Oakville Bluegrass California Soil Restoration Project

A soil-carbon removal credit project for California permanent-crop growers (orchards and vineyards) who are members of the Oakville Bluegrass Cooperative. Growers keep living cover on the soil, minimize tillage, or incorporate tree and vine biomass as chips or biochar at redevelopment; Recover Ag measures soil carbon change and OBC sells the resulting credits to corporate buyers and passes payments to growers. Two tracks: Soil Health Builder for growers new to cover and Soil Health Trailblazer for growers who have kept cover for years.

• Members of the Oakville Bluegrass Cooperative (active membership must be maintained).

• Grow permanent crops in California.

• Implement eligible carbon-storing practices (continuous living cover, minimized tillage, biomass incorporation as chips or biochar).

• Any size operation.

10-year crediting period; fields can be removed without penalty with timely notice (compensated for carbon accumulated through the end of the previous season). Reporting through the Cropland Stewardship Service app; re-measurement of a statistical sample of fields every five years; project monitors fields for reversals for 40 years.

Published amounts: Up to $100/year/acre, depending on credit sales; payments are a function of tons of carbon stored, price per ton paid by the buyer, and net proceeds after transaction fees and program administration costs.

Step 1: fill out the interest form (https://forms.gle/sw6UsbBM2c5QhNXW7). Step 2: short introductory call. Step 3: submit field boundaries/maps, crop type and floor-management history (due October 16 for the 2027 vintage). Step 4: Recover Ag baseline soil sampling. No contract for initial enrollment; a contract is signed when credits are sold.

Deadline text on the page: In order to be included for the 2027 vintage, we need this information by October 16. (Fields that miss the deadline can enroll later and join a future vintage.) Recover Ag expects to issue the program's first credits in February 2027. Cover crops should be planted before January 15 to be eligible for credits to be issued at the end of the year.