Learn to identify New England bumblebees under a microscope and in the field on May 9 in a program sponsored by UMass Amherst Extension Agriculture Program. Review conservation status and habitat associations. Questions? Contact nicolebell@umass.edu. To register, visit https://ag.umass.edu/pollinators
Nicole Bell of UMass Amherst Extension will lead a special free event with Grow Native Massachusetts and Mass Pollinator Network on March 25 at 7 pm. Nicole will introduce the new pollinator program through UMass Extension, as well as talk about future goals. She is open to any and all ideas for future projects and collaborations! In addition, she’ll discuss some of her prior research on wild bees, and briefly discuss provisioning habitat for specialized pollinators. Sign up at https://grownativemass.org/Our-Programs/calendar
This year, on December 5 on Zoom, the Mass Rivers Alliance is thrilled to welcome Professor Kostas Andreadis of UMass Amherst, who will explore NASA’s groundbreaking Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) satellite mission and how it’s transforming our understanding of rivers, lakes, and the water cycle. Discover how this new technology measurements of water surface elevations and river widths help estimate river discharge as well as changes in river and lake storage. Don’t miss this chance to learn more about the future of hydrological science! Sign up on our website: massriversalliance.org.
This Massachusetts Horticultural Society class on February 11 from 7 – 8:30, online, is for those who want to grow small fruits in their backyard or on small commercial fruit farms. Growing blueberries, brambles, strawberries, or currants in your backyard can be rewarding and fun. This class will provide an overview on how to successfully grow these attractive fruits in your home landscape, be it a rural, suburban, or urban lot for ornamental purposes and for fruit production.
Instructed by J. Stephen Casscles, Esq.
J. Stephen Casscles is a government lawyer with over 35 years of experience in New York State and municipal government. He has dedicated his life to public service and has practiced law in a broad range of areas such as health, insurance, alcoholic beverage control, gaming, agriculture, economic development, municipal finance, and land-use law.
An enthusiastic viticulturalist, Stephen has a 12-acre farm in Athens, NY, called Cedar Cliff, where he cultivates over 110 different French-American hybrids, 19th Century heritage grape varieties from the Hudson Valley and Massachusetts, and own rooted chance hybrids that he evaluates, makes wine from, and lectures about. In addition, he lectures on wine, grape cultivation, 19th century American horticulture and landscape architecture at botanical gardens and historical societies throughout New York and New England. Mr. Casscles operates a small grape nursery that specializes in propagating rare French-American hybrids, 19th Century heritage grape varieties developed in the Hudson Valley, Boston’s North Shore, the rest of New England, and own rooted chance hybrids identified at his farm Cedar Cliff. He is an award-winning winemaker who currently works at Sabba Estate Vineyards, in Old Chatham, NY and formally of the Hudson-Chatham Winery in Ghent, NY (2007-2019) and his wines been covered by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Wine Enthusiast, New York Post, Hugh Johnson’s Annual Pocket Wine Book (2021), and The Albany Times-Union.
As a regional historian, Stephen authored Grapes of the Hudson Valley and Other Cool Climate Regions of the United States and Canada, which details the history of the Hudson Valley fruit growing industry, how to make wine, establish and maintain a vineyard, and the growing characteristics of over 170 cool climate grape varieties. He is currently working on two new books, The Prince Family Nurseries of Flushing, NY (1720-1869) and The Life and Times of E. S. Rogers and the Heritage Grapes of New England.
In addition to his full length works on grape varieties, grape cultivation, and 19th century horticulture, Stephen is a frequent contributor to academic and trade journals such as Arnoldia of the Arnold Arboretum of Boston, MA, Fruit Notes of U. Mass Amherst, Horticultural News of Rutgers University, Wine Journal of the American Wine Society, New York Fruit Quarterly of the NYS Horticultural Society, and the Hudson Valley Wine Magazine
As a culmination of his horticultural pursuits, Stephen advises and lectures at the Fermentation Sciences Program at SUNY at Cobleskill, and has a working relationship with professors at U-1 University Youngdong, Korea, and with many in the Korean grape and wine industry.
Stephen can be reached at cassclesjs@yahoo.com or by cell at 518-755-5475.
$18 for Mass Hort members, $26 for nonmembers. Register at www.masshort.org
The 41st Annual UMass Community Tree Conference: Ecological Perspectives of the Urban Forest, will take place Tuesday, March 10 from 8:45 am – 3:30 pm at Stockbridge Hall the UMass Campus in Amherst. This one-day conference is designed for tree care professionals, volunteers, and enthusiasts including arborists, tree wardens/municipal tree care specialists, foresters, landscape architects and shade tree committee members.
