Washington SARE PDP 2022-2024

The event was evaluated with a post-event paper evaluation.  Evaluations (n=21) indicated that the largest knowledge gains were around understanding of soil health indicators and metrics (73% increased knowledge) and in implementing conservation strategies (73% increased knowledge). Large knowledge gains (68% increased knowledge) were also reported for incentives for soil conservation, practical hands-on soil measurement, and developing on-farm trials.  Ninety-five (19/20) respondents indicated that they planned to make a change based on the event. Nearly half planned to implement new soil conservation practices.

Many respondents (14/21) indicated that they particularly enjoyed the networking and community-building aspect of the event.  The lightening talks were also highly favored (11/21).

To improve the event, several attendees suggested that more diversity of farmers and farm types be included. Also, more time for small group discussions. Though the lightning talks were mostly favored, one attendee thought there were too many.

84 participants attended the Science Symposium, including 30 agricultural professionals from WSU, Conservation Districts, WSDA, NRCS and other agencies that work directly with farmers. The rest of the participants were farmers. The symposium was a big success. An evaluation was conducted that included questions on knowledge gained and overall rating of the presentations.

Some of the comments included:

“Lindsey DuToit was brilliant. A national treasure.”

“Really great duo of presenters. Sanford’s high altitude look and then tied in more specifically

with Lindey’s knowledge was great”

“Lindsey’s talk was exactly what I came to hear”

Denmark Ag Symbiosis Tour (Attending)

Participant attended a weeklong study tour of agricultural symbiosis (the idea of recovering value from organics, water, and heat within agricultural systems and other economic sectors) in Denmark. The trip included visits to a range of innovative projects within Denmark, discussions with them about achievements and current challenges – and also a wealth of time with the other individuals who were on the trip. These individuals are working in related areas in Washington State, and therefore the relationships made have been essential to many parts of programming since returning.

Denmark supports opportunities that reinforce the agricultural economy by generating even more value in agricultural supply chains, while also helping to build new climate solutions. The participant took a lot from the current challenges that colleagues in Denmark are facing, that help think through challenges Washington may face in the coming years. This knowledge has directly influenced several proposed projects that the participant has submitted and which have been approved for funding. One is a podcast relating to carbon markets for dairy, to help people navigate this new landscape (this was in process prior to the training, but new episodes have been informed by the trip, and the personal connections made during the trip have also been used to pull in new guests).

The other is work relating to helping the state understand the contributions that agriculture is already making towards addressing climate change, and what opportunities there are to increase these contributions. The podcasts reach both agricultural producers and agricultural professionals. Episodes are ongoing, but have reached several hundred people each. Participant has transferred a lot of the information through conversations with their team and colleagues relating to ongoing work, as well as building on the relationships formed with colleagues in Denmark in numerous ways over the last 4-6 months since returning. This trip generated a lot of trust between those working on the same issues from different perspectives, and it’s much easier to reach out relating to work and progressing in Ag Symbiosis.

Navigating Difficult Conversations & Finding the Story (Attending)

The participant attended two, interactive on-line science communication workshops: Navigating Difficult Conversations Partisan Science Topics and Finding the Story to refresh their science communication skill set. During the Navigating Difficult Conversations Partisan Science Topics workshop, they learned that climate change discussions are difficult due to increasing partisanship that is further deteriorating due to echo chambers facilitated on social and other media outlets.

One outcome is a growing gap between political parties and their confidence in science with democrats having a much higher trust in science than conservatives. Unfortunately, science literacy doesn’t help with partisanship stances. Instead, active listening to identify audience values and speaking to those values can have the largest impact on some but not all audiences. They examined which audiences to focus on and tips for holding a difficult conversation. A gradient of beliefs called “six Americas” displays a linear group of categories of people from dismissive (don’t think climate change exists) to alarmed (are very worried about it). The class suggested focusing on the middle between these two since alarmed people already agree and the dismissive category of people are unlikely to be swayed and targeting this audience would thus be less impactful.

During the Finding the Story workshop, they learned why and when to use stories as a strategic communication tool. A noted impactful tool was learning about the “shape” of stories. This can be thought about as a graph with the ‘character’s fortune’ (despair to prosperity) on the y-axis and ‘time’ on the x-axis. The character’s experience over time moves between varying depths of prosperity and despair, usually ending with prosperity. Based on the goal, communicators want to be strategic about emphasizing key components of a story, including emotion, change, challenge, relevance rounded out to generate a compelling and critical story.

