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National Conversation on Climate Action

An interesting series of panels and discussions in New Haven on Earth Day that you may be interested in:

The City of New Haven is participating in the National Conversation on
Climate Action, an initiative to engage residents in solutions-
oriented dialogue about climate action opportunities at the local
level, organized by ICLEI, Yale FES, AmericaSpeaks and the Earth Day
Network and supported by a host of other national organizations. Come
to City Hall this Earth Day to show your support for local action on
climate change, to learn what New Haven is doing and how you can get
involved.

National Conversation on Climate Action
April 22nd, Earth Day
4:30 pm – 8:15pm
New Haven City Hall – 165 Church Street

Panel Discussions and Expo

5:00 – 6:30 pm Two Concurrent Conversations

  • FOOD:  Why what you eat is as important as where it comes from
    Meeting Room 2
    Melina Shannon-DiPietro, Director, Yale Sustainable Food Project; Jennifer McTiernan, Director, CitySeed
  • HOME FRONT: Saving energy and money at home, plus new jobs to fight climate change
    Meeting Room 1
    Brian Wnek, City of New Haven Health Dept.; Kathy Fay, Rehabilitation Specialist; Chris Ozyck, Greenspace Manager, Yale Urban Resources Initiative

6:45 – 8:15 pm Two More Concurrent Conversations

  • SMART TO SMARTER: The next steps in responsible  urban development
    First Floor Program Room
    Heidi Green, 1000 Friends of Connecticut; Anika Singh-Lemar, Land Use Attorney, Wiggin & Dana; Dara Kovel, Regional Director, Jonahan Rose & Co.
  • GETTING AROUND: Reducing your carbon footprint through sustainable transportation
    Fifth Floor Conference Room
    Holly Parker, Director, Yale Sustainable Transportation; David Fields, Principal, Nelson/Nygaard Consulting; Michael Piscitelli, Director of Transportation, Traffic & Parking, City of New Haven

4:30 pm – 7:00 pm Expo featuring the following organizations:

  • Ground Floor Atrium
  • Gateway Community College’ Sustainability Programs
  • Connecticut Land Use Education and Research
  • New Haven Sister City Leon Nicaragua Earthathon
  • CT Transit
  • Rideworks
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Greetings from Boulder Knoll Community Farm

Hello all

Thanks to everyone who came out for our last work day on April 4th. We built the walls of the tool shed, cleaned up (A LOT!), cut many weeds and multiflora rose, hauled more than a truckload of compost, and staked out the future herb garden. We had fun and got lots accomplished.

A reminder about the upcoming work day on Saturday April 18. We will haul more compost, stain the tool shed and set up the shelves, put up deer fence, and lay out the herb garden. Everyone is welcome! Please bring tools (paint gear if you’re planning to paint – we’ll used water based stain), water, lunch, work gloves, hat. Come any time between 10 am and 4 pm to help. Please let me know you’re coming. 

Check out our website http://www.boulderknollfarm.com/ periodically for updates from the farm. There’s a page for CSA members.

We’ll be using the site to let people know about what’s coming up in the harvests and weather-related harvest postponements. We’ll share pictures, recipes, announcements, links and news. Many thanks to Dan Groberg who is staying on top of this for our community.

Here’s another copy of the last announcement that has a few more details. I’m adding a special call for wood chips for our paths. If anyone knows of a tree service who would like a place to dump their chips, please let me know (or arrange it yourself). I’ll meet the truck at the farm any time to show them where to dump.

Thanks,
Brenda

Greetings to the members of Boulder Knoll Community Farm CSA from your farmer, Brenda Caldwell.

The field has been harrowed and the peepers are peeping. Let’s get this wonderful farm going!

An invitation

You are invited to a  barn raising and work day at the farm. Please come – We need your help.

April 18th – 10 am to 4 pm (come when you can; leave when you must)

We’ll finish jobs we started on the 4th, PLUS 
Set up tables in the veggie prep shed [Not ready yet]
Start making compost piles
Paint and put shelves up in the tool shed 
Haul more compost
Plant herbs and flowers [lay out herb garden]
Set up the deer fence.

Contact Brenda at 393-1245 or respond to this email to let me know who’s coming and what you might like to do.


Bring tools (pruning loppers and saws, rakes, shears, shovels) work gloves, water, and lunch.
If you’re planning to do carpentry, bring a hammer, tape measure, cordless drill and bits, safety glasses, etc.

Please do come and bring your energy and enthusiasm. It’ll be a great way to continue building our Boulder Knoll Farm community.
All are welcome.

