The Farm Hub’s Research Day draws area farmers and community members.
Christine Tilley and her son Alexander are keen on farming sustainably. Tilley, a co-owner of Good Seouls Farm in Sullivan County, and Alexander recently attended Field Day an annual event hosted at the Farm Hub. The event, free and open to the public, offers an opportunity for farmers and land stewards learn about best farming practices as connected with conservation.
Alexander, a recent college graduate, is exploring agriculture careers and participating in Cornell Cooperative Extension in Sullivan County’s mentee program.
“He’s a lover of conservation, and we definitely want to make sure that we are engaged in the best farming practices, (doing) regenerative farming and learning how to do no-till,” Tilley says.
Far left, Jason Tesauro, a conservation biologist specializing in turtles, and Kathryn Natale of Hudsonia demonstrate turtle tracking techniques.
The half-day event, led by the Farm Hub’s Applied Farmscape Ecology Program, connects attendees with farmers, scientists, and researchers who are engaged in various research trials as part of the work of the Applied Farmscape Ecology Research Collaborative (AFERC).
The interactive event was an excellent opportunity to learn more about farming with nature and conservation. Julie Hart, the Director of Education at Dutchess Land Conservancy, works closely with farmers and those with farmable land in the Hudson Valley who seek knowledge on how to preserve or further care for their land.
“Understanding the ecology of these systems and how they evolve and how they can be managed in an ecologically sensitive way is really important,” says Hart. “This kind of science-based information, which can guide land stewards in managing their own lands, is important. People want to do the right thing, but they don’t necessarily know how.”
Field Day also served as a learning platform for the research teams presenting. This year, Shafiul Chowdhury, a professor at SUNY New Paltz, gave his student interns a chance to present research on water quality in relation to agriculture. Over the summer, students have been collecting water samples in the Esopus Creek at the Farm Hub and throughout Ulster County.
“I showed them how to present and what approach they should take, and I told them, `Now take it from here,’” Chowdhury says. “This way, they get to learn about the science and the research they’re doing and also learn to present.”
Click here for resources and handouts from the Event in both English and Spanish.