Enjoy this month’s News from the Wild!

Sam Earnshaw (Hedgerows Unlimited), Nick Filannino (WFA), and Janet Nagamine (Hikari Farms) show off the freshly planted hedgerow.

Hikari Farms Hedgerow Planting

Spring has officially arrived in California, and that means many of the Pollinator Habitat Plans that Wild Farm Alliance (WFA) has spent the past year developing—alongside Pollinator Partnership, CAFF, and the CDFA—are finally being implemented. Like many of our partners in the agroecology world, WFA has not been immune to the sweeping changes to federal programs in 2025. These changes have significantly impacted our funding, particularly the resources we rely on to help farmers implement hedgerow and wildlife plantings.

So it was with both excitement and a sense of uncertainty that our team headed out to Hikari Farms in Watsonville in late March for our first spring planting of the year.

Thursday morning began at Hikari Farms’ 6-acre Fuji apple orchard, where we met Principal and Farm Manager Janet Nagamine. We were also joined by Sam Earnshaw of Hedgerows Unlimited and local support staff from the Santa Cruz County Resource Conservation District (RCD). Spring and fall are the best times for planting hedgerows due to their moderate temperatures and potential rainfall—Thursday delivered just that. With sunshine overhead and rain clouds moving inland.

Janet and Sam had laid out the 212 shrubs and forbs in planting order the day prior. So our first tasks of the morning were straightforward: digging holes, shoveling compost, placing gopher baskets, and watering. Thanks to the preparation and teamwork, by midday, all the plants were in the ground.

Keewaydin Farms Field Day Recap

In April, WFA and 30 participants gathered at Keewaydin Farms in Viola, WI, for a spring field day co-hosted with Driftless Curiosity, just as migratory birds were beginning to return. Farmers Rufus Hauke and Joy Miller opened the event by sharing the story of their farm and its evolution. They highlighted the bird-friendly practices they’ve adopted, such as delaying haying to allow ground-nesting birds time to fledge, planting native vegetation and maintaining ten songbird nest boxes across their fields. These efforts not only enhance pest control and other ecosystem services, but also bring the joyful sounds of birdsong to the landscape.

Practical Whole Farm Solutions for Pest Management Practitioners and Growers

Audio Recordings and the Accompanying Powerpoint Slides for the 2025 EcoFarm Preconference

In January, Wild Farm Alliance partnered with EcoFarm to co-host a Pre-Conference on Sustainable Pest Management (SPM). The event was convened by leading voices in agroecology, integrated pest management (IPM), environmental policy, and farm stewardship. Through expert-led discussions, the event highlighted sustainable, diversified farming practices that reduce reliance on chemicals and enhance ecological health.

Listen to the recording from the event and review presenter slides!

Thank You, USDA Workers!

WFA thanks our USDA friends for their hard work helping farmers tackle the many challenges of providing food for America. We value their commitment to public service and to supporting agricultural communities, especially during these times of uncertainty and change. To celebrate and honor the contributions of USDA workers, we share a short video that highlights their impact and spirit, as well as our video on managing lettuce pests with hoverflies. Both feature USDA researcher Dr. Eric Brennan.

Midwest Beaver Summit

We are proud to be a co-host of the 2025 Midwest Beaver Summit, where Beaver Institute founder Mike Callahan will explain how municipalities, park districts, forest preserves, homeowners associations, and other local entities can develop beaver management plans to promote coexistence.

This year's summit will be a hybrid event, with an in-person conference at Oakton College in Des Plaines, Illinois, along with a virtual event. "Resilience Through Relationships," reflects the understanding that building relationships across a spectrum of ideologies and interests is an essential part of beaver advocacy work.

Aerial imagery of rice fields. Photo by Brian Baer

A Conservation Footprint for Multiple Species of Wildlife in California Rice

By John M. Eadie, Daniel S. Karp, and Andrew L. Rypel

Signs of modern agriculture are everywhere— tractors slowly driving by, fields engineered in neat squares, with millions of precisely spaced plants. All cues indicate much food will be harvested from this modern, industrialized farm. But you probably do not expect to see wildlife. Neither do most conservation biologists. In California’s Central Valley, farming has drained >90% of our wetlands and replaced them with farms.

Recognizing this, many conservation practitioners have spent several decades exploring how to mitigate agriculture’s impact on wildlife. We now know that many species can persist in farmland, sometimes even as many as in nearby natural habitats. That is, provided farmers implement practices that support ecological benefits. These practices might include growing multiple crop types, fertilizing with composts, planting hedgerows or flower strips, and maintaining patches of nearby natural habitat. Yet while such practices often abound in small-scale, diversified farms, scaling up to create wildlife-friendly, industrial-scale agriculture remains a challenge.

Rice is perhaps the clearest exception…

Several small but vital organic programs were left out of Congress’s Farm Bill extension last December—and they’re still unfunded. Without the Organic Certification Cost Share Program in 2025, farms face rising certification costs and we risk losing organic farms. And without funding for the National Organic Program’s trade and tracking system, USDA can’t upgrade their technology to fully implement the new Strengthening Organic Enforcement rule.

Contact your Senators and Representative today to ask them to restore funding for core organic programs that were omitted from the Farm Bill extension. Use this form to automatically send a message in support of these programs:

Support the WFA Legacy Fund

For 25 years, Wild Farm Alliance has championed a vision where farms and nature thrive together. As we celebrate this milestone, we are looking ahead—to the next 25 years and beyond. To secure this future, we are launching the 25th Anniversary Legacy Fund and we invite you to be a part of it.

This special Fund provides the financial security needed to carry our work forward through changing times, reducing economic uncertainty and ensuring that wild farming remains a powerful force for biodiversity, climate resilience, and thriving agricultural landscapes for generations to come.

When you give to the Legacy Fund, you are making a lasting commitment to:
🌱 Expanding farmer education on biodiversity-friendly practices
🌎 Restoring and protecting native habitats that build climate resilience
🚜 Supporting on-farm conservation projects that sustain wildlife and working lands
🦋 Ensuring a future where farms and nature flourish together

By contributing, you are planting the seeds for perpetual impact-helping farms remain havens for biodiversity, soil health, and climate solutions.

Join us in shaping the next 25 years of wild farming. Your legacy starts here.

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