July 25, 2013 - Boston Flora

Friday, August 9 – Sunday, August 11 – NOFA 39th Annual Summer Conference

July 25, 2013 by Boston Flora

Join the Northeast Organic Farming Association at its 39th Annual Summer Conference August 9 – 11 at University of Massachusetts, Amherst.Â This is the one stop place for information about NOFA, with over two hundred workshops on organic farming, gardening, land care, draft animals, homesteading, sustainability, nutrition, food politics, activism, and much more.Â Two keynote speeches to highlight:Â On Friday, August 9 at 7:30 Atina Diffley, organic farmer, consultant, activist and author of her 2012 memoir Turn Here Sweet Corn: Organic Farming Works, will speak. Her advocacy has addressed the pressures of suburban development, and she has been a leader in the struggle to stop the notorious polluters, Koch Industries from building an oil pipeline over her land and throughout the state of Minnesota. Then, on Saturday, August 10 at 7 pm, attend a debate entitled Is Organic Certification Right for You? Increasingly, young people are going into local farming without getting certified organic. Is “local” supplanting “organic”? Is this a good thing? Is there a special enduring value to organic certification? Has it strayed from its original goals? Two active certified farmers, and two uncertified farmers who use organic methods, will debate the question: “Is organic certification right for you?”Â Pro: Atina Diffley & Ryan Voiland;Â Con: Justine Denison & Mark Dunau; Moderator: Jack Kittredge.Â Learn more and register on line at www.nofasummerconference.org.

Thursday, August 8, 10:00 am – 4:00 pm – Penobscot River Restoration

July 25, 2013 by Boston Flora

Join the Ecological Landscaping Association and the Society for Ecological Restoration – New England Chapter on Thursday, August 8, from 10 – 4, for a program entitled Penobscot River Restoration: Great Works and Veazie Dam Removals, and Sedgeunkedunk Steam Restoration. (Someone should tell the ELA to shorten those title names!)Â The Penobscot River Restoration Project is an unprecedented collaborative effort that will rebalance fisheries restoration with hydropower production in the largest watershed within Maine, and result in the ecological restoration on the Penobscot River.Â Major partners in the project include hydropower companies, federal, state and tribal governments, the Penobscot River Restoration Trust, and conservation groups.Â After several years and considerable work, the Penobscot Trust purchased thre dams from the PPL Corporation (the hydropower company) in order to remove the two most seaward dams – Great Works and Veazie – and to pursue a fish bypass around the Howland dam.Â As part of the arrangement, PPL Corporation received approval to increase generation at six existing dams and will improve fish passage at four additional dams.Â Complete information on this program may be found at http://www.ecolandscaping.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Penobscot-Restoration-Eco-tour-Flier.pdf. Â To register, call 617-436-5838, or register on line at https://www.eventville.com/catalog/eventregistration1.asp?eventid=1010441.