Author Archives: Alex

EMSWCD endorses Outdoor School for All campaign

Students at Outdoor School – photo courtesy of MESD Outdoor School

July 2 Update: Outdoor School legislature SB 439 will become Oregon law! It passed the floor of the House of Representatives with a 59-0 vote. Read more from the Outdoor School for All campaign here.

The Outdoor School For All campaign seeks to secure lasting public funding for every Oregon fifth or sixth grader to experience a full week of Outdoor education. At our last Board Meeting on March 2nd, 2015, the EMSWCD Board of Directors joined 11 other organizations by approving endorsement of the Outdoor School for All campaign.

Many District residents have come to our Board meetings to relate the positive impact that Outdoor School has had on their lives. Outdoor education has been shown to help students develop leadership, social and critical thinking skills, while also fostering an appreciation for the natural environment and the importance of conserving it. In recent years, EMSWCD has joined with other local entities to provide funding to our local Outdoor School. We believe a long-term, statewide funding solution is necessary to ensure all Oregon students have access to this valuable, engaging and highly educational experience. Continue reading →

Host a workshop in your neighborhood!

We are still looking for a few new groups to partner with so we can offer more free workshops! Our workshops teach gardening practices that reduce pollution and conserve water while saving time, money and energy. Give your neighbors the opportunity to learn about landscaping for clean water and healthy habitat – host a workshop!

We are especially seeking more workshop locations in Gresham and North/Northeast Portland.

Anyone can host, it’s easy! Here’s how it works:
An interested Host (that’s you!) invites us (EMSWCD) to provide a free workshop to your community. We manage registration and promotion, providing professional presenters, fliers and workbooks. You reserve or provide a workshop location, help get the word out by distributing our workshop fliers, and assist with day of workshop needs.

Learn more about hosting on our Host a Workshop page.

To schedule a workshop in your neighborhood, contact Katie Meckes at katie@emswcd.org or 503-935-5368. We look forward to partnering with you!

Bringing Beneficial Insects to the Farm

Healthy farmland is a microcosm of a heathy ecosystem; an abundance and diversity of life above and below the soil helping to make nutrients available to plants, ward off pests, pollinate crops, and contribute to the local food web. As the average farm size has grown, there has been a decline in both the quality and quantity of habitats that host farm ecosystems. Other farm practices like broad herbicide application and the reduction of flowering plants have also had negative impacts on beneficial native insects and honey bees.

Headwaters Farm serves as a demonstration site for several approaches to restoring on-farm habitat. The most prominent of these is the restoration work being done in the Dianna Pope Natural Area. This undisturbed area has great habitat and forage value to beneficial insects and is relatively close to the farmland. However, other habitat work is being done within and directly adjacent to fields actively in production. In partnership with the Xerces Society, EMSWCD is developing three defining habitat features: pollinator meadows, hedgerows, and beetle banks. Continue reading →

Headwaters Farm Tour on June 24th!

Are you planning on applying to the Headwaters Farm Incubator Program (HIP) for the 2016 season? Or are you interested in learning more about how the East Multnomah Soil and Water Conservation District supports the development of beginning farmers?

Either way, come join us for a tour of Headwaters Farm on Wednesday, June 24th at 6:30pm. We’ll discuss how the incubator program works, what the farm offers, how to apply, and other interesting topics relating to the intersection of stewardship and productive small-scale agriculture. Light refreshments will be provided!

Please RSVP to Rowan Steele, Headwaters Farm Program Manager
Phone: (503) 935-5355
Email: rowan@emswcd.org

Continue reading →

From our farmers: The secret to healthy plants: it’s all ground-up

This is the third in our “From our farmers” series, and was contributed by Pete Munyon of Udan Farm, one of the farmers enrolled in our Farm Incubator Program.

Hi folks! Pete from Udan Farm here. I just wanted to take a minute to share a little of my excitement for ground-up ecology-building at Headwaters Farm with you. The folks from EMSWCD have done some awesome work restoring the native species to our little section of Johnson Creek, and now we’re looking forward to doing the same with the dirt in the Udan Farm field.

We all know that all animal life on earth depends on plants, but we don’t hear as often how plants depend on bacteria and fungi to help them structure the soil, get nutrients from the soil and air, and hold water in the soil. After several decades without promoting biotic activity, our soil has been taken pretty far from its natural state. To improve conditions we’ll be growing a variety of native wild flowers around the edge of our field, and soil building with ground covers underneath our crops. To help support these plants and our crops, one of our first activities this season was to spray our field with Actively Aerated Compost Tea (AACT). Continue reading →

From our farmers: My journey with organic certification at Headwaters

This is the second in our “From our farmers” series, and was contributed by Sue Nackoney of Gentle Rain Farm, one of the farmers enrolled in our Farm Incubator Program.

Ever since Jim and I started Livin’ Spoonful, where we make yummy raw food crackers and cookies, we were committed to 100% organic ingredients. In our minds, there was no other way to be offering food to people that was truly nourishing, with the intention of helping them to thrive. That was almost 13 years ago.

Today, with our feet on the ground for our first season at Headwaters, we are finally realizing our vision of growing our own food ingredients for the crackers. It has been such a joy to be able to start Gentle Rain Farm and be a part of this amazing program and opportunity. Continue reading →

Announcing our 2015 Partners in Conservation grants!

The East Multnomah Soil and Water Conservation District (EMSWCD) awards $739,322 through its 2015 Partners in Conservation (PIC) grants for conservation and environmental education projects.

We received 34 PIC applications this year, representing projects in each of five grant program areas: restoration and monitoring, stormwater management and urban landscaping, urban gardens and sustainable agriculture, environmental education, and equitable access to conservation benefits. The PIC grant program funds projects through a competitive process in order to support the efforts that are most closely aligned with the EMSWCD’s strategic priorities.

This year, the EMSWCD Board of Directors awarded 24 grants, including two multi-year PIC Plus grants. EMSWCD provides partial funding for most of these projects, with a minimum 1-1 match for all grant amounts over $10,000. EMSWCD’s PIC funding for 2015 will leverage more than $2 million in additional support! A wide variety of projects were funded this year, from a project to restore over 100 acres in the Mirror Lake floodplain to another project that will establish a new community garden at the Floyd Light Middle School in East Portland.

Read the full press release here (PDF), which includes the full list of 24 grant projects and details about each. Learn more about our annual and monthly grants here.

From our farmers: Timing is everything!

This piece was contributed by Brian Shipman of Wild Roots Farm, one of the farmers enrolled in our Farm Incubator Program. This is the first in a series “From our farmers”; stay tuned for more Headwaters news soon!

There’s a simple, overused saying that I frequently refer to when making decisions on the farm or in the garden: timing is everything. In the spring, time moves erratically, in fits and spurts that are dictated by our transitioning weather. After spending much time in the winter laying plans and plotting calendar schedules for the upcoming growing season, it is so exciting to see the days lengthen and temperatures rise. All the plans we make in the off-season are so important in the spring, when we don’t have time to waste thinking about numbers, dates and so on. There are basically two modes to a farmer’s year: on- and off-season. For most farmers, winter is off-season – time for rest. The spring is the crucial transitional period when we know the countdown has begun – and it can be a challenge to remain patient knowing the work that lies ahead!

Continue reading →