Effective science communication is at the core of CSANR’s work and particularly crucial for the participant’s role as coordinator of the AgClimate blog, as a participant with farm worker practitioner networks, and for communicating research findings from multiple projects through Extension publications. They will share climate science-related research with interdisciplinary and non-academic audiences. They hope to influence other academics the importance of the topics in climate resilience and adaptation.

Facilitation Skills Workshop (Attending)

The participant attended a facilitation training workshop hosted by UNH Professional Development & Training on Dec 5, 2023. This was a virtual training session covering the basics of the roles of a facilitator to strategies for engaging audiences in virtual spaces. This training establish a better foundation of what a facilitator should and should not do and they discussed contexts where it is worth taking the time to do certain activities like creating group norms and alternatives to using ice breakers to bring a new group together. Hearing anecdotal evidence that using time-consuming practices like building group norms is a worthwhile strategy to build psychological safety within a group gave the participant confidence to advocate for forming group norms in the Climate Analogs Academy, the CSANR-led program the participant coordinates.

The participant designed the group norm process and practiced their facilitation skills by leading the exercise. They also lead a bi-weekly project team meeting for the Climate Analogs Committee. which has been a great challenge for them in that everyone is supportive and positive and yet somewhat resistant to sharing new ideas.

The participant facilitates climate change education for ag professionals in the Climate Analogs Academy workshop series. In 2024 and 2025, 20 Extension professionals working with specialty crops and six graduate students across the US will engage in virtual workshops and in-person study tours. Their goals are to make climate change concrete and to use dialogue to build a diverse and knowledgeable cohort who will feel supported in taking action on climate adaptation in their work.

Alternative Manure Management & Dairy Digester Tour (Attending)

Participant attended a tour to meet with and learn from a variety of individuals involved in supporting alternative manure management practices and digesters within California. The group included individuals from WSU, WSDA, Washington State Conservation Commission, Dairy Farmers of Washington, Dairy Federation, and Darigold. They met with digester developers, the California Department of Food and Agriculture, Dairy CARES, and agricultural professionals who work with the dairy industry. The visited a functioning on-farm digester in Galt, CA.

The participant learned about both the ongoing policy processes that have supported on-farm changes, as well as the research and outreach that has contributed. Given that Washington is undergoing some of the same policy evolutions that California previously experienced (particularly the implementation of climate policy via the Washington Climate Commitment Act), the participant learned strategies and context to implement immediately in trainings on carbon markets that are facilitating in February. The audience for the training is farmers and other agricultural professionals (e.g. conservation district personnel, NRCS, etc.). This workshop occurred the first week of February 2025, with a reach of approximately 60 people.

2024 Forest Farming Conference – Gather to Grow: A Conference to Honor the Past and Shape the Future of Forest Farming (Attending)

This conference is focused on forest farming, a practice by which producers grow high-value, shade tolerant crops beneath the protection of a forest canopy. Examples of this include maple syrup, log-grown specialty mushrooms, medicinal plants, and huckleberry. This practice provides farmers with low-impact opportunities to produce high value crops from marginal lands while incentivizing forest conservation and restoration, particularly in urban and peri-urban areas where forests take on more importance. In more rural wildland areas, forest farming can incentivize proactive management while providing critical income to forest owners between, or in place of, timber harvests and in riparian buffers that are restricted from harvest.

There was a significant amount of technical and social information shared throughout the conference sessions. One of the most valuable sessions the participant attended was on site evaluation for forest farming operations, hosted by Dr. Eric Burkhart of Penn State. This session featured research on evaluation and impacts of soils, forest composition, pest pressure, and site conditions (aspect, elevation, etc.) on production of multiple forest farming crops. Another useful session focused on developing a sustainable planting stock economy for forest farmers in the Appalachian region. Availability of planting stock is a hurdle in the PNW for agroforestry plantings, and this session explored some interesting approaches to overcoming this obstacle that would work here, including a small-scale nursery network. Participant also attended several farmer-led sessions that provided insight into the motivations and drivers of utilizing forestland for farm production, as well as the barriers to adopting or expanding production. 

