Siskiyou Economic Development: Supporting Small Businesses Throughout the North State

Since 2020, small business has been driving the bulk of U.S. job growth, according to the US Census, employing 45.9% of Americans. By June 2025, there were 36.2 million small businesses in the U.S., making up nearly all businesses in the country – 99.9%. Despite these encouraging statistics, small business owners face many challenges starting, growing and maintaining successful businesses and passing them on to the next generation. Fortunately, business owners and prospective business owners in the North State have unique and powerful allies and resources to support them in their ventures. We have explored the excellent support offered through the Women’s Business Center in our November 2025 article “Regional Women’s Business Centers: Impact with a Heart.”

Another North State business assistance powerhouse is lending expertise and invaluable support to businesses throughout the region, with special programs to assist a vital sector of our local economy and a key component of a secure nation: agricultural producers.

Committed to producing premium, ranch-raised beef and selling direct to consumers, the women of Jenner Family Beef are carrying on five generations of family ranching in Etna. Photos provided by Siskiyou Farm Co.

SEDC Innovation Hub Provides Customized Services

Headquartered in the beautifully restored Yreka Carnegie Library building, the Siskiyou Economic Development Council (SEDC) is working diligently to provide unique and invaluable support to businesses across all sectors in Siskiyou County and the wider North State region.

If you have a great idea and are contemplating starting a business, the SEDC’s Shasta/Cascade Innovation Hub can help you figure out if your idea is marketable and help you with the ins and outs of starting a business. There are 12 such hubs across the state, each tailored to the area they serve. “We’ve shaped our Siskiyou County hub to meet the needs of our region in a way that makes sense for this area of the state,” says Gillies Robertson, director of Agricultural Innovations and manager of the California Office of Small Business Advocate program for the SEDC.

Jason and Kristina Walker are the third generation of Walkers to steward StarWalker Organic Farms, a Regenerative Organic Certified ranch that ships direct to consumers.

“We work with business owners who have a great idea but just don’t have the resources to move forward on it.”

SEDC provides one-on-one consultations for any type of business, including services for new businesses in natural working lands such as agriculture, biomass, wood production utilization and outdoor recreation. The innovation hub also offers cohort-based business services, workshops and some state grant funding opportunities. “We provide services in whatever way that makes sense to each individual producer across Siskiyou, Butte, Glenn, Shasta and Trinity Counties, helping them to work within the specific parameters of grants they may have received,” Gillies says.

Clint and Kay Isbell, owners of Isbell Mountain Acres in Scott Valley, raise a unique cattle breed on diverse pastures containing multiple types of grasses, legumes and forbs that gives their beef a rich multidimensional flavor that is consistently tender. They ship direct to consumers.

Siskiyou Farm Co; Preserving and Growing North State Family Farms

Maintaining and growing the existing family farms and ranches throughout the region is as essential to the regional, state and national economy as supporting the formation of new small businesses. The SEDC has developed several key programs to address the challenges of sustaining the vital regional agricultural lands and businesses, all housed under the umbrella of Siskiyou Farm Co.

Agricultural Preservation Through Healthy Soils

The Healthy Soils program provides farmers and ranchers direct support and funding to build soil resilience and water security in the face of climate change adaptation and water scarcity, making these otherwise threatened lands fertile and viable far into the future. Around 35 producers (small local family farmers, market producers and family farms and ranches up to several hundred acres) have participated in the program in the last three years, receiving around $200,000 per producer to maintain healthy soil that will support more abundant, healthier produce for many years to come.

Siskiyou Farm Co Agriculture and Innovation program staff Tandy Thackeray and Gillies Robertson work to promote Siskiyou County Agriculture as a unique brand throughout the Northern California region.

Succession Planning; Passing Agricultural Lands to the Next Generation

SEDC’s Farmer and Rancher program provides long-term support for beginning ranchers and farmers. Consultants help producers with succession planning and advise them how to manage their books and how to manage grants they receive. Succession planning (how to transition your agricultural business to the next generation and how to prepare the next generation for success) is often the most difficult business challenge many longtime farmers face.

“Our producers are getting older and there is a deficit of young people wanting to enter the agricultural field,” Gillies says. “Oftentimes, the ideas and concepts of how to run a ranch or farm and the ideas of the new generation looking to take over the business might be different and these conversations can be very personal. The new generation might be looking to bring new products to market or open new markets. It’s important to have a safe space to have these conversations. We provide a safe space and tools to assist in a successful succession.”

Getting Local Products to Market

Production is only half the story. Products must be successfully brought to market. Siskiyou Farm Co helps producers meet the challenges of marketing their product by providing market support for farmers and ranchers who want to do direct-to-consumer marketing, as well as working to address other market issues.

For growing and supporting Siskiyou County agricultural products, they have a two-pronged approach. “In addition to direct succession and innovation support,” Gillies says, “we are doing outreach and publicity to promote these producers to a wider region.”

Through professionally produced videos and brochures, booths at large agricultural conventions and events, and various other ambassadorial strategies, Siskiyou Farm Co is striving to make Siskiyou Farms an agricultural brand known and recognized in the local community and across the wider California region: “To tell the story of the unique Siskiyou agriculture offerings so that people understand what Siskiyou agriculture looks like, who the producers are, what they are producing and how you can get their products,” Gillies explains.

Siskiyou Farm Co and SEDC Continue to Seek Solutions to Local Business Challenges

Gillies, with over 18 years as a small livestock farmer, knows that of which he speaks. “I’ve been there, so now I want to help others navigate the issues agricultural producers are facing.” After struggling to get his products processed, driving animals all over California and sometimes to other states to reach processors, Gillies moved his farm from Yolo County to Siskiyou County in 2018 because Siskiyou County had solved that problem by having several processors right in the county. And, Gillies says, “We are keeping our eye on these processors to make sure they stay viable and watch out for other issues like how to help address the recent mill closing in Weed.”

Thanks to SEDC’s understanding of the unique needs of our region and their innovation and foresight, North State businesses have a powerful advocate in their corner working to strengthen our economy, build local business resilience, keep family farms and ranches viable and plan for future challenges.

“I love this work because ag isn’t just about growing food – it’s about taking care of the land and resources we all rely on,” Gillies says. “At Siskiyou Farm Co, I get to support the folks doing that work every day, which means a lot to me since I am part of that community myself and know how much it means to receive support from organizations like ours. Without our local family farmers and ranchers stewarding the land, none of us have the food or open spaces we often take for granted.”