Farm wish list

Newspapers in paper bags (please remove glossy ads) and large sheets of cardboard
1 gallon clean milk or water jugs with tops (lots are needed in April)
leaves for our compost and mulch (all the time!)
wood chips
sturdy metal fence posts (called t posts I think) the longer the better
large coolers (latch can be broken)
blue ice for coolers
battery powered radio and rechargeable batteries
a large sink or small tub
buckets
good sized watering cans
Rubbermaid tubs for harvesting
tool organizers for the tool shed (hooks, clips, magnetic strips)
garden tools (in decent shape, long and short handles, no old scythes please)
A decent riding mower that could pull a trailer

Any of these items can be brought to the farm on Saturday the 4th or 18th or call Brenda at 393-1245 for other options. We can always use fence posts and leaves, so keep them coming! Call me about any of the big items.

12 hour work shares

I am looking for a person who would be willing to be my liaison to the other sharers for scheduling work. This would entail organizing the membership list so we know who is available when. Also the person would call other sharers if I have work that needs doing including harvest and distribution. I need someone organized and not afraid of making a bunch of phone calls. You could do this for your 12 hour work contribution and if it takes more time, could pass it off to someone else. Please let me know if you are interested. [I got a couple of responses for this call – Thanks.]

Membership – We’re full as of 4/3/09. We may add a few more shares in July.

I will be publishing the membership list to our group. If you do NOT want your information included please let me know.

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MRJ: Food Regulation Worries Small Farmers

This morning’s Record Journal features Boulder Knoll Community Farm in an article about food safety.

Food regulation worries small farmers
By: Andrew Perlot , Record-Journal staff

Dave Zajac / Record-Journal
Brenda Caldwell, of Boulder Knoll Community Farm in Cheshire, pauses Wednesday to take in the scenery while preparing a bed for early lettuce and carrots on the two-acre farm. Legislation introduced by U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., would create an agency to regulate food production facilities, and small farmers are worried.What goes into your lettuce and tomatoes?

It’s a question the federal government might soon be asking in the name of food safety, and small farmers are worried about the consequences.

Brenda Caldwell, of Boulder Knoll Community Farm in Cheshire, said she’s read House Bill 875, also called the Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009, and is holding her breath.

“I’m going to hold off being hysterical about it,” she said.

The bill was introduced by U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., in February after salmonella-tainted peanut butter from the Peanut Corporation of American made its way to 46 states and sickened hundreds of people.

The proposed legislation aims to create a Food Safety Administration under the Department of Health and Human Services. The new agency would have broad powers to set stringent regulations for “food-production facilities,” which include “farms, ranches, orchards, vineyards, aquaculture facilities, confined animal-feeding operations,” and producers of food intended for interstate commerce.

It’s the broadness of this definition that has Caldwell and other farmers worried, she said.

“I think it attempts to sweep in everyone,” she said. “You have to kind of wonder who’s behind this. Is the large-scale agribusiness community trying to craft something that would make small-scale, more local farms less competitive? I don’t know.”

Boulder Knoll, which opened this year and is signing up local residents for a community-supported agriculture program, grows organic p

roduce. It does not have federal organic certification, Caldwell said, which requires detailed record-keeping of all seeds, soils, fertilizers and other items, as well as fees.

The large-scale corporate monoculture farms producing much of the nation’s food can adapt to meet new record-keeping standards, Caldwell said, but small operations like Boulder Knoll, which has just two acres, might be hard-pressed.

“Small-scale growers have an intimate knowledge of their soil and the ecosystem they’re working with,” Caldwell said. “They have a good handle on the inputs, the things coming into the farms and the waste stream, which minimizes (contamination danger). The government should be making it easier for people to grow food on a smaller scale because it’s inherently safer.”

The bill, which has 41 co-sponsors, is not aimed at small farmers, according to Adriana Surfas, a spokeswoman for DeLauro. Surfas added that small farmers would receive technical assistance to help them meet any new requirements.

“This is aimed at making sure that when you walk into the grocery store, you have confidence in the food you purchase,” she said.

DeLauro has said she believes the Food and Drug Administration, which is now responsible for food safety, is doing an inadequate job, as evidenced by dozens of salmonella outbreaks and other food contamination in recent years.

Besides the serious health risk, the outbreaks cost farmers billions because people avoid the contaminated foods even after the threat has passed.

“You have to find the right balance,” Surfas said. “We want to make sure the impact on small farms will be minimal.”

The bill is being reviewed by the Energy and Commerce Committee as well as the Agriculture Committee.

The amount of regulation farmers now have to deal with is minimal, said John Rogers, owner of Rogers Orchards in Southington.

His fruit is tested to ensure that it’s free of pesticide residue, but that’s the only regulation he has to meet.