Participant will be developing forest farming trials for western Washington in the coming year. The information they gathered will help guide the selection of crops, site evaluation, design of trials, and the type of educational materials produced. These trials will also be utilized for demonstration-based programming for farmers and forest owners. Participant recently received funding from the Department of Ecology to develop a Working Riparian Lands Pilot Program that intersects forest farming practices with riparian restoration to encourage adoption of riparian buffers. The first phase of this program is to develop a toolkit of resources, which will draw heavily from the information gathered at the conference. This includes the development of a guide for working riparian lands.

The participant’s target audience for forest farming programs is typically forest owners and farmers. However, they tend to attract a diverse audience, including technical service providers, riparian restoration agencies and non-profits, researchers, and policy makers that are interested in exploring new ways of utilizing woodlots for production.

Agricultural Acarology Workshop (Attending)

The 3rd Agricultural Acarology Workshop was a 5-day event held at the UF/IFAS Tropical Research and Education Center (TREC) in Homestead, FL for a group of 15 participants. Each day there were several mite themed presentations by UF/IFAS faculty & students or given by one of several international guest lecturers. These talks covered a wide range of topics including mite taxonomy & systematics, important morphological character systems in mite identification, proper microscopy techniques, and mite ecology and management strategies.

By participating in the 3rd Agricultural Acarology Workshop, the participant learned how to identify the most commonly encountered families of economically important plant-feeding mites as well as several families of predatory mites used in biological control. For each of these families, they discussed their unique developmental biology and feeding behaviors that can be used to detect these mites in agricultural commodities.

The knowledge and skills gained through attending the 3rd Agricultural Acarology Workshop will be directly applicable to participant’s research and extension efforts in three main areas: 1) identification of mite specimens collected in agricultural surveys and answering questions from growers about the different mites they are finding in their crops; 2) a better understanding of the biology and behaviors of the most commonly encountered families of economically important plant-feeding mites and this knowledge will help participant scout for these pests during research and extension activities; 3) assisting other researchers, extension agents, and growers to learn more about these groups of agriculturally important mites.

The audience for post event programming will be other university, ARS, and extension groups in the PNW. The participant plans to transfer the knowledge gained through both formal extension activities (presentations, workshops, field days, and factsheets) and informal consultations with growers, stakeholders, and the public. The participant has already begun to develop materials for such activities and hopes to assist growers with mite related questions during the current field season. The participant aims to reach as many members of the local agricultural community as possible, with an emphasis on those working at the WSU NWREC and our direct stakeholders and research collaborators. The participant also plans to reach a wider audience through working with the Skagit County Master Gardeners and by guest lecturing in courses taught as part of the Organic and Sustainable Agriculture major at WSU Everett.

American Society of Agronomy-Crop Science Society of America-Soil Science Society of America Annual Meetings (Attending)

The focus of the American Society of Agronomy-Crop Science Society of America-Soil Science Society of America annual meetings is for researchers to share their results to a vast group of researchers and industry partners as well as learn the latest in agriculture research to bring back to Extension and research constituents in the Pacific Northwest.  

The participant focused on attending sessions related to sustainable agricultural systems, organic agriculture, livestock grazing, and greenhouse gas emissions. There, they met several researchers who are working on soil carbon sequestration and greenhouse gas emissions and established collaborations with them. The participant presented two posters on organic amendments including compost, biochar, and composted biochar on soil health and crop yield. Since both the posters were about organic amendments in two different agricultural systems (irrigated vs dryland), both of these posters got a lot of attention, discussion, and queries regarding the implications of the treatments for carbon sequestration and soil health.

The participant plans to collaborate with the researchers working on soil carbon, soil health, acidification, and integrated crop livestock systems- all of which are gaining a lot of interest across the state of Washington. The participant will utilize these ideas in programming and planning future field studies and outreach events. These interactions will help me initiate new collaborations across disciplines and regions. In addition, the participant was awarded the Best Extension Article Award in the short publications category from Extension and Outreach Community of American Society of Agronomy which increased the number of connections available for future endeavors.

Irrigation Evaluation Short Course (Attending)

The participant attended a 2-part Irrigation Evaluation Short Course at the CalPoly Irrigation Training and Research Center in San Luis Obispo with field work on farms in the San Joaquin Valley. The course included classroom, lab, and applied learning to assess the function and efficiency of all types of irrigation systems, from pumps to nozzles. 

