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/

A Q&A with Barry Draycott, President of Tech Terra Environmental, industry expert, and AOLCP

What is your business and who does it serve?
Tech Terra Environmental is a leader in the green industry providing ecological solutions for professional landscapers, municipalities, schools and National Parks.
What is the state of the organic gardening industry? 

Barry Draycott of Tech Terra Environmental

Where do you see the greatest growth and what’s driving it? (change in consumer sentiment? Municipal laws? Geographical, municipal vs. commercial vs. private (turf, commercial property, hotels/resorts, golf clubs, etc.)
The organic industry is trending! Consumers are becoming more curious and aware of what is going into their gardens and realize that there are solutions that are effective but do not harm. Stricter regulations on pesticides and fertilizers have been effective in driving more interest from conventional landscape management towards an organic approach. In addition, the effectiveness of newer organic/natural insect, disease and weed control products have helped our clients provide better results than past organic programs.


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?
I think the biggest challenge to the landscape industry in adopting organic methods is the lack of knowledge of how to implement a comprehensive program for their clients. We help them understand how to improve soil health and implement sound cultural practices while providing them with the products they need to be successful. We recently received this comment from a tree care company in New Jersey; My biggest problem was switching typical pest control to organics. Tech Terra made it seamless for me.


What advice do you have for conventional land care professionals who are considering transitioning to organic?
Speak to other colleagues/ landscape professionals who have converted. Education is a great tool to understand what approach is best for your business. In my case, the turning point was attending AOLCP courses and becoming accredited.
Do your research and purchase products from companies that have experience in the industry and are willing to guide you through the process.


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?
I have been in the landscape industry since 1979. About 20 years ago I began questioning “standard procedures” and began researching organic methods. Our passion is about being better environmental stewards, not just about providing lawn care products. The products and application programs we offer have been tested by us in the field and by experts in the industry. We are extremely knowledgeable about soil biology and spread the word by educating our market with seminars, classes and most importantly we are just a phone call away for any advice needed.

Guest Post by Sarah Little, Ph.D.: Shinrin-yoku: Landscaping for Personal, Public and Planetary Health

Some people claim that a nice looking lawn adds $10,000 to the value of your home. In fact, your outdoor real estate has a value to you far above this miserly amount. “Health is wealth” and your yard, in addition to looking beautiful, can contribute to the health of yourself, your family, your neighbors, your town, even your planet. To understand how this is done, it helps to look at your yard in a very different way than you are used to. The land, water, air, plants, animals and soil under your care actually comprise an entire living ecosystem. This ecosystem is composed of plants, mammals, amphibians, birds, but also trillions of bacteria, fungi, protozoa, and a myriad of tiny soil creatures like pill bugs, nematodes and springtails. All these living organisms are linked together in both fierce competition and fantastic cooperation through the complex cycling and recycling of nutrient, waste and energy.

Biodiversity is the variety and spice of life; it is also its bank account and health insurance. It is a measure of how many different interacting species are in an ecosystem. Generally speaking, the more the better. Systems with high biodiversity are more able to withstand outside invaders and environmental insults like drought, flood, and pollution. It is not just rare species that are valuable, every living thing in an ecosystem counts.


Ecological landscapers use the concept of diverse, healthy ecosystems adapted to local climate and soil to manage properties as a whole, giving us the most stable, attractive and useful landscapes with the least amount of maintenance effort, cost, water use and material input. This is an incredibly powerful concept. It differs significantly from the way most suburban landscapes are currently managed, where the focus is on large inputs of fertilizer, pesticide and water to grow a single species (turfgrass), and on continually treating the same individual pests and diseases year after year.


