneously and were able to consolidate materials purchases, equipment rentals, and technical knowledge. The majority of the costs for parts and materials were picked up by our land partners while we provided installation and acquisition support for the systems. Here is a brief list of some of the projects we either managed or installed and completed between Jan – May

Taylor Mt. (Park Support on installation)

1. 8000-gallons of additional storage at the best spring on the Mt.
2. 800-gallon trough added to new storage
3. Two new springs rebuilt and plumbed to two new troughs 

Cayetana

1. Four new troughs added to distribution system
2. One new full water system installed by us, pump from pond to storage tank 1000 feet above for distribution

Walsh

1. Massive water system installed by SMI team, pump from pond, 1800 feet in distance and 200 feet in lift to 10,000 gallons of storage which then was distributed over 4000 feet on the ranch. This was a huge permitting and organizational lift
2. Added additional troughs

Mitsui (Jeff Wilcox on site biologist performed 95% of installation, we provided pipe for moving water and research and admin support for acquiring parts) 

1. Rerouting spring overflow in middle of ranch to pump up to storage tanks empty because pond that supplied them was dry. This allowed for better cattle distribution on 30% of the ranch that had no water.