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Working With Nature to Protect Agricultural Regions
Provided by: Union of Concerned Scientists |Published on: December 11, 2025
Scientific Reports
9101112AP
Synopsis
This report from the Union of Concerned Scientists provides a variety of nature-based solutions that can address issues like pollution, habitat fragmentation, flooding, and other issues in California's agricultural regions.
Students will familiarize themselves with floodplain restoration, constructed wetlands, green spaces, agricultural practices, and other solutions that may address California's environmental issues and provide additional benefits.
Seeing the co-benefits of these solutions, students will develop an understanding of the common theme of interconnectedness.
Having such a long list of solutions that can potentially benefit California's agricultural areas is great for students in the region to have hope for the future.
Prerequisites
Students should be familiar with the impacts of climate change and human activity.
Students should understand the importance of biodiversity.
Differentiation & Implementation
The online, condensed version is great for readers with lower reading stamina, while advanced readers can read the PDF for a challenge.
After reading the report once, teachers and students can discuss problems in their local area that could possibly be addressed with a nature-based solution. Then, students can engage in a close read of the report, determining which solution best suits their area's problem.
Teachers can pair the section on green spaces and living infrastructure with this lesson to make connections to environmental justice.
Teachers can pair the section on agricultural practices with this video to show students examples of these solutions in action.
Teachers with limited time can break this report into sections, using a jigsaw method to assign student groups to read different parts of the report.
To make connections to the Sustainable Development Goals, teachers can highlight that these solutions often address more than one of the SDGs. Students can identify the SDGs addressed in each solution.
Scientist Notes
Teaching Tips
Standards
Resource Type and Format
Related Teaching Resources
All resources can be used for your educational purposes with proper attribution to the content provider.
