A YARD at a TIME
A YARD at a TIME
Aggregate Pollinator Habitat
The Plymouth County Conservation District (PCCD) proposes to create corridors of habitat incorporating different landowners and land uses, including farm field edges, back yards, utility easements and public spaces. The goal of the project is to develop a pollinator trail of 100 miles consisting of many small strips of plantings, building community interest with every planting. We intend to involve our farming community, residential gardens and garden clubs, schools, senior centers, business campuses, utility companies and neighbors. In the year long project we will create a manual and video guide so that our project can be duplicated by Conservation Districts all over the country.
This proposal will apply the plant lists and job sheets developed through the Xerces Society’s Conservation Innovation Grant (CIG) that Plymouth County Conservation District participated in with other pollinator partners. In that project the District developed a local demonstration planting of a pollinator habitat, established along field edge of a cranberry bog, that would be self-sustaining, provide feed and cover for three seasons and could be incorporated into an overall working landscape. It was important to respect the farmers need to avoid pest plants and use land that would not interfere with other uses on the farm.
PCCD would use the award to gather the interested groups as diverse as they seem, to plant 100 miles of a pollinator trail in 2012 that can be replicated to 1,000 miles by 2022, …a yard at a time.
PCCD Seeks Input on Natural Resource Concerns
Plymouth County Conservation District Seeks Input
On Natural Resource Concerns
The Plymouth County Conservation District will be convening a Local Working Group to identify conservation needs, critical natural resources issues and geographic areas of concern. We ask any and all interested people in the county to join us. The meeting will be held at 5:00 pm on Thursday April 28, 2011 in the Carver Library located at 2 Meadowbrook Way, Carver, MA.
The Plymouth County Conservation District is a subdivision of state government established to identify natural resource problems within the county and develop programs to solve them. Their primary vehicle for addressing concerns is through relationships with cooperating agencies of USDA and Farm Bill Programs as well as Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources. They also work with the Pilgrim Resource Conservation and Development Council (RC&D), UMass Cranberry Station, Cooperative Extension, the Cape Cod Cranberry Growers Association and Bristol County Conservation District.
The 2008 Farm Bill included conservation and environmental incentive programs to encourage farmers and forest owners to adopt conservation practices to improve the natural resources on and around their lands. Last year over 2.4 million federal dollars was invested in environmental improvements on private lands in Plymouth County. That was doubled with the landowner and state match for more than 5 million dollars of conservation work applied on the land.
Please join with us in developing an inventory of what still needs to be done in our county. Help prioritize the work load and ultimately help direct Farm Bill Programs and other programs toward natural resource sustainability. The workshop will be held from 5PM to 7PM, at the Carver Library. RSVP by April 26th to 508-295-5495 x144(and sandwiches will be provided).