Rogers is working, however, to adopt a voluntary industry standard for food safety known as Good Agricultural Practices, he said.

He hasn’t read the proposed legislation, so he declined to comment on it.

Because of the vagueness of the bill, farmers across Connecticut could well be affected, said Bill Duesing, executive director of the Northeast Organic Farming Association of Connecticut, an organization of farmers and gardeners that advocates good stewardship of the earth.

“It depends on how you interpret it,” Duesing said. “Some of it has to do with if you’re paranoid or not.”

He encouraged more people to get involved with growing and buying their food locally so that small-scale farming is in a better position to resist any problematic regulations.

“The stronger we can make that grassroots network,” Duesing said, “the less likely that it can be (hurt) by the government.”

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Great News from our Sister Farm

More great news from our friends at Massaro Farm in Woodbridge:

Dear friends,


Last night the Woodbridge Board of Selectman granted us a 10-year lease to Massaro Farm.


This is a significant milestone. It will allow our non-profit group, Massaro Community Farm, to begin work on the barn and house. We can now prepare the fields for growing crops in the summer of 2010.


Our next step is to begin community fund-raising by asking our supporters to become members of Massaro Community Farm. We’ll send an email soon explaining our annual dues.
We are grateful to the Board of Selectmen, and we thank you all, as always, for your support.
Here’s to the first of many decades of farming at Massaro Farm.


Best wishes, 
Cathy Shufro
Board Member
Massaro Community Farm

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Spring Walk at Boulder Knoll

The Town of Cheshire is hosting a “Spring Ephemeral Flower Walk” at Boulder Knoll on Thursday, April 16 from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

Here are the details from the town:

“Mark the arrival of spring with early blooming ephemeral flowers. These short-lived fragile wildflowers pop up in a brief wind of of opportunity in early April. The ¾ mile trail route is rated as easy.

Parking is available at the barn on the south side of Boulder Road, meet at the trailhead kiosk on the north side of Boulder Road.

Participants of the following events will likely encounter wet and muddy trails.  Please dress appropriately for the season and conditions. All events are free and do not require registration.   For information on any of these events, contact the Cheshire Planning Office at 271-6670.”

For more information on this and other hikes hosted by the town, please visit http://www.cheshirect.org/files/023F78327C7F422CB1D6EA7BC327C23B.pdf

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MRJ: Building on Boulder Knoll Farm

This morning’s Record-Journal featured an article about the Friends and our work to get Boulder Knoll Community Farm ready for the upcoming season.

Building on Boulder Farm

By: Dave Moran , Record-Journal staff

Rob Beecher / Record-Journal

Local carpenter Ian Meakin builds a tool shed at Boulder Knoll Farm in Cheshire Saturday. He volunteered his time along with the Friends of Boulder Knoll.

CHESHIRE – Work on a farm never ends.

And that’s what Kim Stoner and the Friends of Boulder Knoll, a non-profit Cheshire-based organization with a stated mission to educate the community on the responsible uses of open space, spent the better part of their Saturday discovering.

Stoner, the president of the organization, and a group of 15 or so dedicated volunteers labored over about an acre of the town-owned open space 150-acre Boulder Knoll property, digging, weeding, pruning, clipping, hauling and hammering to get it ready for the growing season.

The cleared land will be used for a community-supported agriculture project, a farming cooperative where members of the community can buy a “share” of the produce grown on the land for $400 a year and at least 12 hours of labor on the project a month.

Stoner said the 35 initial shares were sold out. Shareholders will receive produce for 16 weeks, from late June through early October.

Brenda Caldwell, the project’s farmer, who was on the scene Saturday getting her hands dirty with the rest of the group, said since this is the first year the land is being used to grow produce, the group kept the yield on the light side.

“This land has never grown vegetables before, so we just don’t know how it’s going to be,” Caldwell said.

Come July, the initial harvest will be assessed, and the group may decide it has more shares to offer to the community at that point. There is already a waiting list for the potential second offering of shares, she said.

Caldwell said the land will grow “a wide variety of vegetables,” everything from potatoes to beans to peas. She praised the CSA model, which the group based on the Holcomb Farm in West Granby, because it not only teaches people how to plant, grow and care and cultivate farmland, but it makes them an active participant in the entire process at the same time.

“Community-supported agriculture is really gaining in popularity,” Caldwell said. “People want to know their farmer. They want to know where their food is grown.”

The town purchased the former Lassen dairy farm on Boulder Road in the 1990s, with the aid of a grant from the state’s Department of Environmental Protection that mandates the property can only be used as open space land and nonprofit farming, but it has been vacant since.