The participant learned a comprehensive process to calculate system efficiency and how to identify where improvements can be made. The focus on drip irrigation was helpful, because more farmers that the participant interacts with who want to conserve water are considering drip irrigation. The participant came away with applied knowledge of the types of drip irrigation hoses and nozzles that are least prone to clogging, proper maintenance regimes to keep systems functioning optimally, spacing of emitters for efficient coverage and more. The participant learned more about the most efficient deployment, water pressure management and nozzle troubleshooting for hand-move irrigation lines as well; hand move lines are one of the most common current irrigation strategies in place in their Extension region. The noted most useful portion of training was learning about which parts of irrigation systems to target for improved function and efficiency in diverse irrigation systems. 

Training held in Washington as a result of this training includes Dirt Talk Farm Walk: Farming in Dry Times, direct farm assistance, a comprehensive needs survey of irrigation needs throughout Clallam, Jefferson, and Kitsap counties, and the hiring of a field technician to focus on water conservation and irrigation efficiency.

Mount Vernon NWREC Plasticulture Field Day (Attending)

The participant attended the Plasticulture Field Day at WSU Mount Vernon Northwestern Research and Extension Center. Topics covered included the latest studies on horticultural production using plastic mulch, results from prior degradation studies of various plastic mulch films, and the latest information on fate of films. There was also an experiment with a paper mulch material. The plastics industry continues to develop and improve plastic mulches. The bio-based mulches are still much more expensive, but the delta of cost is decreasing. Plastic mulches still outperform all the paper mulch products. 

As part of the Climate Analog Academy participant developed, there are a lot of extension trainees who work with vegetable production systems that are dependent on plastic mulching. This was a large discussion with the 2024 cohort (alternatives, options), so it was important to get up to speed on the technology prior to Climate Analog Academy site visits. The target audience for future training is Extension trainees in the Climate Analog Academy. The program is ongoing, with site visits in the Fall of 2024 as a key time for plastic mulch discussions. The participant visited with approximately 50 people during the site visit with key discussions on plasticulture’s future in specialty crop production under climate change.

Carbon Accounting in Agricultural Supply Chains Summit (Attending)

Participants attended the Carbon Accounting in Agricultural Supply Chains Summit in Chicago, IL, from November 12 to 14, 2024. The summit aimed to bring together key players across the agricultural supply chain, from farmers to retailers, to discuss carbon accounting methodologies, insetting approaches, implementation of farming practices, and so on. It consisted of a day of hands-on workshops, and two days of presentations and panel discussions.

Primarily, participants got insights into how the private sector (as opposed to the academia) measures their carbon/environmental footprints, what data they use, and how they see this space evolving in the future. Some of the main lessons: 

• The key differences between inventory-based (Scope 3) accounting – i.e., emissions associated with companies’ supply chains – vs. emission reduction interventions that businesses can implement for carbon credits and other purposes, and mostly the (current) incompatibility of the two approaches. 

• While data collection and measurement tools are more sophisticated and evolving faster for the private sector, what comes to farmer data, they are often still as much in the dark as public entities and academia. The supply chains are so complex that at the level of large consumer packaged goods companies, there is almost no traceability back to the producer, and any footprint calculations (for Scope 3 accounting) rely on global or at the very best regional emissions factors. 

• The relative contribution of Scope 3 emissions to any CPGs overall is really large (usually over 70%), and the majority of these emissions originates before the farm gate. This means that food and beverage producers (and other CPGs) are about to turn a lot of attention to the agricultural space, adding relevance to our work. 

• Most of this space is exclusively devoted to row crops (corn, soy) in the Midwest. Agriculture in the Pacific Northwest, and definitely any perennial crops, are not well understood from an emissions accounting perspective, and rapid evolvements in this arena can be expected in the coming years. 

In the immediate term, this will help with participants’ work on two current projects: the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of the Pacific Northwest Apple Industry, an industry funded project that WSU/CSANR helps wot collect data for, and a proviso to the Washington legislator documenting the mitigative potential of climate smart agricultural practices. For example, the summit introduced participants to various consulting firms active in this space (Quantis International, Arva Intelligence, TruTerra), and it has been informative to glean information and methodological approaches to things like carbon sequestration from their platforms. In the longer term, and building on the previous answer, it will help to make sure that participants and programmatic audiences are part of the conversations around agricultural carbon accounting as they evolve in the Pacific Northwest. 

