Project Overview
Commodities
Practices
- Education and Training: demonstration
- Natural Resources/Environment: hedgerows
- Sustainable Communities: local and regional food systems
Proposal abstract:
Agricultural producers face economic challenges from the dual pressures of climate change and farmland conversion. Agricultural hedgerows can help mitigate these pressures by bolstering local food systems while simultaneously increasing climate resilience.
Despite a vast body of SARE-funded and other research documenting multiple co-benefits of agricultural hedgerows, barriers to widespread adoption remain. Several previous SARE projects cite the following:
- Lack of knowledge of benefits;
- Lack of awareness of local practitioners to learn first-hand through peer-to-peer dynamics;
- Perceptions that implementation is too expensive, too labor-intensive, too time-intensive; and
- Perceptions that implementation of the practice will be unattractive, "weedy," and hard to maintain.
Our partnership has witnessed these barriers, and we responded by creating a Hedgerows Toolkit for Rural & Working Lands that provides a suite of resources to empower producers to implement hedgerows affordably and successfully. Notwithstanding enthusiasm from early adopters, we have identified that additional elements to the Toolkit are needed to recruit interest from producers who are too busy to engage with long-form content and trainings.
Specifically, we will:
- Create more accessible and easily digestible mini-case studies in the form of Story Maps;
- Excerpt high-level key points from dense and detailed training content to produce short-form learning tools; and
- Implement more opportunities for real-life experiential learning and peer-to-peer exchanges through on-farm demonstration projects, hands-on workshops, and on-farm success tours to showcase projects' goals, costs, funding, successes, and lessons learned.
With SARE funding, our team can increase the widespread adoption of agricultural hedgerows by expanding outreach and resources for farmers through multiple accessible learning opportunities designed to deepen producers' knowledge of hedgerows' benefits; resources for successful and affordable implementation; best practices for successful installation and reduction of maintenance time/costs; and real-world adaptive management guidance derived from demonstration-project producers' direct experiences with this practice over time.
Project objectives from proposal:
Objective 1: Promote natural resource stewardship by establishing hedgerows and developing regionally adapted planting templates and educational resources.
By April 2029, install 2-3 demonstration hedgerows using climate-resilient, site-specific species; develop 2-3 regionally adapted planting templates for demonstration sites with species lists, spacing, and maintenance guidance; produce 8 educational resources (videos, webinars, podcasts, Story Map) to support hedgerow design/implementation among producers; educate 200+ community members through events, digital outreach, and success tours.
Objective 2: Strengthen farm viability by documenting and sharing innovative marketing opportunities.
By April 2029, document and publish 1-2 case examples showing how hedgerows support crop diversification, value-added products, and improved ecosystem services that enhance farm marketing strategies.
Objective 3: Improve producer/farm-system health by conducting workshops demonstrating ecological and IPM benefits of hedgerows.
By April 2028, host 2 hands-on demonstration workshops showcasing hedgerows' support of natural-pest enemies/pollinators, and IPM, emphasizing reductions in pesticide use.
Objective 4: Support crop diversification by integrating value-added hedgerow species at demonstration sites.
By April 2028, integrate 3-5 value-added species based on producer needs at each demonstration site.
Objective 5: Increase adoption of sustainable agricultural practices by addressing implementation barriers and testing maintenance-prevention methods.
By April 2029, identify adoption barriers around funding, labor, installation, and maintenance and produce 2-3 instructional videos and webinars with supporting documents to address barriers. Use Western SARE Outreach Survey to document increases in producer understanding and readiness to adopt new practices. Implement 2-3 demonstration projects that test multiple planting and site-preparation methods designed to reduce maintenance needs.