Presenter Information

Kandi Manhart

Kandi Manhart has been the Executive Officer of the Glenn County Resource Conservation District for over 13 years. Through a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), she has also acted as the Subwatershed Coordinator for the Colusa Glenn Subwatershed Program (CGSP) as part of her responsibilities for 11 of those years. The MOU started as a way for the RCD to help farmers meet regulatory requirements while bringing financial opportunities to the table – exactly why RCDs were created – and to help CGSP implement an efficient locally led program for its members/farmers.

As part of the Sacramento Valley Water Quality Coalition, CGSP makes up 24% of the irrigated agriculture in the Sacramento Valley and helps over 1,750+ members who farm over 300,000+ irrigated acres in Colusa and Glenn Counties. The goal: meet water quality regulations required by the Irrigated Lands Regulatory Program. Under Kandi’s leadership for outreach and education, CGSP has received national recognition for completion of the Walker Creek Management Plan being deemed a Success Story by the Regional Water Quality Control Board, and was recognized by Michelle Perez, PhD, American Farmland Trust in her report Water Quality Targeting Success Stories: How to Achieve Measurably Cleaner Water Through U.S. Farm Conservation Watershed Projects [2017].

In an effort to help farmers achieve this success, Kandi and her team secured $9,000,000+ in federal cost-share funding for the members/farmers to implement management practices protective of water quality and to meet Management Plan tasks. Possibly more important now and to rid the massive amounts of paper, Kandi’s dream came true when CGSP secured a partnership with Land IQ to develop a new software product for online data management. Members/farmers now report annually online through their membership portal:  Farm Evaluations, Nitrogen Management Plans, Field Mapping, and more. From paper to online data management… it will prove to be a more efficient, secure way of managing member/farmer data as the regulatory reporting continues in the future.