The audience for the aforementioned LCA project is the tree fruit industry of the Pacific Northwest, who has funded the study and has wide interest in its findings; for the other project mentioned, the report on climate smart practices’ mitigative potential, the audience is the state legislator and the state agencies who could support reductions in agricultural emissions. The programming (generation of project deliverables) is going on right now and through most of 2025. The number of individuals reached is not certain, but it’s expected to be in the hundreds.

2024 Tilth Conference (Attending)

The participant attended the Tilth Conference and Research Symposium, held November 14-16 in Vancouver, Washington.  This annual conference is held for organic farmers, researchers and agricultural professionals in both Oregon and Washington to meet, share knowledge and socialize.   

The participant was recently hired to start the research program at Rodale Institute’s new Pacific Northwest Organic Center in the Upper Skagit Valley, Washington. From the conference, the participant understands that the idea is not to “educate the farmers” but rather to find out what they need and conduct research that can help give them the answers they are asking. In this respect, the participant am embracing the new definition of agroecology and find ways of implementing this into center goals for outreach and education.

 The Pacific Northwest Organic Center will start offering seminars, farm tours and field days next summer. The Center is already offering consulting services to farmers who are transitioning to organic, with a goal to reach hundreds of people annually with our programs. 

Selecting Supplementary Tools for Virtual Meetings and Events Workshop (Attending)

Virtual meetings and events have become essential, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic, and the tools for making these interactions meaningful are constantly evolving. In addition to maintaining agronomic expertise, the participant needs to stay current with the best tools for effectively sharing technical information with farmers to ensure impactful engagement.

Through this training, the participant gained practical skills in selecting and implementing online tools that enhance virtual meetings and events. This knowledge will directly improve their ability to engage with farmers and stakeholders, making programming more interactive and accessible. The participant will demonstrate the tools and methods learned to enhance virtual meetings and events during SoilCon, a virtual soil health event, and will share tools during a CSANR meeting.

A better understanding of virtual interactivity will enhance statewide programming across numerous events throughout the year. By creating more engaging and dynamic virtual meetings, producers will have deeper, more meaningful interactions with technical service providers and fellow farmers. This will not only improve the exchange of technical knowledge but also foster a stronger sense of community.

9^th Annual Grazing Lands Conference

The 2024 National Grazing Lands Conference was the biggest one yet. The effort has gained traction as a valuable peer-to-peer community of practice for ranchers who are innovating in their own social and geographic spheres and want to both learn and teach others. Where other groups, like the Society for Range Management, are necessarily focused on scientific discovery and sharing formal results of research, NatGLC is oriented around practice.

The participant was pleased to discover lots of practitioners from all over the U.S. using language around ecosystem health, thinking in wholes, and experiencing (not just hoping for) ties between ecology and economy and social resiliency. People are using grazing to create and improve bird habitat. The Audubon Society now has a bird-friendly ranching certification, which the participant is checking into for ranchers in the Pacific Northwest. There are increasing market opportunities that offer Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES), one of the positive ways to incentivize stewardship. The World Wildlife Fund has similar programs in their infancy. Carbon credit payment possibilities are in active research stages and some are in workable programs already with ranchers enrolled.

The participant has at least a half-dozen interview possibilities for The Art of Range Podcast identified from participation in NatGLC, which they are following up on now. In addition, the participant working with many ranchers individually on grazing plans which accommodate these ecosystem-scale outcomes: wildfire risk reduction, bird habitat enhancement, carbon sequestration optimization and carbon storage stabilization, etc.

The podcast audience is ranchers and natural resource professionals, and primarily the ones most likely to experiment with new approaches to management, engaging in “safe-to-fail” trials that they can expand when something works well. The participant will publish these episodes within the calendar year 2025. The current podcast audience is ~3000 listeners, but has hopes of expanding that through the year through new outreach mechanisms and advertising.

The Art of Range Podcast has numerous listeners inside WSU, particularly among Extension and departmental faculty involved in livestock and natural resources work. However, the participant will also discuss lessons learned through team conversations about other projects they are working on, like Stock-Smart.com, a decision support tool for grazing planning.

