News Headlines
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Mass Ag. in the Classroom Calls for Workshop Proposals for its 5th Annual Fall Greening the School Conference
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Also from Mass Ag., Garden Mentoring, School Garden Survey & Resources and Dairy- Based Mini-Grants
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Town of Lenox Medications Roundup
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Massachusetts Town Forests Centennial – Town Forests: Past & Present
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MACC Fall Conference, November 16, 2013: Invasive Plant Species: Pick Your Battles to Win!
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Bottle Bill Ballot Initiative Moves Forward
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The Massachusetts Farm to School Project is Seeking a new Executive Director
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Dyken Pond Center is Offering a Fall Home School Series
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Join the Revolution in Home Canning — Empower Yourself to Become a Self-Sufficient Locavore! (and Save Money, Too!)
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Grant Opportunity for Individual Artists, Community Organizations and Schools
Massachusetts Agriculture in the Classroom | Fall Events
Day of Garden Skills- October 19
New England Small Farm Institute, Belchertown
We are happy to announce that our Fall Day of Garden Skills will be held on October 19th at the New England Small Farm Institute in Belchertown. There will be 12 workshop throughout the day on school garden related topics. If you would like to give a workshop please let us know!
SAVE THE DATE! CALL FOR WORKSHOPS!
Fall Greening the School Conference
Our 5th annual Fall Conference for Educators will be held November 9th at Clay Science Center of Dexter & Southfield Schools in Brookline. Each focuses on gardening, composting, natural resource conservation and local foods.We are currently looking for suggestions for Workshops for this event, if you would like to put on a workshop or have a suggestion for someone we should invite, please let us know! $50 fee includes lunch, materials and ten professional development points with activity. This event is sponspored by Chipotle Mexican Grill, Whole Foods, and the Massachusetts Departmenr of Agricultural Resources. Read more.
Garden Mentoring
We are looking to mentor 12 school gardens this fall. If you are interested in applying or to see the criteria and application visit our website. Read more.
School Gardens Survey and Resources
Do you have a school garden. We want to hear from you. MAC is working with educators across the state to help them achieve success in school gardens by promoting best safety practices. Purpose is to identify concerns that schools or communities may have and to determine what kinds of help would be most useful.
Please log-in and fill out our on-line survey.
Visit MAC’s Website to view school garden resources.
* Directories of school gardens & resources to support
school gardens. Join the garden list.
* Garden-based lessons for Grades 1 -4
* 13 How-to-Guides for Getting Started in School Garden
Read Alice Posner’s School Garden Blog and join the conversation.
Dairy- Based Mini-Grants
MAC will award 4 mini-grants of $250 each to teachers seeking to develop dairy-based lessons for their classrooms. Lessons will be posted on the MAC website. Send us your lesson idea for review.
Mini-grants funded by the Mass. Dairy Promotions Board.
Town of Lenox Medications Roundup
from Lenox Public Schools
On October 27, the Town of Lenox will be joining other towns across the state in the 7th annual Medication Roundup.
The Medication Roundup will take place at our Town Hall between 10am and 2pm, and they will take any prescription or over-the-counter medications for humans and pets.
They can also take syringes for disposal.
Massachusetts Town Forests Centennial – Town Forests: Past & Present
Saturday, September 28, 2013
8:30AM – 4PM
Montachusett Regional Vocational Technical School, Fitchburg
Massachusetts
1050 Westminster Street, Fitchburg, MA 01420
One hundred years ago, Massachusetts became the first in the country to pass the historic Town Forest Act, allowing for the acquisition of town forest land across the Commonwealth. On September 28th, we will honor this anniversary with a centennial celebration and conference in the city of Fitchburg—the home to the first town forest in Massachusetts.
The conference will highlight the beneficial role that town forests have played in urban and rural communities in Massachusetts and beyond, feature recent community stories of innovative and collaborative management, and provide strategies and recommendations for the future of the forests. The conference will provide ample opportunity for networking for the diverse professionals and volunteers that play a collaborative role in the management of the Commonwealth’s community forests, including foresters, town planners, arborists, conservation commission members, land trusts, non-profit organizations and many more.
Afternoon field visits will tour a well-managed water supply, followed by a free beer tasting from Wachusett Brewing Company!
