Welcome A new committee has been added to
Grayson LandCare!
Fifth Grayson Land Stewardship Competition - A Success!
Local high school students took home $2000 in prize money on Saturday, April 14th, from Grayson LandCare’s Land Stewardship Contest. Twenty-one projects focused on helping our local economy and environment were submitted by individuals or teams in grades 8-12 at Galax High School, Grayson County High School, Oak Hill Academy or a Grayson County home school. Students presented their ideas orally and in written reports.
The top prize of $1000 was awarded to Kayla Johnson, Miranda Bolt, Cheyenne McGrady, and Kathleen Rivera of GCHS for their plans for a community garden.
The Virginia Tech College of Natural Resources and Grayson LandCare: Discovery/Creation of Sustainable Ways of Life and Leadership for the Future
The question “what shall we do about it?”
is only asked by those who do not
understand
the problem.
If a problem can be solved at all,
to understand it and to know what to do about it
are the same thing.
(Watts, 75)
I. The Challenge
In the face of unprecedented environmental, economic, and social changes, too frequently our understandings and responses fail to achieve desired and necessary results. A lack of clarity about how to keep up with the dynamic of the present, much less step confidently into the future, has left communities, commercial enterprises, states, and nations confused. Often they are badly divided as to the nature of the forces contributing to their distresses and about potential remedies that might offer relief.
Discovering what must be done in each locale to achieve sustainable, resilient landscapes, watersheds, communities, businesses, and governments is only half the challenge. Finding ways to implement necessary and beneficial change at sufficient scale and to sustain it through time is work that must engage all present and future generations. Virginia Tech has an important and exciting opportunity/responsibility for leadership in exploration of existing and emergent needs and the means to meet them.
For a major land grant university like Virginia Tech, the challenge is complicated. Institutions of higher learning have specific momentum as a result of having succeeded in devising improved understandings, technologies, and management systems with tight focus on a limited number of interests. Investment in research and development by discipline has been rewarded as a result of success in expanding our understandings of new worlds unanticipated and unimagined just a few short years ago. Genetic engineering, nanotechnology, information technology, sub-atomic physics, and marketing have increased human capacity to manipulate the physical world, living biomass, and behavior. Recognition and financial rewards have followed. More of the same is anticipated.
Yet out beyond these successes remains a larger world where other pressing problems are not being resolved or even addressed. Water is becoming an increasingly scarce resource. Soil losses in some places have dramatically reduced the potential for food, fiber, fuel, and forage production. Where people and opportunities don’t meet in the same time and place, standards of living have fallen or remained stagnant. Financial returns to agriculture and forestry minimally support a majority of those living on the land, if at all. The growth of human populations and the restless migrations away from scarcity mean that the global community is becoming “unsettled” on a scale unimaginable fifty years ago.
II. The Academic Community
In order to study a phenomenon, there must be some degree of control over the subject of inquiry or else cause and effect will not be understood and findings will be open to question. In the physical sciences, control within laboratories and in the world of sticks and stones is relatively easy to achieve. On the other hand, when the inquiry concerns complex and dynamic living systems responding to a wide range of stimuli, control is progressively difficult for practical and often ethical reasons. While the cell on a glass slide under the microscope can do little other than be observed, understanding the impact of climate change on different tropic levels in a temperate forest is quite a different matter. Do we investigate soil microorganisms exchanging minerals for sugars with trees, precipitation in relation to changes in temperatures, biodiversity in response to changes in vegetation cover, the management practices of landowners, changes in the availability of forest products, melting ice in the Arctic, or all of the above? Even if we study all of the above, how is the information to be packaged into some comprehensible whole?
In science, we often read that some finding is true, ceteris paribus, or said another way, all other things being equal or held constant. As complexity increases, as questions are asked about cause and effect beyond the laboratory, the physical world, and simple life forms, all other things are less likely to be equal or even to be known.
When there is less control, the ability to predict or anticipate consequence is reduced because there are unaccounted variables that influence outcomes. For the economist, these are the externalities that exist beyond the focus of classical theories and methods of inquiry. For the ecologist, such variables are beyond the systems of interest that have been carefully delineated. As consideration is further expanded to include the fields and forests, the streams and rivers, and the human beings that manage the land and influence what is grown, harvested, processed, and delivered, each discipline has a stake in any proposed action with only a partial view of the whole. The various disciplinary practitioners may speak different technical languages, and use different information collection techniques, and their focuses often don’t overlap or correlate even though they may investigate phenomena that are interrelated and mutually influential if not mutually dependent.
The British philosopher Alfred North Whitehead (1920) commented that nature is infinitely divisible, i.e., there are an infinite number of ways of seeing nature. Any “complete” description is beyond our capacities, as the ecologist Frank Egler noted: "Ecosystems not only are more complex than we think, but more complex than we can think" (Noss, O'Connell, and Murphy: 1997:76). As a consequence, while many discipline-oriented researchers are raising questions concerning the long-term viability of existing biodiversity, water quality, and supplies of food, fuel, fiber, and forage, too frequently their conclusions are difficult to apply to the findings produced by other disciplinarians or to new technologies and management techniques. If problems are identified and solutions offered separately -- one at a time -- to improve water quality, increase forage yields, improve timber management, increase income to landowners...