Panel 1: Climate Change Policy Careers

This panel highlighted the diversity of career paths into climate policy, from federal to state careers. The audience, primarily Extension, researchers, and postdoctoral research associates, learned how a diversity of experiences could help bring change into fruition with climate policy careers. Key questions explored included What types of climate policy career opportunities exist? How does one find them? How does one prepare for such jobs? What does one actually do on a day-to-day basis? The panelists included:

• Dr. Rachel Melnick, Division Director, Global Climate Change Division, United States Department of Agriculture
• Dr. Julian Reyes, Assistant Director for Climate Services, The White house Office of Science and Technology Policy
• Dr. Dani Gelardi, Senior Soil Scientist and Climate Coordinator, Washington State Department of Agriculture
• Dr. Karen Hills, Sustainable Farms and Fields Program Manager, Washington Conservation Commission

28 agriculture professionals attended this session, with 82% reporting they increased knowledge in this subject, and 96% reporting they aim to use this information within their program.

Panel 2: Climate change Research/Extension Opportunities in an Evolving Policy Landscape

Panelists explored key themes of the state of climate policy, where Extension and research faculty can create opportunities, and what the rapidly evolving landscape of climate policy means for research and Extension agricultural audiences. The panelists include:

• Dr. Rachel Melnick, Division Director, Global Climate Change Division, United States Department of Agriculture
• Dr. Julian Reyes, Assistant Director for Climate Services, The White house Office of Science and Technology Policy
• Dr. Dani Gelardi, Senior Soil Scientist and Climate Coordinator, Washington State Department of Agriculture
• Dr. Karen Hills, Sustainable Farms and Fields Program Manager, Washington Conservation Commission

23 agriculture professionals attended this session, with 61% reporting they increased knowledge in this subject, and 65% reporting they aim to use this information within their program.

Organic Seed Selection & Plant Breeding for Climate Resilience in the Western US

As farmers are grappling with the effects of climate change, one way they can adapt to weather extremes and unpredictable seasons is by shifting what they’re planting and when. This session explores seeds as a tool for climate resilience.

Speakers shared preliminary results from a research project that interviews organic farmers in western Washington about if and how their seed choices are influenced by a changing climate. then share a co-design of a course in plant breeding for climate resilience tailored for the realities of seed farmers in the Western Region of the US.

This session was attended by 54 agriculture professionals with 68% saying the session greatly increased their knowledge on the subject and 66% stating they would make changes to their programming or operations based on this session.

Dry Farming for Climate Resilient Food Systems in the Pacific Northwest

This session provided a basic overview of dry farming, including its history and how it is currently practiced in the maritime Pacific Northwest. Participants learned about practices and perspectives from western Washington dry farmers, as well as the latest dry farming resources from the OSU Dry Farming Program and Oregon-based Dry Farming Institute.

This session was attended by 45 agriculture professionals with 86% saying the session greatly increased their knowledge on the subject and 80% stating they would make changes to their programming or operations based on this session.

Water-Smart Techniques for Modern Agriculture

This session explored practical and innovative water harvesting and conservation techniques designed to enhance agricultural sustainability while maintaining productivity. As water resources become increasingly scarce, it is crucial for agriculture growers to adopt practices that maximize efficiency and reduce waste. Participants learned about innovative irrigation methods, soil moisture management, and drought-resistant crop selection, along with practical case studies demonstrating successful implementation.

The presentation also outlined water harvesting approaches including spring development, water earthworks, and keyline farming as strategies for restoring groundwater and retaining water on site for dry season use.

This session was attended by 4 agriculture professionals with 75% saying the session greatly increased their knowledge on the subject and 100% stating they would make changes to their programming or operations based on this session.

Climate Grief: Building Understanding & Resilience

Many people are suffering from emotional consequences associated with anticipated or actual environmental changes and reacting with despair, grief, or uncertainty. Farmers, ranchers, and food producers have uniquely intimate relationships to places and landscapes, and as a result, are especially vulnerable to climate-related losses and grief.

This session offered an introduction to the notion of climate grief or eco-distress. Participants were encouraged to explore specific things they have lost to climate change, and identified and shared with each other healthy strategies they are currently using to cope with climate-related stress.

This session was attended by 10 agriculture professionals with 90% saying the session greatly increased their knowledge on the subject and 100% stating they would make changes to their programming or operations based on this session.

Design Principles for Climate Adaptation

Three of the region’s leading permaculture practitioners shared their decades of experience with the practical application of design principles in both urban and rural ecosystems.

