Extension News: May 2007 Archives

A manual for N.H. Landowners and Landscapers

No matter where you live in New Hampshire, the actions you take in your landscape can have far-reaching effects on water quality. Why? Because we all live in a watershed, an area of land that drains into a surface water body such as a lake, river, wetland or coastal estuary.

Landscaping at the Water's Edge: An Ecological Approach, a new book from UNH Cooperative Extension, explains how landscaping choices affect ground water and demonstrates how, with simple observations, ecologically-based design, and low-impact maintenance practices, you can protect--even improve--the quality of our water resources.

"Every citizen should be concerned with the impact of his or her own actions on the environment," says Extension landscape specialist Cathy Neal, one of the book's authors. "The balance of nature is easily disrupted by humans, with far-reaching impacts on water quality, soil health and stability, animal and human health, and the living ecosystems around us."

"This book will help you understand the basics of how watersheds and shoreland ecosystems function so you can use the strategies and techniques presented to help prevent soil erosion, nutrient and pesticide runoff, exotic plant invasions, and other detrimental processes associated with developed landscapes," Neal says. "Applying the principles of ecological landscaping will support wildlife and plant diversity and maintain or even improve water quality in our lakes, streams, rivers, bays and estuaries."

In addition to Neal, the book's authors include nine other UNH Cooperative Extension educators with expertise in horticulture, soils, water resources, entomology, turf grass and landscape maintenance. These educators partnered with an ecological landscape designer and consulted with state regulatory agencies to provide the most current information to help landscapers and property owners make good decisions about landscape inventory, design and maintenance practices that will protect water quality in our lakes, ponds, rivers and estuaries.

Illustrated with full-color photographs, paintings and drawings that provide clear examples of the concepts presented, Landscaping at the Water's Edge: An Ecological Approach also contains appendices that include relevant information about state regulations, recommended plant lists and other resources.

Order your copy online.

Holistic Management training comes to New England via New Hampshire

Seth Wilner, UNH Cooperative Extension Agricultural Resources educator in Sullivan County, has won a $172,000 Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) Professional Development Grant to train farmers, Extension educators, and other agricultural professionals who work with farmers in whole-farm planning and management using the Holistic Management method.

Wilner's project, titled Building Capacity in Whole-farm Systems and Planning using the Holistic Management Framework, will fund four three-day training sessions held over the course of two years, covering topics such as goal setting, decision making, farm financial planning and management, environmental assessment of changes to the land and ecosystem health, and implementing a farm monitoring system.

An innovative model for decision-making
"The Holistic Management (HM) framework evolved from Zimbabwean wildlife biologist Allan Savory's insight that destructive land-use and environmental patterns result from the way people make decisions," says Wilner.

"So, Holistic Management training starts by identifying everyone involved in daily decision-making in an operation or a farm-based business. Getting all the decision-makers involved in establishing a whole farm plan provides a common framework that allows everyone to assess decisions made on a farm," he says.

"The goals of Holistic Management are to enhance farm profitability, improve efficiency, improve communication, reduce conflict, and promote environmental sustainability."

Components of Holistic Management training
Comprehensive in its design, the training will include a mix of classroom and on-farm sessions. "The course teaches participants to work with farmers to develop farm plans that actively guide their decisions and management, says Wilner. "Participants will leave the training with the ability to guide farmers to examine their relationships and their beliefs, brainstorm new enterprises, articulate goals and identify what they want life on their farm and in their community to be now and in the future."

Participants will also learn to teach farmers how to run all decisions through a series of 'testing questions', or filters, before acting on them. This helps ensure that the action will be socially, economically, and economically sustainable, both in the present and for future generations," Wilner says."

Farmers as both students and teachers
Wilner will invite farmers already using HM to manage their own farms to co-teach some of the classes. "We'll have farmers as both students and trainers," he says. "Other interesting aspects of the training include the use of distance education methods such as an interactive website, a listserv, as well as help from a mentor to aid all participants over the course of the training. All participants will also work with at least two farms when they return home to implement the skills they learned in the sessions. "

Introductory seminar May 30
Wilner, certified as an HM trainer in 2003, will offer a one-day introductory seminar May 30 to introduce people to Holistic Management principles. Call him at 603/863-9200 for more information about the seminar.

Photo caption: Farmers work on whole-farm plans at workshop in Troy, N.H, in January
Photo credit: Seth Wilner