Landscape Heroes Conference Agenda January 31, 2017

NOFA MASS, CT NOFA, Biodiversity for a Livable Climate, Ecological Landscape Alliance, and NOFA Organic Land Care Program are coming together to energize all who work with and care about the soil and the health of our climate and to discuss soil carbon sequestration.  The collaboration has resulted in our upcoming conference:

Landscape Heroes: Carbon, Water and Biodiversity and will take place at UMASS Amherst on January 31, 2017.  

Please register at ELA's website at http://www.ecolandscaping.org/event/carbon-conference/ and use our promo code for CT NOFA and NOFA OLC members - carbon-conf-2016-nofa-olcp-members The cost is $79 for members, $99 for non-members and all walk-ins.

 Special thanks to our Sponsor -   Rincon- Vitova Insectaries, Inc.! Additional exhibitors will be present: Visionworks Books, Conway Landscape School, Perfect Earth Project, Green Earth Ag and Turf, Sodco and Pearl's Premium

Detailed Agenda with Speaker Pics

8:00 – 8:30am – Registration

8:30-8:35 Welcome and Overview

Morning Session Focus – Understanding Carbon in the Landscape.

Courtney White

8:35-9:30am – Keynote: Courtney White – “2 Percent Solutions for the Planet”

Human activities have impacts. With better understanding humans can be positive agents for change as they choose how to manage their small corner of the world. Mr. White will delve it the soil carbon connection, carbon cycle and how soil, plants, animals, and the soil food web (diversity and complexity), and will show how human activity fits in.

 

T. Fleisher

9:30-10:00 Eric T. Fleisher – Understanding Compaction

Severely compacted soil has poor structure and soil food web diversity which results in poor carbon  harvesting. T. Fleisher will explain compaction causes and cures (across all managed landscapes).

10:00-10:30 Bryan O’Hara – Digging Deep into Soil Practices

Continuing the compaction discussion, Mr. O’Hara will focus on boosting soil biology with no-till farming, cover cropping, and Korean Natural Farming practices. The common thread is the focus on beneficial fungal growth and the role that Fungi play in carbon sequestration.

10:30-11:00 – Eric Toensmeier – Building Biodiversity

Eric Toensmeier

Mr. Toensmeier will concentrate on biodiversity above ground to enhance carbon sequestration below ground in the form of diverse exudates and their effect on biological diversity in the soil food web. Toensmeier looks at perennial additions to conventional systems (herbaceous and woody) to further enhance soil food web complexity. This process results in greater carbon below ground and also results in carbon stored above ground in woody structures – in shrubs and trees.

11:00-11:15 Break

11:15-12:00 Moderated Panel with Morning Speakers White, Fleisher, O’Hara, Toensmeier

12:00- 1:15pm LUNCH (Organic lunch is included with registration)

 

Afternoon Session Focus – Humans as Agents for Positive Change Speakers offer their “Top 5 List” of what YOU can do!

1:15-1:45 – Paul Wagner – Understanding Soil Biology

Paul Wagner

Learning to understand soil biology (the trophic levels) and how to make sure that at least the first three levels are present to build landscape health. Mr. Wagner will discuss specific techniques for making sure that they ARE present. Beyond the basics of bacteria and fungi, Mr. Wagner will help us to understand the third trophic level (the shredders, predators and grazers).

 

1:45-2:15 – Bruce Fulford – The Importance of Compost  

 Mr. Fulford explains compost from multiple feedstock streams and how to apply it for best long term soil stabilization. We will learn about the carbon release of traditional compost applications and how different feedstocks have different long term effects. Every plant pulls in carbon and we learn how to maximize the results.

 

Hugh McLaughlin

 2:15-2:45 – Hugh McLaughlin – Biochar’s Role in the Landscape

 Creating biochar is an ancient technique brought forward in time to keep carbon both stabile and active in the soil for much longer than compost. What does it take to access and use modern biochar – and what is needed to inoculate it before large scale application. Dr. McLaughlin will help us to understand net Carbon – carbon sink, carbon neutral, carbon emitting – and how we can work toward the goal of becoming a carbon sink

 

2:45-3:15 – Chip Osborne – Turf – Ecological Options

 Mr. Osborne takes a close look at how grass roots and their seasonal surging (expansion and

Chip Osborne

contraction) can help to create soil. We learn to increase biodiversity by allowing broadleaved plants (weeds!) to mix into conventional turf and how this can heighten the quality of soil life supported by root exudates. With lawns covering large expanses of the landscape, even small changes can have a big impact.

BREAK (3:15 – 3:30)

3:30- 4:00 Moderated Panel with Afternoon Speakers Osborne, Wagner, McLaughlin, Fulford

4:00-4:30 – Wrap-up with Courtney White

One person makes a small contribution but many people, acting with intent and carbon awareness,

can make a much bigger contribution to carbon sequestration and global climate stability. Take the information from today and work it into all of your land management decisions – whether you’re managing (or helping to manage) a back yard, a farm, or an institutional land management program.

