 My name is Chris Wood. I am from Bale, building a local economy. We are collaborating on a series with Vermont Soil Coalition, which is one of the very founder of Bale. I'm one of the founders of Bale, too. There's a lot of people involved in that, too. And just quickly, some of you weren't here two weeks ago. This is part two of a six-part amazing six-part series. We've been doing this series in Randolph for five years. We've been calling it the Building Resilient Community Series. And this is the first year that we've sort of really stuck on one topic, which is a crucial topic that probably five years ago I wouldn't even have thought this was sort of a central issue to be covering in depth. I'm not going to say much more other than speak a little off topic. I've been reading Post-Carbon Institute, Richard Heinberg, and he recently put out a piece called The Houses on Fire. And I decided more and more that my job, at least for a very short time, is to remind people that we're in a lot of pain. And it's important to see and feel that pain and then move through that. And that's actually, the soil series is about moving through that. But maybe just take a few seconds just to sort of sit with that. I'll just be quiet for a little while. I appreciate you all being here. I appreciate my co-coordinator on this very much. I know there's a lot of wonderful and dear people here, but right now I'm going to hand it over to Kat. So, hi everyone. Glad you're here. My name is Kat Buxton and I am co-founder. It's a Vermont Healthy Soils Coalition, as Chris said. I wear a lot of hats in the Upper Valley, and I think I know some of you through various hats. I have a few things I want to remind you of. Join the Vermont Healthy Soils Coalition if you haven't yet. We have a very active, very active email list that you can choose a digest version, by the way, if you don't like getting so many. But it's super awesome and it's free, so join us. That's how we're keeping some of these conversations going. We have a raffle here. You all got a raffle ticket when you came in the door. If you didn't, make sure you get one if you want one. The raffle is going to be drawn on April 24th, which is our last event here at Bethany Church for the Soil Series. The prize is seven books from four women authors, all of which are featured in the Soil Series, three from Vermont and one from New Hampshire. And they've all donated their books as a part of a thank you for coming to the series. We're also trying to raise money to help pay for the series. So if you want to buy extra raffle tickets, we'd really appreciate that. There are five bucks each if you want to buy them. Okay, so this is the second of six Soil Series. The first one was Ground to Body, a little bit more about the human health connection to soil. Tonight we're going to hear from Lisa Mercuri, Tatiana Schreiber, and I'm going to stand in for Graham O'Nealst Rufina. I'm sorry if you came here just to see Graham, because he's not going to be here. He got knee surgery today. So yeah, he couldn't come for him. But he sent me his slides, and I will try my best to be as beautifully articulate as he is. Next week, so for the next two weeks, we have more of these coming up. March 27th is building, no, next week, sorry, is the storytelling panel connection through story. I'm really excited about that one. And then the following week is building soil from the ground up. If you want to know all of them, you can get one of these over at the table. You can also go on our website and get all of this information. It's on Facebook, et cetera. And so we've got this little slideshow up to help thank all of our sponsors. I did get a grant from the New England Grassroots Environmental Fund to pay me a tiny stipend to put the series on for you. Our speakers are all donating their time, but we are going to try to come up with a little bit of money to help pay them for their time because we really appreciate their skills. But we also got generous support from NOFA Vermont, Upper Valley Food Co-op, Gardeners Supply Garden Centers, Soil for Climate, Vermont Compost Company, Freedom Center for Sustainable Agriculture, Clean Yield Assets Management, Rue de Vermont, Cedar Circle Farm, 350 Vermont, Vermont Land Trusts, Community Resilience Organizations, Long Wind Farm, Community Resilience Organization of Hartford, two rivers out of Quichy Regional Commission, Orca Media, who's here filming tonight, Earthwise Farm and Forest, Sewing Peace Farm, Informational Practice, Myco Evolve, Voices of Water for Climate, and Bale and Vermont Healthy Soils Coalition. So I just want to say... Yes, thanks. And thanks to all of them. When Chris asked me to do this series, I stalled for a little bit. And then I just took off, right? So I came up with a list of ideas for a series, and then I started thinking about who I might want to speak for those series. And I sent out one email to 19 of the busiest people in the state. And almost every single one of them said yes within like 24 hours. And then I sent out a request for sponsorship to all of those organizations. I just listed off, and they all got back to me right away saying they were very interested in sponsoring. And some people actually sought us out because this is such a cool thing. So we are still looking for sponsors. We would love to be able to pay people for what they're worth. So if you have any ideas of sponsors, please let me know and I will reach out to them. So without... Oh, with one more thing, I want to thank BlackCrim. How was that food? We are paying BlackCrim for their work, but they are giving us a really deep discount. Now, they are amazing. And they're an example of why we all want to be here. This is a family that runs a farm that brings local food to restaurants. They're all about building a local economy and having healthy soil. And we need them. And they need us. So I'm really glad that they were a part of this. If you want to get the notes from this event, we are taking notes. The last one yielded eight pages of notes and resources. And we also are filling the event. So if you want to get a link to that film afterwards, make sure you sign up on the Vermont Healthy Soil Coalition email list. That is not putting you on the listserv. That's putting you on an email where I will then invite you to sign yourself up for the listserv. So if you want to get the notes, sign up there. If you're already on the listserv, you can get them that way. And we want to know what you think of these series. So please give us feedback. I think I would like to invite Tatiana. Tatiana comes to us from southern Vermont. And she was one of the first people that really excited me that came to the Vermont Healthy Soils Coalition. She's got a wealth of knowledge. So here you are. I'm going to set your slide. We probably want to darken this side of it. What do you guys think? It's sort of a trade off. Then you don't get to see her very much speaking. We'll look at it really well. Let's try. But I need to see this. Just to say a couple of words about me. So where I'm coming from. I live in Westminster, West. Thank you. I want to hold that as close to you as you can. Can everybody hear me okay? If I call you closer. That's better. So I live in Westminster, West. Down south. Have a little farmstead there where I sell seedlings. I also teach at King State College in environmental studies. And work for Rich Earth Institute in Brattleboro which is working on the recycling of urine. Human urine to use as a fertilizer. Are you having trouble hearing me? A little bit. Sorry. I'll try to be. You have to hear the thing. It feels weird. All right. So our topic was shielding soil with plants and animals. And I decided I want to focus on trees because I feel like we, in Vermont, we just sort of take trees a little bit for granted because we have quite a few trees here. But when we talk about the importance of biodiversity we just feel like trees are, especially in farming and gardening, we sort of don't necessarily give trees all the credit they deserve. So I decided to focus on that. So that's what I'm going to do and then hopefully Lisa and Graham will talk a little bit more about ways we can use trees. But I want to talk about why trees are important to soil and everything else. So at first I wanted to just say a few key concepts. One