Mike Maki provided an international perspective on cultivating soil-food chain resilience. Marisha Auerbach drew on her experience teaching permaculture design on the university level to introduce strategies for climate adaptation, and Michael Pilarski presented an array of agroforestry techniques for global cooling.

This session was attended by 16 agriculture professionals with 88% saying the session greatly increased their knowledge on the subject and 81% stating they would make changes to their programming or operations based on this session.

New Crops and Finding a Sweet Spot with Sweet Potatoes

Participants learned how researchers evaluate new vegetable crops to determine which are well suited to western Washington, and work with breeders to select new varieties especially suitable for the region. Crops from the research program include edamame, dry beans, and ice-box watermelon. Current work is with sweet potatoes: learn slip production, planting, field practices, harvest, curing, pest management with a focus on wireworm-resistance, and on-farm trial experiences throughout western Washington. Sweet potatoes are a productive, climate resilient emerging crop in western Washington that allows vegetable farmers to incorporate a staple food crop into their farms.

This session was attended by 25 agriculture professionals with 96% saying the session greatly increased their knowledge on the subject and 68% stating they would make changes to their programming or operations based on this session.

Crafting Scale & Site Appropriate IPM Plans for Perennial Fruit Systems

The perennial fruit session will revolve around holistic management of organic orchard and vineyard ecosystems, especially during system establishment. The first half of the workshop focused on “right-sizing” a perennial fruit farm IPM plan (from day one) that considers a farmer’s particular resources, goals, and scale. Examples of systems which have been successfully adapted to scale and resources were highlighted. Considerations for aboveground pest control and variety/rootstock selection in regard to the specific microclimate and immediate ecosystem of the farm were discussed.

The second half of the workshop focused on tools for alternative, amendment-based management of soil-borne disease in orchard systems, including the use of mustard seed meal, anaerobic soil disinfestation and opportune times for incorporating ecologically relevant AMF. Findings from recent studies designed to understand the role of native AMF in orchard systems were discussed.

This session was attended by 10 agriculture professionals with 100% saying the session greatly increased their knowledge on the subject and 70% stating they would make changes to their programming or operations based on this session.

Soil Health in Reduced Tillage Organic Agriculture: Nutrient, Disease, and Pest Management

Long-term agricultural research projects are necessary to evaluate the effect of cropping systems on soil health. Three organic vegetable cropping systems — intensive tillage, reduced tillage, and animal-integrated — are being evaluated in a long-term experiment at WSU Puyallup.

Chris Benedict provided an update on the Washington Soil Health Initiative and Doug Collins discussed strategies for reduced-till organic vegetable systems and effects on and nutrient cycling, soil health and crop yield. Helen Atthowe shared results from her on-farm research about crop nutrient cycling in reduced tillage vegetable production systems, application timing and optimum carbon-to-nitrogen ratios for surface-applied residues, and effects on the soil microbial community as well as beneficial and pest insect populations.

This session was attended by 36 agriculture professionals with 86% saying the session greatly increased their knowledge on the subject and 72% stating they would make changes to their programming or operations based on this session.

Cover Crops & Reduced Tillage in Vegetable & Seed Rotations

Cover crops are widely promoted and tillage is often discouraged. Speakers discussed how to use cover crops and reduce tillage without tarp occultation.

Nick Andrews described a new cover crop selection tool for the Western U.S. and some interseeding equipment he’s working on. Laura Masterson shared her experience with establishing, evaluating, and terminating cover crops. Frank Morton described the system he’s devised to integrate cover crops with minimal tillage for vegetable and flower seed production.

This session was attended by 59 agriculture professionals with 86% saying the session greatly increased their knowledge on the subject and 89% stating they would make changes to their programming or operations based on this session.

Practical Reduced Tillage for the Small to Mid-Scale Organic Farm

This session was co-presented by Andrew: an organic research specialist continually pushing his production farm toward trying more no-till experiments, along with Becky: an historically tractor-loving farmer who now happily manages a two-acre farm rototiller-free.

The speakers covered rotational tillage, cover cropping, tarping, living pathways, deep composting, sheet mulching, broadforking, soil health and biodiversity, locally reclaimed nutrients, and more. This presentation highlighted field results demonstrating practical examples to use on farm to decrease input costs, increase productivity, and foster healthy soil.

This session was attended by 24 agriculture professionals with 67% saying the session greatly increased their knowledge on the subject and 83% stating they would make changes to their programming or operations based on this session.