When we cultivate a healthy, biodiverse ecosystem suited to our own town's local soil and climate, the depth and breadth of services our yard can provide us are truly astonishing. The physical processes alone are invaluable, including carbon sequestration, aquifer replenishment, water purifying, air purifying, nutrient recycling, composting, soil building, and residential home cooling in summer. Even our neighbors and town can benefit from our yard, through cleaner air and water. The value of these services alone far out-weighs the cost a taxpayer would have to fork out for a town’s DPW to do the same. Just ask NYC, who found it cost effective to protect natural land in their watershed rather than build expensive water filtration infrastructure. How about keeping pets? Our little biological friends we enjoy so much, the birds, butterflies, dragonflies, rabbits, chipmunks, squirrels, bats and pollinator species, now live happily in the shelter that our plants have created, eating the food our ecosystem is generating, managing our pest insects, and being cleaned up after by our tiny composting organisms. All this enjoyment you get for free, compared to the upwards of $3,000 annual cost of owning a dog.


Most importantly perhaps, we ourselves now have an outdoor sanctuary where we can rest, relax, play and experience nature. The Japanese have a word for this, shinrin-yoku, the simple practice of enhancing health by going outside to visualize, touch, listen to, and quite literally inhale nature. It means essentially to bathe in biodiversity. Studies show this to be good for our health in ways we don’t even understand yet. In fact, our yard full of green plants, trees, and grass can help reduce not only our, but our neighbors’ mortality from cancer. A recent national study found that women whose lives are surrounded by greenness from plants, within 250 m of a home, have a 12% reduction in cancer mortality compared to those who live surrounded by man-made structures.


There’s more. Did you know that you are an ecosystem yourself? Your gut is inhabited by hundreds of species of bacteria, your skin by thousands of species. These bacteria are most often in a highly beneficial mutual relationship with us, or are at least living a non-harmful coexistence. Science is just beginning to understand how these microbiota influence our health. As Michael Pollan put it, “the implications of what has already been learned, for our sense of self, for our definition of health and for our attitude toward bacteria in general — are difficult to overstate. Human health should now be thought of… as a function of the community, not the individual.”


This might be hard to take in, but, you are a part of your yard’s ecosystem, and it is part of yours. The microbial life in your soil is related to the microbial life on your skin, the same for your gut. Remarkably, this is an exceptionally good thing; this is how humans evolved to live so successfully in this complex ecosystem we call the world. These tiny cells help protect us from infections, digest our food, influence our appetites and help our immune systems. In fact, new studies have linked higher environmental biodiversity in the surroundings of people’s homes to fewer skin allergies. Your beautiful, biodiverse yard really can make you and your family healthier.


On the dark side, because there always is a dark side, since we are all connected to your yard, it means that the chemicals and synthetic fertilizers you put on your lawn are also in your body, in your family, in your neighbors, and in the town’s air and water. These chemicals don’t just affect the grubs, or the dandelions, or the crab grass, they affect every single one of the trillion organisms that make up your yard’s ecosystem, including you. In humans, these chemicals are carcinogens (EPA lists 70 carcinogenic pesticides, including herbicides, fungicides, pre-emergents and insecticides available to purchase in the U.S.), and reproductive, neural, and developmental toxins. In your yard’s ecosystem, they are a disaster, decimating the microbial, fungal and beneficial insect populations, killing all plants except grass, and disrupting normal soil processes that support plant health. This lifeless yard now needs constant inputs of fertilizers and water in order to support the single species you have left, turfgrass. Instead of having a yard that supports your health and sense of well-being you now have a yard that increases your risk of chronic disease.

Ecological and organic properties come in all styles, from Paul Newman’s exquisitely managed weed-free organic estate in Connecticut to my inexpensive, stress-free, beautiful little organic freedom lawn in Wellesley. What they have in common is summarized below in the “Checklist for an Eco-Friendly Property” below.