is that climate change is a symptom of something larger. So climate change or global weirding, as many of us call it, is a problem itself. But I think of it more as a symptom of a larger problem, which is the disruption of our ecosystems and ecosystem functions. Because intact or integrated ecosystems are complex, carefully integrated and calibrated systems that play multiple roles in enabling energy flows, water cycling, nutrient cycling, and maintenance of the atmospheric conditions that have been our sweet spot for so long and that's now changing. So excess emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases is a symptom also and we should reduce these emissions as fast as we can, but that's not going to be enough to restore our climate unless we also stop disrupting the damage that we've done and undoing it. And a huge problem in that I think and also been very influenced by Dan Young, I don't know if Dan is here but who's on the Vermont Healthy Soils Coalition listserv, I've learned a lot from him. And one of the things that he's influenced me to think about is that a huge problem is just the loss of biomass in general, how much biomass we've extracted from the environment. Because it's in biomass in living plants, animals, and microorganisms that stores and circulates not only carbon but a range of nutrients that all of us, all organisms need to survive. And also biodiversity is key, not just biomass but biodiversity because each organism plays its own role and has its own niche as you all know I'm sure. But so the more diversity we have, the more species there are to play these roles and the more resilience we'll have should any particular species or organism not be able to survive whatever happens. So it's the complexity and structure of these systems that I think in the long run will reverse the ecological disorder that we find ourselves in. So what is the best way to do this in Vermont is what I want to focus on. So I come to this from the lens of agroecology. Everybody comes from a different point of view but my perspective is agroecology. I did graduate work for my doctoral degree which is in environmental anthropology in Mexico and was influenced by people who have worked in Latin America on agroecological thinking. It's an idea that's been around for actually a very long time. So some agroecological principles that I think are important and some of these come from a lot of the thinkers in the field of agroecology like Stephen Gleisman who's now retired from UC Santa Clara, Santa Cruz rather but these are some principles that we can use. One is an ecosystem approach that farms and gardens should be used from a biological or ecosystem perspective rather than an industrial model of production and efficiency. The farm doesn't end at the edge of a field and said it exists within a broader ecosystem or watershed or bioregion. Two is biomimicry. We should think of production strategies which mimic nature's own diversity. Three, polycultures. Agroecology stresses polycultural strategies over monocultures as a way to foster diversity within any farming system. Multiple systems, agroecology emphasizes the idea that agriculture is embedded in biophysical, social, political, economic and cultural situations. So you can't really just think about what plants do I need to plant. You have to think about all these other factors that will affect whether or how we're going to be able to do what we want to do on our farms or gardens. Local knowledge, agroecology. Agroecology values the preservation of local knowledge over the imposition of universal methods or methodologies. That is people, you all know your own landscape and ecology best. So there isn't just one way of doing things. And I think that's just really important. Whatever we decide is the way to move forward. There are many other ways and we have to be open to that. So that includes cultural diversity and different ways of knowing and understanding the world. So I tend to use sort of a scientific, somewhat scientific way of understanding the world, but other people don't and I think we need to learn how to talk across those differences. And then local self-management, agroecology favors local self-management of the natural conditions of production and promotes local control over political and economic institutions. So again, agroecological thought suggests that people need to be in control of how they carry out their work. But this is something that I think when we get to the discussion at the end, this may instigate some thinking because the idea of local control when we're talking about a collective good, like what we need to do about climate change, these things come into conflict a lot. So we need to think about that, how we're going to achieve collective good while also respecting people's local control. So what role do trees play in all these trees and shrubs? So this is a giant ash in Westminster or Putney and some of us who admire it, you can see how huge it is. So trees play a huge role in our life. Vermont lies within a deciduous temperate forest biome. And so whatever we do, we want to try to mimic the environment, a deciduous temperate forest in our own environments. So and I'm probably going to say things that you all know, or you know a lot about trees, probably a lot of you. But one thing I wanted to do tonight was just to tell you some things that maybe you can use when you go out to talk to other people, some things that will help you when you want to advocate for why it's important to keep trees and shrubs and other perennial plants in our environment. So a deciduous forest has high canopy, a sub canopy, a shrub layer, an herb layer. Many of you who are interested in permaculture, you know, will know all that. But one thing that's interesting is the standing biomass in a deciduous forest can be up to 40 tons per acre. And 30 to 40% of that is in the roots. A deciduous forest has slow decomposition due to cruel shade in soil and also the high tenant in the leaves. And it has high organic matter near the surface because of the leaves. And it has a lot of roots, as I mentioned before, but the fine fiber soil in the roots holds the soil stable and retains nutrients. And also a forest, as you know, has great vertical and spatial diversity, which provides a lot of habitat for various species. So we can learn a lot from our own forest, but we can also learn from other forests or places where forests are such as the apple forest in Kazakhstan. If all of you know that our apples came from Kazakhstan, that's where the wild apples live. And that's the greatest diversity of apple cultivars in these wild apple forests in Kazakhstan. And also places like Mexico, like I said, where I did my graduate school research. This is just an image from above because I had the chance to fly over and see the forest from above. So just looking at the forest, you can see the diversity of it just by looking at the different leaves and the different colors. And this is the Lakondon jungle in southeastern Chiapas. It's a naturally diverse rainforest. And it has some 4,000 plant species, including 57 different orchids and dozens of species of hummingbirds. So this isn't coffee and cacao. I work with coffee and cacao farmers there, and this isn't coffee or cacao plantations, but those coffee and cacao farms that are very diverse have almost as much diversity in them as an intact rainforest. And we can do the same thing. So that's where I was inspired by this kind of thing. So what role do trees play? So I'm just going to give you some juicy details about trees. They can dramatically affect the ecosystems of which they're apart. Below ground trees affect soil structure, nutrient cycling, soil moisture. So a rule of thumb I came across is that in arborist news is that the ratio of root radius to trunk diameter. Can anybody guess? What did someone say? Can you say 5 to 1? I said more than that. More. More. That's more. 40. 