Friends of Boulder Knoll were formed in 2005, and the group signed a three-year rolling lease for $1 with the town in July 2008 for a two-acre plot for the CSA project.

Anne Giddings, a neighbor who stopped by Saturday to lend a hand with her husband’s tractor, said she was happy to finally see at least a small portion of the property being put to use.

“I’m glad the land’s being used. The town’s owned it for 10 years and done nothing with it,” Giddings said. “It’s so important to grow good foods locally without pesticides.”

More information about the organization or the CSA can be found at its Web site, www.friendsofboulderknoll.com.

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Environmental Film Festival at Yale

ENVIRONMENTAL FILM FESTIVAL AT YALE


WHEN:
April 16 – April 19, 2009  | 9:00AM – 2:00PM

WHERE:
Across Campus

COST:
Free and open to the public

ORGANIZED BY:
Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies
Please join us for the inaugural Environmental Film Festival at Yale (EFFY). This festival will showcase cutting-edge documentaries and short films to raise awareness of current environmental issues.
It will also offer an opportunity to speak with filmmakers and other experts in an intimate setting. All screenings and special events are free and open to the public.

For more details – click here.

VIEW CALENDAR

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Cheshire Herald editorial on sustainable farming in Cheshire mentions FOBK.

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ERT Program Needs Our Help

A request for help from our friends at the ERT program. They certainly were a huge help to our organization and the town of Cheshire, and we need your help to ensure that this service is around for the future.


From: connecticutert@aol.com [mailto:connecticutert@aol.com
Sent: Thursday, March 26, 2009 2:42 PM
To: Stoner, Kimberly
Subject: ERT Funding

Dear Kim and Friends of Boulder Knoll Farm:

As a recent recipient of an ERT report (Boulder Knoll Farm) –

I am writing today to ask you and/or members of the Planning/Zoning/Wetland Commissions to please write to key legislators concerning the continued secure funding for the ERT Program. The Governor’s proposed budget placed our funding at risk by shuffling the fees from the land use applications to the general fund and then back to DEP with no specifics on allocations to the ERT or the Conservation Districts and the Council on Soil and Water (they also receive funding from these monies).

We are asking for no increase in fees or funding. We are asking for either a separate line item in DEP’s budget or a continuation of the land use fee going directly to the Environmental Quality Fund for our three organizations.

A letter, e-mail and/or phone call to the chairs of the Appropriations Committee and to your local legislator would be much appreciated emphasizing our assistance to your community.

I have attached our position paper and an overview of the ERT, Conservation District’s and Council’s programs and our funding. There is a link on our web site (www.ctert.org) to the Appropriations Committee members.

It is imperative that the legislators receive your letters prior to April 16th.

I’d like to thank you in advance for your support and would appreciate receiving acknowledgement of a letter sent or a call made on our behalf

Elaine A. Sych
ERT Coordinator
CT ERT Program
PO Box 70
Haddam, CT 06438
(860) 345-3977
www.ctert.org

State of Connecticut

Council on Soil and Water Conservation

24 Ingham Hill Road   ~ Essex, Connecticut  06426 ~ 860.767.9594 (Phone/Fax) ~ ct.cswc@att.net

______________________________________________________________________________

Maintain Funding for Conservations Districts, Council on Soil and Water and

Environmental Review Teams ~ revised March 25, 2009

We respectfully ask you to maintain stable funding (most probably through a separate line item) for CT Conservation Districts, the Council on Soil and Water (Council), and Environmental Review Teams (ERT).

The problem/ Governor Rell’s budget proposal placed Conservation Districts’, Council on Soil and Water Conservation and ERT funding at risk; under the Governor’s plan, funding from the land use application fee would be shuffled to the general fund and then back to DEP in an Other Expenses (“OE”) line item with no specifics on allocations to these groups.  Maintaining funds from a massive general line item is unlikely considering imminent changes in future DEP administration and staff.  Conservation Districts, Council and ERT do not have state employees and are not housed within DEP; they are regional and statewide groups that provide environmental and technical assistance to municipalities, and work on regional and statewide land use issues.  Having a separate line item OR securing their funding through depositing the $19 land use fee back into the Environmental Quality Fund or Conservation Fund has been agreed to be the most viable to keep secure and long-term funding.  It was always the legislature’s intent that these fees be used to fund the programs of these groups, and shuffling funding into a massive OE line item defeats the legislature’s intent.

