Tule Trust Talks SERIES: #4

TULE TRUST TALKS

A series highlighting the people behind the Tule Basin Land & Water Conservation Trust.

From staff to volunteers to the Tule Subbasin farmers, we’ll hear about their background, and we'll get down-to-earth details on their involvement, and why they're so passionate about Tule Trust.

For this month’s talk, we sat down with Joey Airoso, the Vice President of the Tule Trust Board.

Thanks for talking with us, Joey. Tell us about your background.

Joey Airoso: I’m a fourth-generation farmer. My family and I have lived and farmed west of Pixley since 1980. My family operates Airoso Dairy Farms and manages a herd of registered Holstein and Jersey cows and cultivates corn, wheat, alfalfa, and pistachios. I work alongside my wife Laurie, and children: Joseph (and his wife Kelci), Phillip, Ruby and Max.

What’s your connection to the Tule Trust, and what kind of work have you done with its projects?

Joey Airoso: My passion for ag has led to ongoing involvement and leadership in a variety of agricultural organizations. I’m a founding board member of the Tule Basin Land and Water Conservation Trust (TBLWCT) which was formed to help us mitigate some of the water issues with the Tule Basin and manage SGMA.

In 2014, a group of farmers and dairy farmers started meeting to discuss water issues in the Pixley Irrigation District (PID) and Lower Tule River Irrigation District (LTRID). There was also talk about the possibilities of SGMA being implemented at some point.

Initially, there was a lot of finger pointing between different commodities and farmers. But we figured out that in order to grow anything in the Central Valley (with the amazing amount of crop growing days we have) there’s a specific amount of water you’ll need. So we started trying to work together as a team. For example, looking at Pixley Irrigation District, which has about 66,000 acres of farmable ground, which is overdrafted by about 33%—quick math would say we’d need to stop farming 22,000 acres to get enough water to the remaining ground.

With technology and new ideas, we started trying to figure out how we could work with our neighbors, mitigate the problem, and protect the best ground, keeping it viable to grow food on. That was our main objective as farmers.

The Land Trust (TBLWCT) was an idea that Dan Vink (former General Manager of LTRID) brought forward. The Trust was accepted by most of the farmers as a solution. If we could fallow 5-10,000 acres of relatively unproductive land, it would help solve our water problem for both Pixley and Lower Tule River Irrigation Districts. That left us with the task of putting together a group of diverse people to make up the Board of Directors for the TBLWCT.

How did you decide who would be on the Board of Directors?

Joey Airoso: We wanted three ag seats (farmers) on the TBLWCT board, since our main objective is to protect, preserve and provide water to the best land in order to grow food. That’s our first priority. It’s definitely my first priority, anyway. Secondly, we needed to take some of this ground, whether fallowed or conserved, and test it to see what kind of alternatives would work if nature was allowed to take its course.

Over the past few years we’ve gathered a diverse group. Over the last few years, we’ve had a board member from the Audubon Society, we’ve had educators and government conservationists. The goal was to have a group that approached an idea from different angles. We wanted to both establish conservation (for example the Capinero Creek conservation project) but also preserve the water from that area to be used for more fertile ground to the east.

The Pixley National Wildlife Preserve already exists, so it was logical to start there, growing the footprint of the preserve and creating a bigger buffer around it. That land was already some of the least productive ground—the last ground to be farmed in the Pixley Irrigation District.

Any words you’d like to leave with us?

Joey Airoso: There are only five places on the planet like the San Joaquin Valley, with a long growing season and diverse plantings. It can take years, generations to make a piece of ground productive. Our state hasn’t kept up our water infrastructure, so the ground that so many have worked hard to develop will have to be set aside. We don’t want to count on other people or other countries to grow our food—they already rely on us every day. Food doesn’t come from the store—and people shouldn’t take farming for granted.

As I take over the vice chair position, I want to thank Frank Junio for his time and dedication. He was vital, and it was really important to have the right people in place to get TBLWCT off to a good start. It really helped to have the concurrent (Director Frank Junio) President of Pixley Irrigation District on the board of the Trust to make sure we have the irrigation district’s support behind us.

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The Tule Basin Land and Water Conservation Trust is a 501(c)3 dedicated to protecting the southern San Joaquin Valley’s incredible natural resources and preserving a viable farming economy for the future generations.