20. More. 100. No. This is a rule of thumb, but the rule of thumb is 38. It depends a lot on the tree of course. And of course they can go depth, much, much deeper as well. This is just the sort of radius. And these roots interact with microbes in the rhizosphere. The area around the roots is the richest area of diversity. It's considered one of the most complex ecosystems on earth. It has in it bacteria, fungi, mycetes, nematodes, protozoa, algae, viruses, archaea, and arthropods, which I'm sure you're going to learn all about more in another session. But those are all involved in the complex interplay with plants. Oops, I'm supposed to be here. Oops, wait a minute. Okay. Above ground, trees alter the light environment, which affects humidity and evapotranspiration. Branches and leaves provide habitat for animals, birds, and insects and modify the effects of wind. Regarding insects, some interesting facts. Hundreds of insects are associated with each tree. For example, I can do another one. How many insect species do you think are associated with oak trees? Any ideas? What? Three hundred. Three hundred. About three hundred. That was a good guess. That's just oak trees. The greater the diversity of trees, the more diversity of insects. I just also just read an article by a Henry Hohmeier garden writer in today's relative former. He quoted Dan Jaffe and Jane Brown, who said that five hundred species of butterflies and moths are supported by five native tree families, oaks, cherries, willows, birch, and poplar. And four hundred just on cherries alone. So like choked cherries, wild cherries, support all of those moths and butterflies. Is this in any environment they are? Well, the more diverse the environment is, the more habitat they're going to have. If there's just one single tree, there probably won't be less, because they don't have other places to live and reproduce. But the bigger the tree, the more insects there will be on it. Okay, I got to move along here. The leaves fall and provide soil cover and affect the soil environment. The leaves decay and become a source of organic matter, which in turn feeds microbial diversity. And then the trees affect the surrounding agro-ecosystem, again limiting water and wind and water erosion. And as you all know, with climate change, we are getting heavier precipitation. Trees can also temper the impact of heavy rain events by slowing the velocity of the rain. They provide shade and browse for animals. And they form these mycorrhizal associations. Fungi consume about 30... Well, another thing a lot of you probably know, but fungi, some of the plants produce sugars. And fungi consume about 30% of the sugars that the plants produce, that they photosynthesize from sunlight. And the sugar fuels the fungi as they scavenge the soil for nutrients, and then they feed those nutrients to the trees. So the system, you know, again, supports nutrient cycling and also sequesters carbon. And another thing I learned from Daniel Young in his book, Restoring Climate Stability by Managing Ecological Disorder. He writes that fungal hyphae may contain more organic carbon than all other soil life combined. So that was interesting. And Walter Jenny, who's an Australian microbiologist, says, he says there are 35,000 kilometers of fungal hyphae per one cubic meter of healthy soil. And I don't know if we have time or if this would work if I clicked on that. I'm not going to do that. That little video was just a one-minute thing. I'm not going to do it. But it's this person who wrote the book, The Hidden Life of Trees, who talks about how trees communicate, you know, also through these fungal associations and also through other chemical messages that they have. And leguminous trees contribute nitrogen to the system through nitrogen-fixing bacteria. So they're legume trees like honey locust, for example. And trees reduce water losses through evaporation. I mean, that's not right. Trees reduce water losses from the plants around them. The plants around them that would lose water through evapotranspiration. The trees can protect that and prevent some of those losses. But trees can also reduce excess water through hydraulic lift. And now I'll explain that in a second. Well, through their roots, pulling up water from deeply down below, they can, a mature tree can lift 100 to 200 gallons of water out of the ground per day and discharge it into the air in a day. It comes from North Carolina State University, but another ecologist I just talked to said that during the growing season, a tree can draw up to 400 gallons a day during the growing season. And they can share that water with plants around them. So they act as irrigation for surrounding plants so they can make agroecosystems more resilient to droughts than floods. And according to a Czech botanist, Jen Bakourny, who is a little article you will see in Jen Lambert's book, that's on the book raffle, Water, Land and Climate. He says, during a 10-hour period, a tree cools its environment with a 7 kilowatt power output. And water vapor rising from trees also travels into the surrounding region, condensing in cooler places and then releasing heat there. So overall, trees and forests play a key role in moderating climate extremes. So if we keep enough trees in the landscape, in agricultural landscapes, we can mimic this role of natural forest systems. So what I'm really arguing is that when we farm and garden, we tend to want to have sunlight so we can have maximum yield of our crops. But I think we really have to think two or three times before we cut down trees to get more light because of all these reasons that trees are so important. With regard to carbon sequestration, a tree can absorb as much as 48 pounds of carbon dioxide per year and can sequester one ton of carbon dioxide by the time it reaches 40 years old. And New England forests are particularly important with regard to carbon sequestration because the rest of the United States has lost so much more forest than we have. So in terms of climate change, you really need to think a lot about this. Of course, you need to think about the balance of sun and shade and other potential negative influences of trees, for example. But, so there are negative influences like it might change the microclimate and you might have higher humidity so you might have more insect and pest issues, which you can control by pruning or by the way you space the trees or by the species you choose. But for example, one study in Mexico with trees growing in and around a cornfield found that the soil conditions were consistently improved by the presence of trees. Carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus content of the soil was higher. There was higher soil pH, increased moisture content and lower soil temperatures in that area around the tree. So the corn yield directly below the canopy was lower but corn in partially shaded areas and within the zone of the root influence produced just as well as the corn growing in the open. So that shows that it's just the shade that affected the yield not any kind of competition for nutrients. So we also tend to think of trees as, oh, they're going to compete for nutrients but that wasn't the case in that situation. So we often hear that Vermont and New England are a success story because we had so much deforestation and now it's all grown back. But some of you may have heard about this recent study on the Harvard forest. Has anybody heard of this? It's a study that came out last year. Wildlands and woodlands, farmlands and communities broadening the vision for New England. And it's a study that found that we're now in the second phase of forest losses since the 1800s. All six states of New England are losing forest at a pretty substantial rate. So, okay, I have to stop. Almost to the end. So anyway, so I hope, you know, Lisa and Graham, I'm just telling you about trees. Lisa and Graham's talk will tell you more about how we can use trees in our landscapes. And just my own work lately is working with solar agricultural dual use, trying to think of solar panels as a type of tree and what plants we can grow around them. And that's just a picture of me throwing plants currents around solar panels. But we can talk more during the discussion. I think what we're going to do is have a discussion. So I should have told you already how the evening's going to go. We have three presenters. We may shave Graham's presentation since he's not here. And we have 20 minutes left to do two. Then for the second half, what I like to do is make you all get in a circle. And then we have a discussion. Because we're a large group, it can be challenging to have a discussion. So what we did last time is we went around