Streamside Honeybees Agroforestry Tour, September 7

Streamside Honeybees Agroforestry Tour,
Saturday September 7, 2013 13:00 - 14:00
8875 Martens Rd, Slocan City, BC

Beekeeping with native stream-side shrubs is the topic of a free tour being offered near Slocan City on Saturday, September 7. The tour will highlight the results of a demonstration project at the Murray Family Woodlot where a riparian area is newly planted with three native shrubs well-suited to the region. The Murray Family, with funding from the British Columbia Agroforestry Industry Development Initiative (AIDI ), are showcasing the benefits of integrating honey bees in riparian plantings for both conservation benefits and economic diversification.

The Kootenays are replete with small private land parcels endowed with streams. These riparian corridors are rarely utilized, yet can provide multiple benefits to land owners when managed with care. Many native shrubs grow products like berries and bark which are in demand for food and medicinals. When beehives are nearby, flowering shrubs benefit from honey bee pollination services while also benefiting bees with pollen and nectar for producing honey. Riparian buffers further complement hives by providing both a windbreak and surface water required by bees. Thus, sensitive riparian systems can be managed for economic benefit while protecting drinking water and wildlife habitat.


Directions to Tour: From Hwy 6, turn on to Martens Rd (1.3 km south of Slocan City exit).  Drive past the 'White Pines Dojo' sign and continue uphill to the corner.  There is a driveway on left side of road just before this corner, and 8875 sign.  (If you miss, you'll simply come to dead-end).

Please park along road.  (Parking space is limited up the driveway).  If you arrive late, you can simply walk up driveway about 100 meters and give a holler.

For additional details on the tour, please contact Michael Murray at 250-354-1412.

Agroforestry Tour at the 85th Annual BC Cattlemen's AGM

The BC Cattlemen's Association (BCCA) will be hosting it’s annual convention in Vernon this year from May 23 -25th.  The annual education day portion of the convention is one of the highlights of this event as it offers a great opportunity for ranchers and industry representatives to gain a better understanding of ideas that may assist with their operations becoming more economically and environmentally sustainable.

With funding from the BC Agroforestry Industry Development Initiative, the BCCA is pleased to offer an agroforestry tour as part of this year's education day. The theme for the education day is management for integrating grass, trees and water.  The tour will showcase the success and opportunities that the agroforestry sector provides to addressing forage development, water quality concerns, riparian management and economic diversification from a southern interior prospective.

The tour will visit agroforestry-related demonstrations and research sites in the north Okanagan and will provide education about agroforestry opportunities and practices, building awareness about agroforestry within the ranching community.

The BCCA has been the official voice of cattle ranchers throughout British Columbia since 1929.  For more than 80 years, the Association - whose membership is close to 1,200 ranchers - has represented the interests of beef cattle producers in the Province of BC.  BCCA is proud to work on behalf of approximately 72% of the provincial cattle herd to maintain and strengthen the sustainability of the BC beef industry.

To attend this tour you must register for the BCCA education day. For additional information or to register for the BCCA education day and tour please visit www.bccaagm.com/

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Funding for this work has been provided through the BC Agroforestry Industry Development Initiative (AGF1303)

Agroforestry at the Ninth Annual BC Interior Stewardship Workshop

The Farm Riparian Interface Stewardship Program, with funding from the BC Agroforestry Industry Development Initiative, is pleased to provide support for an agroforestry information session at the upcoming Ninth Annual BC Interior Stewardship Workshop, in Vanderhoof, May 7 and 8, 2013.

This event is part of the extension series: Riparian Stewardship through Agroforestry 

For more information on the Annual BC Interior Stewardship Workshop, locally hosted by the Nechako Environment and Water Stewardship Society, please visit the Fraser Basin Council website.

Register for the workshop and tour at https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/P56YNS6

Workshop is at full capacity - registration is now closed. 

Delta Farmers and UBC Farm Cultivating Sustainable Agroforestry

With increased consumer demand for ethically and sustainably sourced products, and new markets with the emergence of carbon offsets, BC’s agricultural sector has an exciting opportunity to contribute to sustainable land use and generate new income streams.  While many agroforestry stakeholders and community members are already practicing sustainability, there are opportunities for new products and services and new financing mechanisms that are not well known in the farming community.  The lack of inter-community and public awareness, market access, communication, and exchange of ideas in this area leaves significant gaps in the overall strength, vitality and innovation of the agroforestry sector.

The Delta Farmers' Institute (DFI) in partnership with the University of British Columbia Farm (UBC Farm), and with funding from the British Columbia Agroforestry Industry Development Initiative, will be hosting a workshop to start to address these gaps.  The workshop will facilitate discussion, networking, hands-on learning, demonstration, and an exchange of ideas across sectors, cultures and generations.  It will bring together a broad cross-section of farmers, land managers, policy makers, small businesses and others in BC’s lower-mainland, Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands to help put sustainable agroforestry into practice on their lands.

The workshop, to be hosted at the UBC Farm in Vancouver, will be a forum to discuss small-scale production and marketing of timber and non-timber products and services, riparian and terrestrial buffers, emerging opportunities and technologies, removing barriers to market access, niche marketing strategies, and the role of regulation.  It will also include hands-on demonstration sessions covering forest farming, windbreak/hedgerow establishment, and managing a trial Mediterranean truffière.  Information presented at the workshop will be incorporated into a Future Directions package, a quick-reference guide that summarizes sustainable agroforestry trends, emerging opportunities, practices, marketing considerations, and challenges.

UBC Farm will host an agroforestry workshop

DFI is leading this project due to increasing awareness of, and interest in, the benefits of alternative sustainable opportunities such as agroforestry, among the regional farming community.  Agroforestry requires a long-term vision and commitment and DFI believes that building links between current and future generations of farmers is critical to our futures as successful land stewards.  Partnership with UBC Farm will enhance its organizational capacity, provide a working demonstration site with event hosting services, build on established partnerships with practitioners, researchers and policy-makers, and improve connections with students interested in careers in agroforestry and land stewardship.  The UBC Farm currently offers a wide range of interdisciplinary learning, research and community programs on site, while operating as a working food/fuel/fibre-production farm.

The Delta Farmers’ Institute was established in 1898 and is a non-government and non-profit farm producers’ organization.  DFI’s mandate includes supporting farmers working to increase conservation, greenbelt projects and production of alternative sustainable crops.  Most notably, DFI has been instrumental in supporting Delta Farmland and Wildlife Trust’s establishment of roughly 18,000 m² of hedgerows, and riparian and terrestrial buffers throughout Delta.