CEU Processing and Networking (4:30-5:00)

 To find this agenda online, go to http://www.ecolandscaping.org/carbon-conference-agenda/

Q&A with Chip Osborne, President of Osborne Organics, Inc.

1.    Please describe your business in 50 words or less.

Osborne Organics consults with local, state, and federal agencies as well as universities and other institutional clients to transition landscapes to natural, organic practices and protocols with a specialty in natural turf. Osborne Organics has developed the “Systems Approach to Natural Turf Management” and offers professional training around the country.

2.    What is the state of the organic gardening industry? Where do you see the greatest growth and what’s driving it?  I believe the organic gardening, landscape, and turf industries are strong and continually growing. We are currently experiencing a tipping point, or change in the marketplace, that we have pointed to for the past twenty years. Organic practices are no longer on the fringe, but are now mainstream.

 

Chip Osborne

The concept of the organic landscape began with the homeowner (residential property) some time ago. It is now widely being considered as the management protocol of choice for larger properties, both commercial and private. When that segment is combined with a strong interest by the municipal sector for organic practices, products, and protocols for playing fields and public spaces where children play, we can now point towards some significant numbers.

This is being driven by the public’s perception regarding the dangers of pesticides. We are seeing the results of tireless efforts by many advocates over the years who have worked at the grassroots level to change people’s minds regarding the use of synthetic water soluble fertilizers and chemical pesticides.

It is the change in the marketplace that continues to move all of this forward. In addition to that, legislation is now being enacted around a variety issues at the state, county, and local level regarding restrictions of different types on pesticides and synthetic fertilizer use.

There is growing interest across all segments of society regarding organic practices. They include residential properties that range from small homes to large estates, commercial properties, hotels, resorts, colleges, universities, and golf courses. The main theme across them all is the desire to have a healthier environment for work and play.

There is a geographical component to the acceptance of organic practices. There is no question that Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Westchester County in NY are the birthplaces of organic land care. We are excited to see the growing interest in New Jersey, the mid- Atlantic, particularly Maryland, the upper Midwest, the Pacific Northwest, and Southern California. Accredited Organic Land Care Professionals (AOLCPs) can be proud knowing that they are part of an organization that worked from the beginning with others to lay the groundwork to effect tremendous change.

3.    What are some of the most common challenges professionals face in caring for the land organically and what approach do you take to solving them

From my perspective, the problems are not product oriented entirely. There are limitations in materials that we can use, but for the most part most resources are available to us. The organic product industry has evolved to a point where we now have access to state-of-the-art fertility and soil health inputs that focus on the biomass more than the plant. Knowing that a natural system in many cases can manage itself, the product becomes somewhat secondary.

We now have a variety of organic insecticides and fungicides should we need to intervene. For those that manage turf grass and hardscape, a limiting factor can be minimal, cost-effective product to address weeds.

Developing a tolerance, or weed threshold, is critically important in all aspects of the managed landscape. We need to move beyond the concept of a monoculture. That being said, all organic landscape professionals at some point in time are faced with managing a misplaced plant effectively for a client. It can be a challenge, but is getting easier as new materials are developed.

The greatest challenge in my mind is the comfort of organic professionals to communicate to others what we believe in and do. Many of us have adopted these practices to reduce the use of pesticides, others to reduce synthetic runoff, and others because they have always done it that way. Some of us came from the conventional industry and have adopted organic management practices as a result of what we experienced firsthand.

The driving factor for me is the reduction and elimination of pesticide use in the landscape. Contrary to information put forth by the conventional product industry, landscapes do not get better with the use of synthetic materials. I know firsthand that movement towards an organic approach immediately improves the landscape. There is absolutely no question that the organic landscape looks, performs, and pleases to a far greater degree than its chemical counterpart.

4.    What advice do you have for conventional land care professionals who are considering transitioning to organic?

Forward thinking conventional practitioners are beginning to seek out opportunities to understand and learn about organic lawn and land care. It does take the change in market demand to bring many of them to the table. They may not approach organic from the same perspective that we do. It might be, and probably is, more rooted in financial interests, but whatever it takes is fine with me. I firmly believe that the more widespread adoption of organic lawn and land care practices and protocols on a national level is simply limited by the lack of education about how it needs to be approached.

CT NOFA's Organic Land Care Program has responded to the challenge for the past fifteen years to meet that demand. When I interact with the conventional industry, I make them aware that there is a learning curve and that it is to their best interest to seek out education. Because what we do is not just putting down product, those that try the product swap-out will usually fail. In addition to the initial learning experience, keeping abreast of changes with continuing education is, and will be, critically important for all of us.

5.    How do you consider your business to be part of the solution to environmental degradation and overuse of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides? How do you educate your clientele?

Osborne Organics works with a diverse group of clients that range from individual landscape professionals to the federal government and everything in between. We would like to think that in some small way we can influence the market by showing that the debate about the safety and dangers of pesticides is now less relevant because we have proven that alternative non-chemical strategies can work and meet expectations. With strategies that work on one hand and the precautionary principle on the other, it is difficult not to embrace alternatives.