Jordan Winery Achieves Fish Friendly Farming Sustainable Certification

Jordan Vineyard & Winery is now Fish Friendly Farming® certified.

Fish Friendly Farming® is a sustainable certification program for agricultural properties that are managed to restore fish and wildlife habitat and improve water quality. These practices help protect endangered coho salmon and steelhead trout that live in the watersheds of Sonoma, Napa, Mendocino, Solano and El Dorado counties. Examples of local watersheds include Russian River, Navarro and Gualala River.

The certification assures the consumer that the wines and farm products they purchase are produced by protecting and restoring the environment and by sustaining the beauty and natural habitats of California. Farmers not only enjoy the pride of environmental stewardship for a healthy planet, they also receive access to expertise on such problems as erosion and soil loss, stream bank failure and water quality degradation. By providing for the habitat needs of endangered salmon and steelhead, Fish Friendly Farming benefits both the aquatic ecosystem and terrestrial wildlife. Implementation of this advice by the farmer through the FFF program not only benefits the environment, but also represents a cost-effective and efficient management strategy.

Fish Friendly Farming® provides an incentive-based method for creating and sustaining environmental quality and habitat on private land. Landowners and managers enroll in the program, learn environmentally beneficial management practices and carry out ecological restoration projects. The focus is on the land manager as the central figure in achieving and sustaining environmental quality. This approach ensures long-term environmental improvements, sustainable agriculture and implements the principles of state and federal environmental regulations. Three resource agencies—the Regional Water Quality Control Board, the National Marine Fisheries Service, and the County Agricultural Commissioner—provide an objective third-party certification.

Not long after achieving our certification, Jordan Vineyard & Winery won the Fish Friendly Farming Light Touch Award for Ranch Manager Brent Young’s sustainable farming practices.

The Fish Friendly Farming Environmental Certification Program is run by the California Land Stewardship Institute, a non-profit organization located in Napa County, California. To date, more than 130,000 acres have been enrolled in the program.