View the Recording: Riparian & Hedgerow Habitat Provides Benefits to the Farm
If you missed our recent webinar about riparian and hedgerow habitat, the recording is now available. Learn about the benefits of hedgerows for pest control, ecosystem health and water quality. Speakers and topics include:
- Wendell Gilgert, WFA Board Member, NRCS and Point Blue (Emeritus), discussed riparian bird species and how to support them.
- Hamutahl Cohen, UC ANR, and Christian Cormeir, Cal Poly Pomona, shared research focusing on birds and insects that use riparian habitat and adjacent hedgerow habitat in avocado and citrus orchards.
- Jenni Phillips, Point Blue, discussed steps for planting riparian and hedgerow habitat on farms, including plant selection.
Watch the Webinar Recording Here
Honig Vineyard & Winery Field Day: Biodiversity to Optimize Production
May 30, 2024 in Rutherford, CA
8:00 am - 1:00 pm
A limited number of tickets are still available! Join Honig Vineyard & Winery and Wild Farm Alliance out in the field. The event will feature a series of talks given by avian researchers and agricultural professionals, a beneficial habitat walk and a hedgerow demonstration planting. Tickets are $12 - $32 (sliding scale) and include lunch.
We are offering 3 CE credits through the California Department of Pesticide Regulation for this event.
Read More and Buy Tickets Here
Save the Date: 2nd Annual Wild Farm & Food Celebration at Tres Sabores
July 27, 2024
Join Wild Farm Alliance at Tres Sabores Vineyard and Winery in St. Helena, California to learn about wild and resilient vineyards while enjoying delicious food and wine. Join the wild farming movement and bring nature back to our farms and ranches. This unique fundraising event offers a farm to table meal prepared by award-winning chef Duskie Estes, co-owner Black Pig Meat Co., and wines from Tres Sabores Vineyard and Winery, a family-owned, woman-led certified organic winery cultivating Zinfandel, Cabernet Sauvignon and Petite Sirah varietals.
More details and ticket information will be available soon!
Field Day at Tablas Creek Vineyard
In April 2024, about 50 field day participants gathered at Tablas Creek Vineyard in Paso Robles, CA to learn about how biodiversity can optimize production in wine grape growing. Topics included how to attract and support beneficial birds and arthropods, using weather information to understand spray drift risk, wine growing with a whole systems approach, and more. The event was co-hosted by WFA and the Vineyard Team.
Read More About the Field Day Here
Bringing Back Biodiversity: Hedgerows at Rising Valley Farm
When Nile Estep, owner of Hacienda Hay & Feed, set out to revitalize a recently acquired 3-acre plot of land, it quickly became apparent that encouraging biodiversity would be key. Together with Jon Wescott, Farm Manager, and Lainey Chatham of Rana Creek Nursery, they began incorporating habitat.
Central to Rising Valley Farm’s mission is to serve as an educational farm for the community. The farm hosts events to teach other growers how to integrate regenerative farming techniques into their own operations. Nile, Jon and Lainey decided that installing hedgerows would enhance the operation’s natural enemy population to help with pest control and teach others about the important role native plants play on a farm.
Read more about Rising Valley Farm and how WFA helped install a new hedgerow. Plus, watch a video about the farm and see the hedgerow installation.
Read More + Watch Video Here
TAC Farm Resiliency
Dennis Hutson and Kayode Kadara, co-owners of TAC Farm, recently walked the length of their 2,700 foot hedgerow and windbreak with WFA Executive Director Jo Ann Baumgartner and Sam Earnshaw of Hedgerows Unlimited. Together, they had the unfortunate task of examining plant resiliency in the face of limited water availability and high salt concentrations.
Four years ago, TAC Farm received a Healthy Soils Program Grant from the California Department of Food and Agriculture to install windbreak and hedgerow plantings. In the first years, they were able to use water to flush through the salts that accumulate in the soil. But with a receding water table that led to higher salt concentrations and recent state water board regulations limiting the amount of water that can be used each year, many of the plants died.
Read More To See Which Plants Survived
Reducing Pests Through Synergies Between Plant Diversity and Soil Microbial Ecology
Given environmental, economic, and social costs of intensive chemical and biotechnological pest control, there is an urgent need to transition towards a holistic approach.
In a new article out of University of California, Berkeley, Miguel Altieri and co-authors focus on what makes agroecosystems susceptible and vulnerable to insect pests, pathogens and weeds, in order to design diversified agroecosystems that prevent and suppress insect pest, pathogen and weed problems.
The researchers propose a plant health model that includes (a) restoring plant diversity at the landscape and field level, with spatial and temporal crop combinations that deter pests and/or enhance natural enemies and (b) increasing soil organic matter through green or animal manures, compost and other amendments, which enhance antagonists that control soilborne pathogens. By promoting diversity in plants and soil life, we can create balanced ecosystems where pests are managed naturally with beneficial arthropods and microbial communities, without harming the environment or relying heavily on chemicals.
Read the Article Here
House Farm Bill Undermines Climate-Focused Conservation
For over a year and a half, countless farmers and ranchers nationwide have been sending an unmistakable message to policymakers in Washington, DC – that the climate-smart agriculture funding included in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) is exactly what they’ve been looking for.
Since the IRA was signed into law on August 16, 2022, the farmer-driven demand – in red states and blue states alike – for these resources has far outpaced availability. In fiscal year (FY) 2023, the IRA made $850 million available for climate-focused conservation, and in a showcase of the extent of demand for these resources, applications totaled a staggering $2.8 billion.
Yet despite the overwhelming popularity of these climate-smart agriculture resources and the four key working lands conservation programs to which they are linked, the House Agriculture Committee released their draft farm bill last Friday and it would fundamentally undermine precisely what has proven so popular among farmers and ranchers.
The bill rescinds all available Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) funding, reallocating it to conservation programs without the original climate change mitigation requirements. Making permanent, long-term investments in conservation programs is the right move for this Farm Bill, but stripping away IRA’s climate guardrails is not.
In addition, this bill:
- Fails to fix the flawed farm safety net or fully support diversified, beginning, and smaller-scale farmers.
- Encourages consolidation in the industry rather than diversity and fair competition for family farms.
- Effectively cuts Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) funding, further burdening the millions of families struggling with hunger.
Read More about how the House Farm Bill misses an opportunity to move agriculture forward in this write-up from the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition.
Changing How We Farm Might Protect Wild Mammals—and Fight Climate Change
Nearly a quarter of U.S. mammal species are on the endangered species list. Researchers say farming with biodiversity in mind may help stave off further decline. A recent Civil Eats article does an excellent job detailing the importance of wild farming and the benefits that incorporating nature into agriculture can bring to the farm.
Read the Article Here
Support New Video Resources
Because you have been part of our wild farming community, you’ve hopefully seen videos from our Research in Action Series where we pair researchers and farmers discussing practices that attract beneficial birds and insects and how they’ve been implemented on the farm. See our most recent video called Biodiverse Vineyards for Pest Control & Healthy Ecosystems featuring Kelly Mulville of Paicines Ranch and Houston Wilson at the University of California, Riverside.
These videos are just one example of the many tools that WFA offers growers and other land stewards to increase the abundance of beneficial wildlife on the farm. We rely on individual donations to fund our work and the creation of new videos and publications. Help us continue to create and distribute new resources for farmers and ag professionals with a donation today!
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