the room and you get to ask a question or make a statement. So I want you to prepare yourself already that you may not get your question answered, but this is the start of making connections with each other. We are building the social mycelium. There's only so much we can do in an hour and a half. So we wanted to make sure to deliver information and then get a chance to hear your voices because we have three people up here giving presentations, but I can guarantee you that the expertise in this room is amazing. And I want you all to know who's here before you leave. So with that, I'm going to invite Lisa to come on up and tell us about her work. Hi, everybody. My name's Lisa McCrory. Oh, I'm going to use this. There we go. That's better. Kiss the mic. I'm going to go back and forth, putting my glasses on so I can see you and taking them off so I can see this. So... Bifolk is free. Bifolk is free. Alright, hecklers, I will deal with you afterwards. She's my favorite heckler. So I loved hearing about trees. That was amazing. Such great information. And what I want to focus on with my talk is the farm as an organism and how on our farm we are working to develop a relationship with the farm so that we are part of it from the roots to the sky. And we grow a lot of different... Our crops are primarily perennial crops with about an acre of annuals that come in to play as vegetables or flowers. But most of the crops that we have go from perennial landscape books to our apple trees to our other fruit trees to blueberries to edible bushes to then diverse pastures for our livestock. And we have a lot of woodland where we manage that ecologically. My husband is in charge of that part. And we also do some sugaring. So my presentation is going to hopefully give you a flash of that but I also want to make sure that we don't lose sight of and I'm sure that will be in the talk too about our connection to the next generation or the next generations and looking way into the future. Call out to a great activity that's going to be happening on Friday for climate awareness. But a little bit about our farm. Earthwise farm and forest were located in Bethel, Vermont. And prior to farming with my husband I got a background in organic farming, education, grazing management. I was, I guess you could call me, I was an extension agent of sorts before I became a full-time farmer. And I find full-time farming was kind of where I needed to go. I really burned out of being the resource person going place to place when all I wanted to do was do it myself. And the relationship that I've gotten from the land and with my family has been so satisfying hopefully you know as a lot of people in here our gardeners and farmers themselves some of what I'm going to be sharing will hopefully resonate with you. So our farm is a certified organic homestead farm. We use draft animals and motive power. We use draft animals for motive power but also we have our animals are harvesting most of the feed themselves. We try to avoid using fossil fuel driven machinery as much as we can. Using biodynamic principles, regenerative principles as well as organic ecological principles. So the emphasis of our farming enterprise is to develop a functional relationship with the land base looking at our farm as more of a living breathing organism. We market a lot of products on our farm but we like to be diversified in the things that we grow and the way that it allows us to interact with our land. So from doing raw milk to organic meats, vegetables, eggs, maple syrup, flowers, bad products. But another thing that I think is a really important part of our farm is the education that we provide whether we consult off the farm or we bring people to our farm to live to work with us to learn about certain concepts or topics it's a great way to raise awareness and to have good heartfelt discussion along a lot of different paths. So from teaching classes on value added with cheese, butter and yogurt to anybody aspiring to have a family cow learning more about the spiritual component to living with the land and learning how to douse and use that in your agricultural pursuits management intensive grazing for people wanting to incorporate livestock into their farm projects or just the basis of starting a homestead farm. So our primary goal for having our homestead farm is to grow most of our own food rely on our many livestock enterprises to build soil and to manage our nutrients again to manage our gardens with minimal disturbance using raised beds mulch and sod in between the beds using our lifestyle as a form of our healthcare and raising our children in an environment where they can also develop skills, awareness and hopefully continue with our enterprises that we've got in place or to branch out and do something else that they're interested in doing. As you can see from here's a map of our farm we have our houses up here but you can see that there is a lot of splatterings of open land but a lot of wooded land so we take advantage of this landscape with the wooded areas around our open areas for windbreaks for water conservation the blue lines there we have a lot of passive energy as part of our farm system where we capture water into gravity feeds to all the different pastures our grazing system as I might have mentioned is an intensive rotational grazing system and that in itself is a great way of building, capturing carbon building diverse pastures and also being able to provide our livestock with the highest quality feed. Now a little bit about our home itself which was very much an intentional design of an octagonal log house with about an acre of land around it which has about half of our garden usage a lot of sloping land like I said so there's a lot of terraced beds, a greenhouse some pastures for our poultry but when we built this house it was mostly wooded areas that we had to build up again with our management so with our rotational grazing systems we've turned what was very marginal soil to very healthy robust pasture surrounding all our various little gardens that we maintain through rotational grazing with our poultry for example our larger animals go to the further pastures we also have a lot of energy conservation technologies to go along with our farm which I think is part and parcel to this whole intentional design of having a homestead farm so this octagonal log house is off the grid all the wood that built the house came from our property we have a system where we capture the water off our roof and that water then travels to the gardens that are on our property we've also got some solar panels here on the outside that we use to heat our water and then in the wintertime we have wood stoves with copper piping inside the wood stoves to then heat our water for winter use the water that feeds our house is located at a higher elevation from the house so that again it gravity feeds to the house that we don't need the amount of energy that we need for our household is about let's see about 15 to 20% of what a household of four or five people would need so if that makes sense the amount of energy we need on a daily basis is way less than what the typical household would use partly because of the solar energy but a lot because of the passive energy that is in the system that we've got so we're really conscious about, we also have composting toilets so we're taking responsibility for every part of the system on our farm and that's really satisfying and it makes us much more aware of where things are coming from and where they're going this is just a picture of, so we capture the water off the roof and that travels to a tote that is right next to our greenhouse and we could also divert it to containers at all the other gardens so that we don't need to tap from our well we've got that water readily available for our gardens and this is a picture of the landscape around our house you can see most of this was forest soil beforehand but through, literally through our rotational grazing system we've built grass and that forage, there's a portable hoop house or structure right there that has some of our virgin and they're moved once or twice a day onto fresh grass and they're leaving nutrients behind doing a quick harvest and then moving on and that's building quite a feed system for those livestock and again some more