2025 Annual Meeting: Agriculture, Environment & Natural Resources Policy Committee Recap

The Agriculture, Environment and Natural Resources (AENR) Policy Committee met twice during CSAC’s 131^st Annual Meeting, which took place December 1-5, 2025, in Santa Clara County. The AENR Policy Committee leadership includes Chair Supervisor Jessica Pyska (Lake County) and Vice-Chairs Supervisor Tod Kimmelshue (Butte County) and Supervisor Buddy Mendes (Fresno County).  

The first meeting focused on agriculture and water, and the Committee welcomed presenters Letitia Grenier, Director of the Public Policy Institute of California’s (PPIC) Water Policy Center; Nancy Vogel, Special Advisor to the Director of the California Department of Water Resources (DWR); and Christine Birdsong, California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) Undersecretary. Topics of discussion included the California Water Plan, implementation of the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA), the pending release of the San Joaquin Basin Flood-MAR Watershed Studies, and CA’s agricultural sector and lands. Presentations were followed by a robust Question & Answer period with the featured speakers and audience members.  

Wildfire was the central topic of the second AENR Policy Committee meeting, which began with a presentation from the Director of California’s Wildfire and Forest Resiliency Task Force, Patrick Wright. Director Wright provided an overview of the Task Force and the draft 2026 Action Plan, then moderated a discussion with panelists representing federal, state, and local perspectives including: 

• Jason Kuiken, Stanislaus National Forest Supervisor, U.S. Forest Service & Task Force Co-Chair 
• Alan Talhelm, Assistant Deputy Director of Climate and Energy, California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CalFIRE) 
• Bobby Macaulay, Supervisor, Madera County & Task Force Member  
• Anne Cottrell, Supervisor, Napa County & Task Force Member  

This panel discussion and audience Q&A was followed by a presentation from Vibrant Planet, a Public Benefit Corporation that offers software solutions for land management and wildfire resilience. 

To access the meeting materials, including speaker biographies and presentations, please visit CSAC’s Website. If you have any questions, please contact Caitlin Loventhal at cloventhal@counties.org.