And of course, each yard makes a difference to the planet. In the U.S. alone, lawns make up 49,000 sq mi, making it the nation's largest irrigated crop. What we do with our own yards matters a lot. By creating a biodiverse property, or simply helping it to create itself, your ecologically managed yard will make us all healthier. Experience your own shinrin-yoku - step outside onto your lush, green, organic lawn; see the monarch butterfly alight on your milkweed; hear the sparrows chirping in their nest; take a breath of pure, fresh air; feel the sun, feel the connection; and savor a deep sense of satisfaction about your thoughtful care of this small piece of the world under your feet.

Checklist for an eco-friendly property

Keep pesticides off your lawn and gardens. Using only non-toxic materials on your property reduces the health risk to yourself, your family, your neighbors and your local environment.

Use non-synthetic fertilizers from natural sources. Synthetic fertilizers are made in a chemical process that uses fossil fuel and contributes to global warming. Use of synthetic nitrogen fertilizer greatly increase the amount of nitrogen entering the global nitrogen cycle which has a serious negative impact on the organization and functioning of the world’s ecosystems, including accelerating the loss of biological diversity and decline of coastal marine ecosystems and fisheries. The use of synthetic phosphorus fertilizers has its own set of problems, in particular its contribution to the growth of pondweeds in fresh water lakes and ponds, and the limited global supply of phosphate rock.


Reduce water use. In many cities in the Northeast, 50% of the drinking water goes to lawns and landscapes. Over 75% of Massachusetts’ rivers are flow stressed during the summer because of water withdrawals for these residential uses.


Increase biodiversity. Biodiversity is the key to a healthy ecosystem on any scale, from backyard to global. Biodiversity increases the stability of ecosystems, reduces the need for intervention, and makes them, from an aesthetic viewpoint, much more interesting. The earth is currently losing species at a rate that rivals mass extinctions in our geologic record.


Care properly for your lawn... Mow high, 3”-4”; leave grass clippings on lawn; water infrequently, if at all; encourage a bit of white clover; fertilize lightly with compost; and seed bares spots in fall and early spring. Rake your lawn, but not your woods: let leaves, nature’s own mulch, stay and compost in place.


Grow food. Organically raised fruits and vegetables, grown close to home, will become more valuable as current trends in climate change, energy cost and availability and human health play out in the future. Organic practices allow edible and decorative plants to be grown together. There are many ways to incorporate food plants and vegetable gardens into your landscape. Blueberry bushes are native, decorative and delicious. Many fancy lettuces are as pretty as annuals.


Make and use compost. Compost has many advantages as a soil amendment and it is less likely to cause pollution of the local and regional environment than fertilizers, even organic ones. Incorporating compost improves turf, shrub and shade tree performance in marginal or poor soils. Good quality compost improves soil structure, reduces runoff and compaction, enhances biodiversity, increases water and nutrient retention, increases microbial activity, supplies nutrients, helps suppress and prevent plant diseases, detoxifies certain pesticides, and inactivates and kills potential human pathogens.


Remove invasive plants. Invasive plants grow quickly and spread easily and often reduce the biodiversity of whole ecosystems. Learn about invasive plants, how to avoid spreading them, and how to remove them from your own property.


Garden with native plants. Native plants are site adapted and usually require little to no watering, fertilizing or pesticides. Stunning gardens can be made from entirely native plants. Since native plants are, well, native, it’s best to find a local conservation group who works with natives.

Test your soil. If you want your property to look its best, to save money, and to protect the environment even more, do an easy soil test before you apply anything at all. A soil-testing lab will help you figure out how much of which fertilizers and nutrients to apply for optimum results.


References
http://www.nyc.gov/html/dep/html/watershed_protection/land_acquisition.shtml
http://www.akc.org/learn/akc-training/cost-to-raise-dog/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4712592/Shinrin-yoku
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/04/160414170015.htmGreenness http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/19/magazine/say-hello-to-the-100-trillion-bacteria-that-make-up-your-microbiome.html
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/04/160413151108.htm
http://www.pnas.org/content/109/21/8334.abstract 
http://organiclandcare.net/sites/default/files/2016iolyfinalsingle_page_opt.pdf