rotational grazing we get to some of the further larger fields we've got a rotational system where our meat birds and our cows can alternate and rotate and graze one after the other again this kind of a system with adequate rest and recovery we're building soil, we're building organic matter we're increasing the amount of feed available for our livestock over time this land is becoming more and more productive all the time so a great way of using our livestock in building our soils whether we've got our cows, our meat birds or our laying hens they're all out harvesting feed on their own and when it comes to pasture reclamation we've got some pretty tired areas of land that need some attention and some extra fertility we have our pigs come into play there by they're our rotavators so they'll turn over the soil clean it up for us so that we could then spread some annual seed and let that let that forage come back into place and we can throw that into our grazing rotation with our cows and our horses can I just ask you when did you start out farming there? oh I'm sorry we our earthwise farm we started farming our farm earthwise farming forest started in 2003 but I've been farming for probably 25 years and then my husband has been on the property where earthwise farm exists he's a third generation on that farm in Bethel my husband is a forester and an analog or an ecological forester suppose so this is just a picture of again you know the pigs come in they'll open up or turn over a pasture we'll come back through and we'll seed it down it shoots back up and we start we'll bring our animals in when the pasture's ready to be grazed for the next time through and this turns something into what was marginal land into something that can become much more healthy and much more productive over time now with our design with our small pastures of like anywhere from 2 to 4 acres in size they're surrounded by a lot of trees and brush and that becomes a critical part of our system the browse for example is something that our cows love to eat it's an important part of their diet it also provides shade for the animals at different times of the season that can be really important and it also provides a windbreak and protection for the animals at certain times of the year because we're going to continue using our land in the wintertime as well giving them fresh air access to the outdoors we're going to winter our animals outside meaning that they're outside 24 hours a day the only time that we would make an exception to that is if the weather gets really bad really windy, really wet otherwise they've got a lot of the protection from the trees from certain canopies and by having them moving around on some of those pastures that are in need they can add a lot more fertility to that land making it even more productive and increasing the biological activity in that soil as a result so whether we're feeding them with a round bale feeder or just putting them out in select areas come springtime those pastures in need, those pieces of land in need are going to have a nice healthy swath of manure and leftover hay, chaff, etc and all of that is rife with life in biology and it's feeding the soil and that piece of land, for example in the spring it took a little while for the forage to start growing through but when it did, this piece of the pasture is two times more productive than the adjacent field as a result of that heavy dose of biology and organic matter and actually seed from the dry hay that the animals are being fed we're almost, we're reseeding the pastures at the same time close up now another part of our farm is being active, having a voice and talking about what's important to us and what's making a difference so through our involvement with rural Vermont and other, this was a picture from the day that the GMO Lameling Bill was signed and put into action I think we lasted three weeks but still we did it, you know we got on the map and just showed what a lot of grass root organizing can do but this is a real important part of developing roots and connecting to, you know getting passionate about what's important to us and instilling that passion into the next generation into our kids which is the next part of my slides is when we started farming together my husband and I, we chose to homeschool our kids which we did for the first, I don't know, seven or eight years of their education which gave them all a strong sense of work ethic drive, interest, self-interest of what really inspires them each kid is obviously unique and has their own strong interest but they all ended up going into the public school system eventually but I feel like that seed start at the beginning really made a difference and they come back and they have these skills that they just take for granted but then, you know, you interact with some of their friends and it's just surprising what their friends don't know that my kids just know because they've just been doing it all the time so it's a really important thing for us and another great reason why we like to have educational workshops on our farm because we can have great discussions about how to share information with one another or to inspire people to do something that they are interested in by seeing something by example or just by getting stimulated by meeting other people that come to the farm and having conversations in the midst of a workshop so seeds are getting planted all the time so my son Timber who is now 16 has got a real penchant for, you know, his name is Timber and he is probably destined to becoming a forester as well which is nice but here he is learning how to train our little team of bull calves and this picture is my daughter Tully and a friend of ours weeding a garlic bed and it's kind of a dark picture but there's Timber working his steer and he's now, like I said, 16 and the steer that he's working there is about 2,000 pounds in five years old this is my last slide but I guess the ultimate message that I wanted to bring across as we talk about shielding the soil with plants and animals is how it's not just the plant I'm one of the animals that's working on this farm and it's the relationship that we're developing with the plants and the animals that we're raising on our farm and how they work together and how we learn about ourselves in the process of growing healthy, vibrant food and I came across this farmer's creed when I was at a Royal Vermont event a couple years ago and it really stirred me to the core and it might be a little bit hard to read so I just want to read it to you and this is the outcome of why we farm I believe a woman or man's greatest possession is his or her dignity and that no calling bestows this more abundantly than farming I believe hard work and honest sweat are the building blocks of a person's character I believe that farming despite its hardships and disappointments is the most honest and honorable way a woman or man can stand his or her days on this earth I believe farming nurtures the close family ties that make life rich in ways money can't buy I believe my children are learning values that will last a lifetime and can be learned in no other way I believe farming provides education for life and that no other occupation teaches so much about birth growth and maturity in such a variety of ways I believe many of the best things in life are indeed free the splendor of a sunrise, the rapture of wide open spaces the exhilarating sight of your land greening each spring I believe true happiness comes from watching your crops ripen in the field your children grow tall in the sun your whole family is surprised that springs from their share of the variance I believe that by my toil I am giving more to the world than I am taking from it an honor that does not come to all men or women I believe my life will be measured ultimately by what I have done for my fellow man and woman and by this standard I fear no judgment I believe that when a man or woman grows old and sums up his or her days they should be able to stand tall and feel pride in the life that they have lived I believe in farming because it makes all of this possible Thanks Lisa How are y'all doing? Say the clock Okay, here we go So, you know, Graham prepared some slides for us that I just want to take us through a few of them because he wanted to