by Jenna Messier
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| Nancy Dubrule Clemente - Natureworks |
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In early November, 41 students became Accredited at our Fall Accreditation Course in Organic Land Care at Greenwich Audubon! NOFA OLC offered a new format of two days of instruction one week, and two days of instruction the following week, to allow people to continue working during the busy fall cleanup and planting season. Students came from New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts to learn the nuts and bolts of organic land care from popular NOFA teachers such as Michael Nadeau, Nancy Dubrule-Clemente and Chip Osborne.
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| Michael Nadeau |
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| Full classroom at Greenwich Audubon |
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| Chip Osborne telling it like it is |
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| Mike Dietz |
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The course continues to be an intensive learning experience, with 8 or more hours a day of instruction. After 13 years, the agenda continues to evolve, as we respond to students' interests in learning new subject areas. An introduction to permaculture has been added for the last three courses, as well as additional case studies on Green Stormwater Infrastructure to challenge the students with the options for removing impervious surfaces and installing rain gardens and other structures to infiltrate water on site. This year, Dr. Michael Dietz from UCONN taught the GSI sections for the first time, giving the students instruction in using the UCONN Rain Garden App and demonstrating large scale projects across the state.
Some students attended the course in groups, such as 4 students attending from Almstead Shrub and Tree Company, pictured to the right with Dan Dalton in the center. Dan teaches Pest Management and Pests in Shrub and Trees at the course and also in an arborist working for Almstead. 3 students attended who work at The Hickories Farm in Ridgefield, and 2 students from Northeast Horticultural in Stratford. Additional trucks are shown below, as I found them in the parking lot!
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