Grayson County Department of Planning and Community Development announces “Top 100 Images of Grayson County” Photography Contest.
The Photography Contest is open to any person with digital images of Grayson County. The photos will be used in the development of a new Grayson County web site and marketing initiatives for Grayson County Tourism.
Local citizens equipped with digital cameras are the best source for images that reflect our community. Of particular interest are images that capture nature, people, local events, musical heritage and popular Grayson County attractions.
This is VT EarthWorks third year offering the Growers Academy in partnership with Virginia Cooperative Extension. We have learned a lot along the way, and this year is going to be the best Academy yet!
The Growers Academy is designed for graduating participants to walk away with a business and marketing plan, and a firm grasp on basic low-input, land management practices. Participants will receive a Growers Academy notebook and a resource CD, both filled with literature and numerous, valuable resources for you to refer to as you establish your business. If you do not have a land to start your business, don't let that stop you, Growers Academy graduates are eligible to lease space at the Catawba Sustainability Center.
Christy Gabbard, Director of VT EarthWorks
Virginia Tech Roanoke Center
108 N. Jefferson Street,
Suite 701, Roanoke, VA 24016
Phone: 540-767-6114 - Mobile: 540-558-8010
In Short Supply:
Small Farmers and the Struggle to Deliver Healthy Food to Your Plate
The American food system doesn't make it easy for small farmers to get their healthy food to your home, but meet two farmers in Scott County, VA who are trying: Ricky Horton and Sherilyn Shepard. They're siblings who grow tomatoes, cucumbers, and other vegetables in southwestern Virginia. Their livelihood is filled with uncertainties ranging from unpredictable weather to changing immigration laws. This is their story.
Grayson LandCare
Annual Meeting
October 17th ~ Goose Roost
If you are on Facebook, please go to Grayson LandCare and click "like" to see meeting reminders and occasional postings, like these photos.
Please put our next meeting on your calendar:
Monday, November 21 @ 7 pm in the
1908 Courthouse, Independence, VA.
Our meetings are open to anyone who is interested.
See you there!
Details of our activities will be posted here and
on our Facebook page as they shape up!
Announcement:
Fifth Grayson Land Stewardship Competition
Grayson LandCare, Inc., a local non-profit organization, is pleased to announce the fifth annual Land Stewardship Competition. Too often our youth graduate and leave Grayson County thinking our community doesn’t have any opportunities for them. This contest encourages students to explore real economic, environmental and social problems facing Grayson County and suggest innovative and sustainable solutions. Contestants are invited to think creatively about how we can be good stewards of our land and still meet the triple bottom line of sustainability―being economically successful, protecting our environment, and promoting community involvement and well-being.
Grayson LandCare is assessing the availability of high-speed Internet throughout Grayson County in hopes of improving access for all citizens. As a first step, we are collecting information on where service is currently available and how expensive it is. We would appreciate your answering a short survey and encouraging friends and neighbors in the county to do the same. (This survey collects no personal or prive information, not even your email address.) We realize that this will only reach those who do have access; we will use other ways to reach those people who do not. Thank you for your help, and if you are interested in participating in this project, please use "our contact us form" to send us further information so we can invite you to the planning meetings.
Paul Stamets on 6 ways mushrooms can save the world
Why you should listen to him:
Entrepreneurial mycologist Paul Stamets seeks to rescue the study of mushrooms from forest gourmets and psychedelic warlords. The focus of Stamets' research is the Northwest's native fungal genome, mycelium, but along the way he has filed 22 patents for mushroom-related technologies, including pesticidal fungi that trick insects into eating them, and mushrooms that can break down the neurotoxins used in nerve gas.
There are cosmic implications as well. Stamets believes we could terraform other worlds in our galaxy by sowing a mix of fungal spores and other seeds to create an ecological footprint on a new planet.
"Once you’ve heard 'renaissance mycologist' Paul Stamets talk about mushrooms, you'll never look at the world -- not to mention your backyard -- in the same way again." Linda Baker, Salon.com
Submitted by: Loren Webster
Matthews Foundation Funds LandCare-Tech Project
The Claire B. and James M. Matthews Foundation has awarded $47,080 per year for five years to Virginia Tech's College of Agriculture & Life Sciences and Cooperative Extension. This grant will fund an experiment in whole-farm planning in Grayson County. Danny Boyer, local farmer and President of Grayson LandCare, is the Principal Investigator working with three farms in Spring Valley. Virginia Tech will offer assessment and planning expertise and measurement of results.
Whole farm planning, first developed in Australia through the LandCare movement, enables farmers to balance farm profitability, community benefits, and environmental health. With the support of agriculture and forestry specialists, farmers and other landowners learn to integrate their management approaches recognizing their financial, community, and environmental goals. Given needs of their families (health, education, retirement), existing farm resources are evaluated – soils, water, lay of the land, livestock, buildings, equipment, labor availability, etc. – to determine options given the availability of markets, technical advice, investment capital, collaborative community ventures, e.g., Grayson Natural Foods, and other resources and services. From this evaluation, a farm plan is developed. At this stage, it becomes possible to identify the missing elements in what the farmer would like to achieve on the farm. Focusing on the farmers, people from Tech Cooperative Extension and the Colleges of Natural Resources & Environment and of Agriculture & Life Sciences, Farm Bureau, and the Virginia Departments of Agriculture & Consumer Services and of Forestry supporting the whole farm planning effort work together to create and implement plans that will improve farm incomes, protect water supplies, and contribute to a healthy community and environment. As plans are put into action, progress is periodically monitored to adapt the plan to changing circumstances, both on the farm. in markets, and with collaborating neighbors and other partners.
From the broader landscape and watershed perspective, whole farm planning is sensitive to the holdings of individual farmers and other land owners and the flows of energy, water, wildlife, information, capital, etc. From the perspectives of the community, universities, and other cooperating agencies and organizations interested in environmental services, endangered species, stream quality, etc., each individual farm can be located in relation to these flows. Management regimes can be designed to take financial advantage of specific locations while protecting environmental services and native biodiversity. This requires landscape and watershed evaluation for the design and later for the evaluation of the whole farm planning effort.
"With appreciation of our past and awareness of our present, we can create a safe, sane future."