bring some pieces to the discussion that I don't think we've covered yet I also want to take a moment to let you know that there are two boards up on the wall for upcoming events and groups and I want to make sure that you all get a chance to write down upcoming events or groups that you're associated with that you want everyone to know about because they'll go out in the notes Again, those connections that we have among each other are the way that we can build the social mycelium to hold our communities together while we learn to build the soil that literally holds our communities together So, Graham own eggs to Rufanat Not only has a great name He works for Rulvermacht He is a beef farmer Robinson Hill beef He studies agro-ecology permaculture and he can remember the most amazing facts he's one of those people So, one of the things I know that Graham wanted to talk about is Lisa started saying it by you are one of the animals on your farm You know, we are a part of this ecosystem we're not apart from it and thinking in whole farm terms or in whole landscape terms or whole community or whole earth or whole systems is what we need to do as a society if we have any hope to shifting the paradigm and a lot of that means listening also and I want to just point out that this Friday is a youth action day where youth from all around the world are striking because we are not doing enough to create a livable future for them This really is an emergency this isn't just a joke and the young people are scared I mean, why wouldn't they be? It's hard enough to be a teenager never mind being connected to everything all around the world all the time getting all the news the same news we're getting and ignoring maybe not the people in this room but so this Friday all over the state of Vermont there are actions I know there's something going on at the state house and I really think it's time that we begin to act more and I know Graham is a big proponent of that so one of the things he wanted to think about is where are we? Where are we? Who are we? If we think about where we are this is our home but it may not be recognizable to us because it doesn't have the normal colonialist lines and names and all of that but if you look for that lake that we all know what that looks like you can find where we are on this map and this is reminding us that we're on stolen land we all are we're here I think it's important for us to remember that and to begin to try and engage in a way forward that doesn't look so much like us just operating on stolen land separate from a lot of other people and so another thing you want to think about is knowing your biome where are we? That's a really great thing that Graham brought forward what is your zone? What grows here? Not only that but what did your zone used to be and where is it now? This is just a difference between 90 and 06 in the last 12 years we've seen another difference and we need to plan for that so when you're thinking about your 15-year farm plan and I gotta say I'm so inspired to know that those slides that we saw from Lisa Carl is third generation but we're looking at 15 years of solid work and 15 years goes by pretty darn quick so that to me gives me a sense of hope and possibility What is the history of Vermont in terms of plants and animals and soil? These are questions that are important for us to be asking I'm just gonna kind of fly through these because we're running short on time What is the primary animal we're talking to about functionally integrating it to ecosystems? Right? We're the problem Nobody else is seeming to struggle with making room for everybody and keeping things biodiverse Next week we're gonna have a storytelling panel and I just have to share one little tidbit with you One thing that's come out of that group is the similarity between the words humus hubris humans humor humility I'll just leave it at that I'm gonna get to these slides Graham has some amazing pictures here so just to leave you inspired there are so many ways to do things and there are so many ways to do things in a way that we're not disturbing every system around us Tatiana mentioned in her slides this idea of eco mimicry and biomimicry as being a foundational piece of agro ecology this is a very old tradition this is just about us looking at nature looking at the world around us and mimicking the brilliance that we see everywhere So when we think about soil health and we think about the billions and billions and billions of microorganisms in the soil that are self-organizing and self-intelligent selectively intelligent what can we learn from that? Can we learn to collaborate on that sort of level? Can we learn to mimic some of the systems that we see in nature to produce food and livelihoods for ourselves? This is just an example of Jay Fortier's farming in Quebec where he's seriously using every piece of that land for production and leaving a healthy ecosystem behind him Here's an example of cover cropping on a home garden and what I also see in this picture is can you imagine a big rainstorm? And what part of that soil would be held and what part wouldn't afterwards? And so we're looking at the roots to hold our landscapes together Here's an inspiring shot I think Graham is trying to show us the kinds of management that we're looking at now this is a lot of what we see but could we start to move toward more integrated systems of management or we're starting to use some of those examples of biomimicry, ecomimicry things happening all around us biomimicry I think about that we designed Velcro from Verdoc that's a pretty simple one or the duck wing airplane Ecosystemimicry is looking at that whole Verdoc plant and the system that it grows with him we're looking at the whole duck so we're so parts oriented we're very reductionist humans and that could be very useful when we're trying to learn about the details but panning out to the bigger picture where the popping gets lost this might just look like a pile of weeds does anybody know what we're looking at here? Comfrey what about this style of planting do you know what? Permaculture this is a fruit tree guild so there's so much going on in this picture it's a multifunctional stacked system so there's a lot to learn in terms of these sorts of ideas of stacking functions which is a lot of what we saw happening on Lisa's farm and a lot of the systems that we heard Tatiana talk about that trees do, tree stack functions nature stacks functions that's an inspiring picture how to hold the hillside together humans had some involvement in that but you know they look for ideas in nature this is Eric Tonesmeyer's farm in Holyoke mass so that's half acre yard used to be grass Ben Fox Place in Vermont digging his own ponds he reports that after Hurricane Irene he didn't have any flooding because he managed his landscape well and planned it there's a fruit tree guild by design now we're getting into alley cropping so this is where we're using the space between fruit trees we can also grow more plants either for human consumption or ecological services of some kind mob grazing you can do it with anybody cows you can see where they were or where they are now and where they're going next just 24 hours later this is silver faster so this is the idea of using forests to help raise animals but it's really more about taking a field and planting trees so I don't want to advocate and nor do the people who design these practices want to advocate for cutting down a forest to replace it with farmland it's more about integrating those systems and stacking them Lisa talked about the tree being shade for the cow and that's so important so when we allow animals to have a natural ecosystem when they get to decide what they also like to eat lots of woody stuff there's a way to integrate this livestock and plants so plants and animals can provide that's another inspiring picture of soul pasture and those trees are crops for one thing or another so I'm going to leave it at that and we have 20 minutes so I'm going to propose you want to do a circle I was well how about a show of hands I'm going to give you two options one is that we get into a circle and we pass around this little mic, not this one I have to record this one but it gets to ask you said who you are what tree are you here and either ask a question that you