Agroforestry Field Day at the Big Flats Plant Materials Center

[Brett Chedzoy]

60 people attended "Working Trees in Agricultural Landscapes: An Introduction to Agroforestry" on November 16th at the USDA NRCS Plant Materials Center in Big Flats, NY (and 120 people attended the 3rd annual Cover Crops Field Day at the PMC on the prior day!)  This inaugural agroforestry event at the PMC featured NRCS soil health advocate Ray Archuleta.  Some of Ray's key messages throughout the two days were: "Farm in the image of Nature"; "Feed the soil"; and "Nature hates monocultures".  The five agroforestry systems discussed throughout the day certainly showed how the thoughtful combination of trees, crops and sometimes even livestock can go a long ways towards making our agricultural production more sustainable.   For more information on Ray and his work with soil health:

• http://vimeo.com/14291588 
• http://vimeo.com/channels/raythesoilguy

For a detailed list of more agroforestry resources, open the following attached .pdf document:

Agroforestry%20resources.pdf