About

The Fish Friendly Farming Environmental Certification Program is run by the California Land Stewardship Institute, a non-profit organization located in Napa County, California. 

The California Land Stewardship Institute (CLSI) is a charitable (501 c3) non-profit organization dedicated to planning and implementing environmental stewardship, restoration and enhancement programs and projects including scientific studies, promotion of beneficial stewardship practices, and resource conservation activities on private and public lands and waterways. CLSI also supports and supplies marketing and promotion on behalf of certified members of the Fish Friendly Farming Environmental Certification program.

CLSI operates the Fish Friendly Farming Certification Program in Sonoma, Mendocino, Napa, Solano, Humboldt, Amador, Placer, El Dorado, and Santa Clara counties. Our staff is made up of environmental scientists.

CLSI works with hundreds of landowners and managers, local districts, other non-profit organizations, grant and regulatory agencies, and a number of private consultants to design and implement environmental projects.

History of Fish Friendly Farming

The Fish Friendly Farming (FFF) program was written by Laurel Marcus in 1999 and sponsored for its first five years by the Sotoyome Resource Conservation District in Santa Rosa. Grapegrowers, representatives from government agencies, and environmental groups participated in an advisory committee to review the program. The result was a workbook of Beneficial Management Practices (BMPs) and a Farm Conservation Plan Template.

The FFF program was written specifically for the Russian River watershed and amended for use in the Navarro and Gualala River watersheds as growers in these areas requested the program. In 2002, the Napa Valley Vintners Association, Napa County Grapegrowers Association and the Napa County Farm Bureau brought the FFF program to Napa County. The Napa County Resource Conservation District served as the local sponsor and Laurel Marcus developed a version of the FFF program specifically for the Napa River watershed.

Over time, the FFF program has grown to operate in ten counties: Mendocino, Sonoma, Napa, Solano, Amador, Placer, Santa Clara, Humboldt, Kern, and El Dorado. Due to the popularity of the program, a non-profit organization, the California Land Stewardship Institute, was formed in 2004 to run Fish Friendly Farming and associated projects. To date, over 150,000 acres have been enrolled in the program.