just can't wait to find the answer but you're not going to get it or a statement like what are you feeling now and that way we can sort of get to know each other before we all part the other option is that we stay in this arrangement and do a standard Q&A with our speakers and people will get left out one thing we could do is just have everybody get up who's able to stand for the 20 minutes and just get to the side of the room and look at each other instead of doing the whole chairs thing and then that would open up time and we could have people speak up who wanted to but we could see each other I don't know why that sounded so complicated because I don't think it was no it was similar so you're saying get in a circle but no chairs so let's do that um we're no wait wait I was going to give you a choice alright raise your hand if you want to do a circle oh come on circles are great okay raise your hands if you don't want to do a circle you want to stay in this arrangement for standard Q&A boring Q&A who wants to do it wait it's silly no judgment okay I don't think it really uh alright let's get in a circle I guess I get to choose you guys are really indecisive people are leaving so let's stay right where we are and I still would like to pass the mic I want to know who's here and with people taking off you have a chance of maybe getting your questions answered can you hear me can you hear me in the back of the room so I'd like everybody to just look up here for a moment do you see how I'm holding this mic that's really important so you want to just kind of almost touch your lips and if you don't do that when it's your turn I'm going to remind you we opted out of the circle because I don't know I would like to pass the mic and I would like everybody to take a chance to say something if you have a question that you want to make sure gets answered just be clear about that but please tell us who you are why you're here and keep it short because we want to give everybody a chance if you don't want to talk that's okay just pass and I don't have a question right now but I'm here because I was interested in the soil and it's going to happen as a result of tonight I'm really interested in how I could integrate or we could integrate trees and shrubs and approach our farm in a different way to be a Jackson I'm here because this is just so important I'm laughing it up thank you great one thing I was going to be dealing with the animal the ashes that are around in town and also in our forest and what is the plan can I have it for a second I forgot one thing I forgot one thing I was going to say at the end of my talk I was going to raise some questions for discussion one was sort of again how we balance collective concern for everything we need to do to mitigate against climate change or become more resilient in our individual concerns and the other one was just how can we help each other like if somebody wants to integrate more trees and shrubs into their landscape what do we need to do to make it more possible for people to do that not just homeowners but farmers because we need support we need support if people are going to be able to do it too busy typing this is the amazing note taker thank you I apologize in advance I put your anything that was said tonight I'm Lauren Wesson I'm Lauren Wesson I'm from Richmond and I just like me in here just really jazzed about fungus in my senior now it's just so amazing and I want desperately to get that more integrated in my growing system John Pimentel from East Randolph interested in soil health and political resiliency in our community and our soils you're Scott Pimentel from East Randolph and this is a very exciting learning experience and I would really love to use this knowledge Laurel Stevenson from Portland I went up here because my immune system went berserk and I needed the healthy air and I couldn't use any outside inputs on my little two and a half acres who are always raising food so I've been making human ore since 2013 I'm Abby Meiling and I'm from Randolph Center and I'm here because this is important and I want to learn how to do the fruit tree I forgot what it's called I really want to learn about that I'm Camden Walters from Randolph Center I have a little homestead up there I guess one of the reason I came was because we two are going to be buying and starting a community orchard up at the interstate and soils are really poor so I'm just interested in how to work with regenerating that soil of different just happened to know what Camden said and if anyone in Randolph or the Randolph area is interested in getting involved with the community orchard you could check out Randolphcommunityorchard.org Timor Bill and I'm interested in some work that Tatiana just briefly went on working with co-production on solar fields and because I'm contributing right now to an enhanced energy plan for my town I would like to find out what the parameters are if they're available for building a solar field so that it can successfully co-produce okay and I'm on VHSC and you may recognize my name on behalf of this that over here Nancy withers from North Falls area can't connect enough here Carl Teetman co-founder of Soil for Climate if anyone of you are interested in following this conversation at a global scale I encourage you to join our Facebook group they have over 10,000 members from over 100 countries around the world Soil for Climate I'm here in Randolph I guess I need a little so hope and I'm here I just want to hear about all the great things that are happening I'm Lucy Gamble I'm coming from Lime, New Hampshire I'm feeling pretty inspired about how much community there is around this and how many people came out tonight I'm Katie Allen I'm also from Lime, New Hampshire currently living in White River Junction and I'm here because I cannot shake my sense of responsibility to the planet and the future generations and I decided I don't want to shake it because living purposefully is more fun it brings me to life and I've had the privilege of learning the importance of food and farming and sustainable agriculture and yeah it's brought me to realize this is the way this is what we need to all be learning about I love building community around that so and I'm thinking of continuing with a project in Lime, New Hampshire to teach children basically a farm to school summer camp in Lime so I'm just throwing it out there in case there's connections to be made thank you Molly Wills I work for Royal Vermont in Montpelier and I'm here because I'm inspired by healthy soils every single day and the ones that tend to them in Montpelier I'm not sure what this lovely lady just said really resonates and hits hard and I'm just trying to figure out what is my role and how I can contribute to this great effort we all need to put forward I'm Amanda Garland I'm the natural resources and sustainability instructor at the Central Mount Career Center and so I get to teach high school students mostly solution based teaching and a lot of hands on projects around sustainability it's wonderful to have high school students show up on Friday or in a big class zero Hi I'm T. Springfield from White River Junction I just wanted to say that there is a workshop on the Emerald Ash Board next month the Vermont Forestry I don't know what their official name is they're from the state are doing a presentation for our region Emerald Ash Board planning for a town you know where it is I don't know it's actually it's actually Bayard Hall about 20 minutes away from here there it's South Strafford we'll find out we'll find out I'm Zoe and Marco I grew up in Rochester and I live in Bethel and I'm 10 right now I have been interested in permaculture and soil building and worked on a variety of homesteads and basically every climate imaginable particularly the desert since 2012 I think is around when I started to get interested in that and right now I'm sort of trying to figure out how I can put the things that I feel passionate about into practice while I don't own land I'm just figuring that out I'm Sylvie Desus Valley living in Tunbridge I was born and raised on a dairy farm in Franklin County and I've been growing a lot of my own food for quite some time and more recently I'm really interested I think what's going on in Vermont and around the area with local food is really