Oakville Bluegrass Cooperative Opens Enrollment for the California Soil Restoration Project
Growers are invited to apply today to start earning carbon removal credit income during the 2026 season
September 8, 2025 Oakville, Calif. Oakville Bluegrass Cooperative (OBC) opened enrollment for the inaugural cohort of the California Soil Restoration Project, a carbon farming project that rewards growers for their land stewardship by providing revenue from carbon removal credit sales. Growers who enroll in the program this season could be earning $100 per acre per year starting in 2026. Over time they will also improve soil health, conserve water, and retain nutrients.
The requirements of the grower are minimal. They need to maintain a cover crop and minimize soil disturbance. They need to document field boundaries and practices in the project portal. If they need to change practices, they can do so at any time by notifying the project.
The Oakville Bluegrass Cooperative and their project operations partner, Recover Ag, will do all the work required to generate credit revenue - conduct baseline soil sampling, quantify soil carbon change, issue credits, negotiate with buyers, and manage regulatory compliance, audits, and financial accounting. Additionally, the program will pool together the credits to create attractive portfolios for buyers. OBC will continue to source incentives and financial aid for growers to help them implement perennial ground cover, including the new Oakville bluegrass summer-dormant perennial cultivar.
“We’re excited to connect growers to an additional source of revenue for their work,” said Al Wagner, from the OBC Board of Directors. “Growers who implement sustainable practices are bettering the environment and securing our food supply for generations to come. It’s important to us that their hard work is rewarded and that we see sustainable practices become more profitable.”
Recognizing the critical need for a new way to measure soil carbon, Recover Ag, the ag tech company handling MMRV (Measurement, Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification) for the project, has developed a next generation solution for MMRV that offers superior accuracy to the current generation of MMRV tools. Using the latest advances in remote sensing and Artificial Intelligence technology, Recover Ag’s system will identify where in each field to collect soil samples to capture the spatial variation in soil carbon levels efficiently. The system will also predict the change in soil carbon stocks at the field level with much greater accuracy than current tools. As a result, CDR credit buyers will get the highest quality credits, and growers will receive a payment that reflects their individual contribution and not an average amount for the entire project.
“We look forward to demonstrating the level of accuracy and affordability of soil carbon measurement that our platform makes possible” said Jeff Thiel, CEO of Recover Ag. “Better measurement tools for soil carbon will unlock the potential of agriculture to become an important part of the solution to the climate crisis while improving financial outcomes for farmers.”
Interested growers need to fill out a short form on the OBC website to register their interest in the project as soon as possible in order to be considered for the first cohort of carbon removal credit revenue.
Contact info: For media inquiries or additional information, please contact:
Amy Riley
OBC Communications Director
amy@obc.ag