Sponsored by UMass Extension in cooperation with the UMass Dept. of Environmental Conservation, the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation and the USDA Forest Service Urban Natural Resources Institute. Registration Cost is $95 for first registration, $75 for each additional registrant from the same organization. More information and on line registration may be accessed at http://ag.umass.edu/landscape/events/41st-annual-umass-community-tree-conference-challenges-opportunities-for-2020-whats
Keeping Varroa mites under control in a honeybee colony can be hard and confusing. There are lots of treatment options but no silver bullet. UMass extension educator Hannah Whitehead will lead a workshop on how to choose and combine treatment options in order to create a mite management plan. She will explain the theory of Integrated Pest Management, review mite treatment options and discuss the most effective non-chemical management tools. As part of the workshop, participants will fill out their own personal mite management plan for this coming summer.
Hannah Whitehead is a honey bee extension educator at UMass Amherst. She received her masters at The Ohio State University, where she studied drone brood removal and surveyed beekeepers about mite management choices. In addition to her interest in bees, she is also passionate about farming: before pursuing her masters, she worked on vegetable and dairy farms, studied urban agriculture in Chicago, and worked as a research assistant for OSU’s Agroecosystem Management Program.
$10 BBG members, $25 nonmembers. Register at https://www.berkshirebotanical.org/events/creating-varroa-management-plan
Do you have a prized rhododendron? Perhaps a prominent spruce? We love those plants that bring some green life into the interminable gray of winter. But did you know they grow differently, have different needs, and therefore need to be cared for differently from plants that lose their leaves? Explore all these topics and more at Tower Hill Botanic Garden, 11 French Drive in Boylston on Thursday, December 6 from 11 – 1 with Worcester Tree Initiative’s Community Forester, Derek Lirange.
Derek Lirange began working at Worcester Tree Initiative (WTI) days after completing his Bachelor’s Degree, from UMASS Amherst, in Urban and Community Forestry in 2013. As WTI’s Community Forester, Derek’s primary role is to work with WTI’s partners coordinating tree plantings, education programs, and workdays. $10 for THBG members, $20 for nonmembers. Register at http://www.towerhillbg.org
Worcester Tree Initiative’s Community Forester Derek Lirange will cover the fundamentals of pruning woody plants, including what should be cut out of trees and shrubs and how to make cuts for both health and appearance. He will also address common pruning mistakes or misconceptions and simple tool maintenance so you can make sure you’re making the best cut every time. This beginner’s class will take place at Tower Hill Botanic Garden on November 15 from 10 – noon. Tower Hill member price $15, nonmembers $25. Register at http://www.towerhillbg.org.
Derek Lirange began working at Worcester Tree Initiative (WTI) days after completing his Bachelor’s Degree, from UMASS Amherst, in Urban and Community Forestry in 2013. As WTI’s Community Forester, Derek’s primary role is to work with WTI’s partners coordinating tree plantings, education programs, and workdays.
A series of exciting events will mark 100 years of Stockbridge School of Agriculture on October 5 and 6 on the campus of University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
The $75 registration fee includes any and all events throughout the weekend:
the Friday Welcome Reception, Saturday Morning Bus Tour (Agricultural Learning Center, Cold Spring Orchard Research & Education Center, Hadley Farm, Joseph Troll Turf Research Center, and the Levi Stockbridge Home) , Saturday Lunch in the Atrium of the John Olver Design Building, Saturday Afternoon Campus Tour and/or Saturday Centennial Gala. During registration you will select the events and tours you will attend.
For registration and more information, visit the website, https://umass.irisregistration.com/Home/Site?code=Stockbridge100.
Join Tawny Simisky, UMass Extension Entomologist, on August 9 from 9 – 3 for this workshop where participants will gain hands-on experience with many important landscape and forest insect pests of trees and shrubs. The UMass Amherst campus arboretum offers a wide variety of ornamental and forest trees and shrubs. Selected insects to be discussed will include bark beetles and wood borers, pests with piercing-sucking mouth parts, defoliators, miners/leafrollers, galls, and more. An introductory lecture will review the basics of diagnostic entomology followed by a walking tour of campus. The day will end with a laboratory session using microscopy, giving us the opportunity for an up-close and personal view of some of these insects.
Registration
Preregistration is required, as space is limited to 25 participants; cost is $150/$135 per person. Lunch is on your own, morning coffee will be provided. To register visit http://ag.umass.edu/landscape/events/landscape-forest-tree-shrub-insect-workshop