The solution includes NO increase in fees or funding/

These groups respectfully request one of two things to maintain long-term and viable funding:

  1. a separate line item(s) in DEP’s budget or language in future Budget implementors designated for Conservation Districts, Council and ERT; the money for this line item is already included under the OE line item in DEP per Governor Rell’s  proposal and within the Environmental Quality Fund line item per Conservation & Development’s Subcommittee recommendations.  We are only asking that the designated amount for Conservation Districts, Council and ERT be maintained in a separate line item for these groups specifically or that language in the budget implementor confirm a potion of the Environmental Quality Fund is for these groups;

OR

  1. possible “status quo” ~ continue to deposit $19 of the land use application fee directly into the Environmental Quality Fund or Conservation Fund for Conservation Districts, Council and ERT.

Again, this is NOT a request for more dollars, as there are no new fees and no increase in funds we are seeking.  We are only asking to keep the Conservation Districts, Council and ERT whole as well as the programs that they provide to and for municipalities and each and every taxpayer.

**    **    **    **    **    **

More information on Council, Conservation Districts, ERT programs and their funding is provided on back side.

Contacts:

Council/ Suellen Kozey McCuin, Executive Director/ 860-767-9594

Jeff Folger, Co-Chairman of Legislation/Council, Chair/North Central Conservation District/ 860-644-2511 x 229

Districts/ David Askew, District Manager/North Central Conservation District/ 860-875-3881 x2

Tom ODell, Co-Chairman of Legislation/Council, Chair/CT River Coastal Conservation District/ 860-399-1807

ERT/ Elaine Sych, Coordinator/ERT 860-345-3877      Jim Sipperly, Co-Chairman ERT/ 860-334-7073

Below is a brief overview of Conservation District’s, Council and ERT Programs and their funding.

Connecticut’s Conservation Districts provide unbiased technical and environmental consulting services to a range of clients including municipalities, agriculture producers and private landowners.

  • Districts serve municipalities by providing expert opinion, technical review, and inspection services for complex development projects.  Districts also provide municipal staffing services in a number of towns by providing trained personnel to serve as wetland agent(s).

The Council on Soil and Water Conservation is dedicated to providing a statewide, regionally based, conservation and protection program for the land and water resources of the State of Connecticut.

  • The Council coordinates District programs with activities of the Department of Environmental Protection and other state, regional, municipal and local agencies.

The Connecticut Environmental Review Teams are a group of environmental professionals drawn together to form multidisciplinary environmental study teams to assist all 169 municipalities in reviewing sites proposed for development or preservation; they consist of a partnership of federal, state, regional and local agencies.

  • The ERT provides a unique free service of supplying objective, technical reports to local land use decision makers that strengthens support for community decisions, increases awareness of natural resources and provides information not readily available in a timely and cost effective manner.

Established in 1992, Public Act 92-235, the Land Use Fee Act, established the revenue source for the dedicated $19 of the present $30.00 fee collected by municipalities for funding Conservation Districts, the Council and ERT. Aimed at providing better land use decisions these services include project reviews for erosion and sedimentation control, storm water management and drinking water source protection; planning and implementation of watershed management plans; and coordination of district, state, and local efforts to protect soil and water and other natural resources. The public’s willingness to accept this fee was based on the promise that the money would be used for this purpose.

Nineteen dollars of the $30 dollar Land Use Fee revenues are distributed quarterly to 5 Conservation Districts, the Council on Soil and Water Conservation and the Environmental Review Team program to support technical natural resource services to municipalities, the agriculture community and private landowners, state-wide.  While the projected revenues fluctuate with land use development and the economy, they still provide the only dedicated fund for land use evaluation and assistance for making land use decisions. These funds also leverage Federal and private funds toward the same purposes.

If all EQ funds are diverted to the General Fund, as proposed, there will be a significant reduction in natural resource technical assistance available to municipalities and taxpayers and a step backward in the state’s efforts to implement smart growth through municipal cooperation within regions and watersheds.

Land use application fees were created by the legislature to support the services provided by Conservation Districts, Council and ERT as it recognized their value and the need for an adequate and viable funding source and the land use assistance provided to the municipalities and other taxpayers. The services provided by Conservation Districts and ERT offer a form of specialized regional assistance, not otherwise available to our municipalities and taxpayers.

Funds generated by the land use fees presently fund eight natural resource positions for assisting communities on a regional/statewide watershed basis. These include five technical natural resource specialists, one in each of the five Conservation Districts, one Coordinator and an assistant for the ERT and an Executive Director for the Council on Soil and Water who coordinates statewide work and land use programs of the Conservation Districts with state and federal agencies.

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NYT: Is a Food Revolution Now in Season?

NYT: Is a Food Revolution Now in Season?

“Advocates of organic and locally grown food have found a receptive ear in the White House, which has vowed to encourage a more nutritious and sustainable food supply.”