great but I think we I'm really interested in how we can start growing our own clothing you know plastics and all that in clothing and like white all the hemp that we're growing we can start growing hemp for clothing as well as wool which is my all time favorite fabric so I'm really interested in seeing how how that can start happening around I'm Tammy Goh and I'm here behind the seedling and all this and I really want to learn what these places here function I can do whatever so anyway, thank you my name is Tony Batnar I live in South Royalton and here to one learn a little bit more about where some of my food comes from so thanks for your amazing farm stand raw milk and meat and everything up there is amazing so it was really cool I didn't know that was what I would learn tonight but I'm really excited that I did and I'm new to Vermont so this is the fun of being here I guess is being able to get down into the soil and I'm unexperienced but do have some land so I'm looking for resources and people with skills and experience that are interested in collaborating in projects in sustainability and permaculture and all sorts of other fun those words like that my name is Elena Greenley and I'm living in South Royalton, Vermont on land that my grandparents lived on for about 50 plus years but I grew up in New York City and did not learn the skills that these children learned and I couldn't agree more about how essential those are to life and I'm living with Tony on this land and we're just really trying to learn our place and how how we can offer the land as a healing sanctuary for all kinds of beings including humans and otherwise and always looking for people who have skills and knowledge and good energy to collaborate with and thank you all and I had a question for Tatiana about why we're losing forest in Vermont if we know I just, I mean it's a lot of its fragmentation just for development, housing development it's not so much forestry practices it's the land that we're losing from development and and you know malls and parking lots and all that sort of thing my name is Kai Cochran I live in West Hartford on a small farm and I think that this is the most important topic for humans at this time and I think that events that Bale puts on and that Cat organizes are the best way to learn more about it my name is Ariel Arwin and I'm from Hartland and it's great to be here I am Sandeak and you're and I'm a fairly recent transplant to Vermont from that July I used to live and work in Santa Cruz I worked up at the UCSC farm for an organization called Life Lab and which deals with bringing in getting children to use you know the garden as a classroom and I'm hoping to work with a Hartland Elementary School and getting their garden more integral of their school I live at Cobb Hill it's a 270 acre farm and we're about to really dig into putting a bigger solar array so I'm also interested in you know how to make that compliment the farm and more permaculture practices there as well so lots of things blessing my name is Keith Mulch I live in Vapvitsa in Vermont I feel blessed to be in a room full of family seriously and very very excited for what's going to happen in Vermont with all of this knowledge coming around my name is Gael Polskamp I'm a farmer in Worcester Vermont I actually studied Indigenous agriculture in Panama 20 something years ago I work for 350 Vermont I'm on the steering committee for the Vermont Health Aswells Coalition and yes there's the youth I'm at March which my 13 year old daughter will be in on Friday but the next steps oh next steps thanks the whole reason I'm here 350 Vermont is doing a five day walk from Middlebury to Montpelier April 5th through the 9th with the big action in Montpelier there will be several actions walking along the pipeline route and then into Richmond stopping at solutions oriented stops so along the way like farms and composting operations but I my secret mission in life is to destroy industrial agriculture my name is Jesse Markson I'm also a recent transplant I'm a mycologist and chemicalist at least by interest and I'm going into my first season as a mushroom farmer integrated with micro livestock and perennial agriculture and I'm here because what better place to learn and connect with the beautiful community Sandy and Andre said Coach from Braintree, grateful to be here for all the reasons I guess if I had to do it over again I'd be an entomologist is that the right word running through the bugs so we have some closing remarks so it's 8.30 and I want to honor I think it was you that said I'm not loud enough it never happens so I want to honor your suggestion that we need more time for these discussions and I agree and I am so pleased that we've had such a good turnout here we kept these short because it's hard to get people's interest I run land listener workshops with the soil carbon coalition they're three days long and it's hard to get people to sign up but that's how much time you need to really learn a lot of this stuff so we're gonna stay connected there's gonna be a lot more happening after this series the next one is about storytelling the one after that we get into geeky soil stuff you're gonna love it I love it, I'm one of those speakers that night along with Jess Rubin who's gonna geek out on mushrooms you're gonna love her and Juan Alves who is a pasture management specialist at UVM extension center for sustainable agriculture totally brilliant guy we're also gonna be talking about resilience at a future one and then our last one, April 24th is all about water it's all about soil but we're gonna be focusing more on the water aspect so there'll be bits of information coming from each one of these we could spend a week on each one so thank you for your patience I'm so glad we got to hear from everyone in the room if you want to keep this discussion going attend more of these if you can join the Vermont Healthy Soils Coalition listserv choose the digest you don't want to get too many emails but there are amazing conversations happening there there are no bad questions you can ask a question on that listserv we'll get answers from farmers, scientists backyard gardeners, teachers maybe even some kids soon you know like we need everybody there and I work with children a lot and I get some of my greatest ideas from them I think this was mentioned this Friday, you mentioned it so this Friday students backing up they don't have permission they're not doing it I mean I know a lot of schools even around here I mean I haven't seen that many in this immediate neighborhood and in Montalier they're doing at the state house starting at 10 o'clock they're doing a whole bunch of sort of organizing and planning and a variety of other things but we can join in on that tied into that Sandy mentioned what she came in she said because she's probably been to the five years that Briella's been doing these programs she says there's a lot of young people I don't know and when we started there was a lot of gray hairs and it has been it's my personal mission it's like my work in the world is to build a base of transformative leaders and I always think for the most part they're going to be the young folks thanks a lot to all those gray hairs who messed the planet up but my heart and my passion are with that woman who wonderfully spoke about where we are right now but one other thing that happened as I was sitting back there and I was speaking was every part of the series for the past several years we have done a farmer's dinner so it's called know your farmer, feed your farmer we do it here black cream does a whole meal we sit at tables and then I got two days ago I got a call from the Vermont law school they have an organization their student organization called the food and egg law society young students passionate about exactly this field they said we want to do know your farmer, feed your farmer and so it is scheduled so if you're a farmer you don't have to be a farmer but farmers are especially welcome on Saturday, March 30th at 6 p.m. it won't be here, it will be at the Vermont law school but the food and egg law society are going to invite the whole community and all the farmers to come down there at 6 p.m. on Saturday the 30th so put that one on your calendar too she is very good thank you very much come back next week