Why Protecting Land Isn’t Enough—How SAP Makes It Thrive
By Peter Fugazzotto,
Director, Communications
November 14, 2025
Earlier this year, MALT reached an extraordinary milestone: more than $4 million invested in land stewardship since 2002. This achievement represents where agriculture and conservation truly meet, demonstrating our commitment not just to protecting farmland, but to ensuring it thrives for generations to come.
Where Land Stewardship Fits in Our Mission
Land stewardship is the ongoing care and management of protected agricultural land to ensure it remains productive, economically viable, and environmentally healthy. Unlike land protection (which prevents development through tools like conservation easements), land stewardship focuses on the active health of working landscapes through technical assistance, grants, and conservation practices.
As we recently shared in our Strategic Framework, MALT’s work follows a clear path: First, we protect agricultural land forever, such as through conservation easements (land protection). Then, we deepen our impact through strategic land stewardship programs (land stewardship).
This is our theory of change in practice. We’ve protected nearly 59,000 acres—more than half of Marin’s privately-owned, productive agricultural land. But land protection alone isn’t enough. We need to ensure these lands support economically viable agriculture while enhancing environmental health. That’s exactly what our land stewardship does.
Our land stewardship work consists of ongoing technical assistance and grantmaking programs, including the Stewardship Assistance Program (SAP), the small grants program (SGP), and the currently-dormant Drought Resilience and Water Security (DRAWS) initiative.
Why Land Stewardship Matters
When we protect farmland from development to remain in productive agricultural use, that’s just the beginning. Strategic stewardship investments like SAP ensure these working landscapes remain productive, resilient, and environmentally healthy for generations to come.
Healthier Soil
Land stewardship projects help ranchers build better soil—soil that holds more water, stores more carbon, and grows better grass. Healthier soil means ranches that can better handle drought and extreme weather.
Water That Works
From fixing ponds to upgrading water systems, land stewardship helps farms and ranches use water wisely while keeping our streams clean. As droughts become more extreme, this matters more than ever.
Mitigating Climate Change
The practices land stewardship supports—adaptive grazing, better infrastructure, careful land management—help working lands adapt to climate change while also fighting it by storing carbon and protecting wildlife.
Impact Beyond Property Lines
These benefits don’t stop at fence lines. When we invest in one ranch’s water system or another’s soil health, the benefit spreads across entire watersheds and ecosystems. This is how real landscape-level conservation happens.
What is the Stewardship Assistance Program?
The Stewardship Assistance Program (SAP) is one of MALT’s land stewardship grant programs that invests in the long-term health and productivity of conservation easement-protected agricultural lands. Since 2002, SAP has distributed over $2.4 million in privately donated funds to support water systems, infrastructure improvements, and climate resilience projects on MALT-protected ranches and farms.
Unlike our small grants program which is open to all agriculturalists in Marin County, SAP grants are only available to those who hold or operate on land currently protected by a MALT conservation easement. The goal is to build healthier operations and landscapes on already protected land.
SAP is 100% funded by private donations.
Over 22 years, SAP has invested more than $2.4 million directly into MALT-protected ranches and farms. And the pace is picking up—over $3 million of our total $4 million in grants has happened in just the last five years, as climate change, drought, and economic pressures intensify.
From July 2024 through June 2025, MALT distributed $271,100 in Stewardship Assistance Program funds to 19 MALT-protected farms and ranches.
These funded projects reached ranches throughout the county, from the coastal hills near Marshall and Tomales to the inland valleys around Nicasio and Chileno Valley—demonstrating SAP’s impact across Marin’s diverse agricultural landscape.
While numbers tell one story, the real impact of SAP comes to life when we look at individual ranches—the challenges they face, the solutions they find, and how their success ripples outward to benefit the entire region.
Spotlight: Lafranchi Ranch Builds a Water System That Works
Randy Lafranchi has been ranching in the Nicasio Valley for decades, owner and operator of the Nicasio Valley Cheese Company, raising dairy cattle and producing organic cheese and eggs on MALT-protected grasslands. Like many ranchers in our region, Randy faced a pressing problem: his aging water system couldn’t keep up with the demands of running a diversified ranch operation—especially during California’s increasingly severe droughts.
“Water is everything out here,” Randy explains. “Without a reliable way to get water where you need it, you can’t sustain a ranch operation—especially with the dry conditions we’re seeing more and more.”
Through SAP and in partnership with the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), MALT helped make Randy’s $108,000 water system upgrade possible. The project combined federal resources, MALT’s private donor funding, and Randy’s own investment to install new pipelines, improve water distribution throughout the ranch, and add better storage capacity.
The benefits reach far beyond Randy’s ranch:
• Smarter water use during dry periods, putting less strain on local water sources
• Healthier grazing patterns, giving pastures time to rest and recover while building better soil
• Cleaner streams, with less erosion and runoff flowing into nearby waterways
• A more resilient operation, equipped to handle longer dry seasons and extreme weather
“This project wouldn’t have been possible without MALT’s support,” Randy says. “It’s not just about keeping my ranch running—it’s about taking better care of this land for whoever comes after me.”
Randy’s story shows what SAP makes possible across Marin County: working ranches that can make a living, take care of the land, and face whatever climate challenges lie ahead. You can support Randy and other local ranchers by visiting Lafranchi Ranch to purchase their organic cheese and eggs—a direct way to keep working lands working.
Meeting Growing Demand
The impact of SAP is so significant that the need for grant funding consistently exceeds the funding that is available. Agriculturalists are lining up for SAP funding—a sign of both how much it’s needed and how well it works.
Every time a rancher improves their water system, adopts climate-smart practices, or restores critical infrastructure with SAP support, they’re building a stronger future for their operation and for Marin County. And that’s only possible because of supporters who understand that protecting farmland means investing in its long-term health and productivity.
This is how we ensure that the agricultural lands we’ve protected don’t just survive—they thrive.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is eligible for SAP grants? SAP grants are available only to those who hold or operate land currently protected by a MALT conservation easement.
What types of projects does SAP fund? SAP funds water system improvements, ranch road repairs, fencing for rotational grazing, grassland restoration, and ranch planning support.
How is SAP funded? SAP is 100% funded by private donations from individuals and foundations who support agricultural land stewardship.
How much funding does SAP provide? Grant amounts vary by project. In FY25, MALT distributed $271,100 across 19 ranches, with individual grants ranging from a few thousand dollars to over $100,000 for comprehensive projects.
What’s the difference between SAP and MALT’s small grants program? SAP is specifically for MALT easement holders and focuses on long-term stewardship of already-protected lands. The small grants program is open to all Marin County agriculturalists.
Want to learn more about MALT’s land stewardship work or explore how you can support programs like SAP? Contact us or make a gift to support our Stewardship Assistance Program.