April 11, 2012 - PotomacLocal.com
By Ashley McLeod
Capital News Service
RICHMOND, Va. – Beekeepers across Virginia soon will be able to get government money for creating new beehives – a move legislators hope will resurrect the state’s dying bee population.
During this year’s regular session, the General Assembly passed legislation to establish a $175,000 fund and award beekeepers as much as $200 for every new beehive, up to $2,400. Gov. Bob McDonnell recently signed the two bills, SB 354 and HB 300, into law.
Sen. Creigh Deeds, D-Charlottesville, sponsored the Senate bill. He hopes the money will encourage beekeepers to create more beehives.
“We’ve seen declining bee populations throughout Virginia, and they are the foundation of agriculture,” Deeds said. “If they’re not pollinating flowers and plants, crop production begins to lag.”
State apiarist Keith Tignor is responsible for educating and training beekeepers in Virginia. Tignor said his office has received numerous phone calls from Virginia beekeepers interested in the grant program.
“We estimate that there are between 20,000 and 30,000 beehives in Virginia, around 2,000 to 3,000 beekeepers, and most maintain an average of between 10 and 12 hives,” Tignor said. “Beekeeping is a very important part of Virginia, in many different aspects.”
Delegate Ed Scott, R-Culpeper, agreed. He proposed the House bill creating the grant program.
“There are a wide range of benefits to having a healthy bee population – not just for honey production,” Scott said.
“When bees pollinate other crops, they are stimulating agricultural production in a wide range of areas, anywhere from apple and peach orchards, to grapes and alfalfa hay crops. If we didn’t have beekeeping, we wouldn’t have other crops being as successful as they are.”
Deeds and Scott introduced their bills after judging a student competition conducted last summer at the Sorensen Institute’s College Leaders Program at the University of Virginia. The lawmakers were inspired by a group of college students who had drafted mock legislation aimed at addressing the state’s declining bee population.
Similar bills failed in previous years. The legislation, which will go into effect July 1, was initially introduced as a tax credit but was changed to a grant program by a legislative committee.
Beekeepers must apply for the grants, which will be administered by the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.
Are you up to the challenge?
We need your help to spread the word.
Would you take a moment to share this exciting initiative by distributing this link to
your friends and family? http://virginiafood.org/10-a-week/
Let’s get this fun and easy challenge off to a great start!
Together we can build our local economy by supporting Virginia farmers!
Small business consultant available to you for FREE!
Do you have an idea about starting your own business, but don't know how to begin? Do you currently have a small business that is in trouble, or that you would like to grow? Grayson County now has, for one year, a grant-funded small business consultant available to you for FREE!
Roy Swanner, a retired Grayson County resident with years of business and management experience, can be contacted at (276) 579-2321 or (276) 233-0536, or through e-mail at www.graysonsbdc@brceda.org. This position is part of the Blue Ridge Economic Development Authority at Crossroads. Roy works out of his home on Flat Ridge Road and would be happy to meet with you to answer your questions, help you develop contacts, or teach you how to build a sound business plan.
Now is the time to make that dream come true!
SAVE THE DATE:
The 2012 Save Green Expo is scheduled for Saturday, September 15
at the Crossroads Institute, 1117 East Stuart Drive, Galax, VA.
Hours are 9:00 am to 3:00 pm.
This year's theme will be "Health & Wellness,"
taking care of ourselves, our families, and the planet.
To see a brief walk-through of the 2011 Expo, watch this 7-minute video:
World's first online radio station dedicated to music with an environmental message
Hi Friends from Joyce Rouse,
The New Year began with a dream come true for some dear friends of mine with MUSE (Musicians United to Sustain the Environment). We started the world's first online radio station dedicated to music with an environmental message. I'm sending out this news blast especially to share some updates about this project and invite you to tune in to Earthday.fm.
Earthday.fm features a full-spectrum of music spanning six decades and many genres. Imagine my surprise to have Earth Mama songs programmed alongside the music of Tracy Chapman, John Hall, and George Harrison. The playlist draws from 5,000 songs with environmental and indigenous lyrics. The diversity is truly inspiring. Already, this station has attracted more than 300 listeners from 25 countries. You can help by becoming a listener and also inviting your friends to listen.
To tune in, go to: http://www.live365.com/stations/earthdayfm. The radio stream is free and will work with any audio player on your computer. And, more big news is coming. In March, MUSE will be launching weboflife.fm, dedicated to music specially programed for children and families.
Here are some more simple ways that you can be involved:
For station updates, please sign up for Earth Song eNews by clicking here.
If you have a website and would like to simulcast this station on your website (for free), please let us know and we will send you the instructions to do so.
Be a song angel and help the station by purchasing more songs (from hard to reach recording artists) for the playlist. To gift a song to Earthday Radio, click here to see our Amazon wish list. Click on the song that you want to contribute, then select Give Song As a Gift.
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.
In Short Supply:
Small Farmers and the Struggle to Deliver Healthy Food
o 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.
"With appreciation of our past and awareness of our present, we can create a safe, sane future."