To see speaker information and more information, and to register for this conference, simply click/enter this web address www.massforestalliance.org/fitchburg.
Call 413-212-3039 or email at michael.downey@state.ma.us if you have questions.
MACC Fall Conference, November 16, 2013
Invasive Plant Species: Pick Your Battles to Win!
Saturday, November 16 – Save the Date!
Clark University, Worcester
Check-in: 8:00 a.m. Program: 8:30 a.m. – 3:45 p.m.
Fees: MACC Members $95; Non-members $120; Full-time students $45
Invasive species are prevalent on the New England landscape, despite best efforts to control them. Funding, staff resources, and commitment are essential for proper management (and eradication, where possible). To be effective in this battle, we need to prioritize the invasive species we are targeting, and develop consistent criteria by which we identify the most important taxa to manage.
Through various presentations and case studies, learn how land managers tackle this problem and how Conservation Commissions can permit certain invasive species work. Participants will come away from this conference with exciting and new electronic tools for plant identification as well as examples of how invasive species projects can be funded. In addition, participants will leave with a renewed appreciation of the essential role native plants play in sustaining native wildlife populations.
Topics to be covered include:
- 21st Century Tools for Tackling Invasive Plants in Wetlands: Identify, Prioritize, Mobilize
- Introduction to the Massachusetts Invasive Plant Advisory Group
- Survey of Management Techniques: What Works, What Doesn’t and Why
- Is Green Always Good? Understanding How Invasive Plants Contribute to Coastal Erosion
- Early Detection/Rapid Response: A Minute of Searching is Worth Years of Invasive Plant Management!
- Managing Invasives on Conservation Land: Harvard Case Study
- Growing Giraffes & Other Innovative Invasive Plant Species Management Strategies
To review the full agenda click HERE.
To register click HERE.
To learn more about this conference, email: staff@maccweb.org or call 617.489.3930.
Bottle Bill Ballot Initiative Moves Forward
from ELM Bulletin, September 6, 2013
On Wednesday the campaign to place the Bottle Bill update on the November 2014 statewide ballot reached an important milestone as Attorney General Martha Coakley certified the ballot language. This initiative is really going to happen! We can now begin the next step, the requisite signature drive.
With close to 80% of Mass. residents in favor of updating the Bottle Bill, we’re confident of success – as long as we can gather the more than 100,000 signatures needed to get this long overdue question on the ballot for a vote.
ELM, MASSPIRG, the Sierra Club, the League of Women Voters and over 90 other groups officially launched the campaign to place the Bottle Bill update on the November 2014 ballot in August.
Updating the Bottle Bill would add water, energy drinks, and other beverages to the existing 5-cent deposit law which is a proven success – resulting in less litter, more recycling, and millions of taxpayer dollars saved due to the reduced cost of waste disposal for our cities and towns.
Here’s where YOU (your organization, your family, friends) come in: We need help gathering signatures!
Even if you have zero experience and even if you can only spare a few hours between September 18th and November 1st, we need your help! (We’ll have a video and written instructions for volunteer petitioners.)
Stay tuned for more information soon on volunteering for this important effort. In the meantime, feel free to contact ELM’s Ken Pruitt.
Massachusetts Farm to School Project Position Available
The Massachusetts Farm to School Project, a statewide organization in its 10th year of operation, seeks a new Executive Director.
The Organization
The Massachusetts Farm to School Project’s mission is to increase consumption of healthy, locally grown food in schools and other institutions for the good of our children, our farms and our communities. We facilitate ”win-win” purchasing relationships between Massachusetts institutions’ cafeterias and farms, provide local food and agriculture education for students, and support networking of farm to school practitioners – encouraging a re-localized and sustainable food system that is accessible to all students, regardless of income. Please refer to our website massfarmtoschool.org.
The Opportunity
Our founder and current Executive Director is stepping down after more than 9 years. Under her leadership we have experienced sustained growth and success. The organization now employs 7 staff and works with farmers and food service directors as well as food distributors, policy makers, educators, and advocates. We are a leader in regional and national farm to institution program implementation and research.
This year, Massachusetts Farm to School joined forces with Project Bread, a statewide anti-hunger organization committed to providing people of all ages, cultures, and walks of life with sustainable, reliable access to nutritious food to form a new partnership. The Massachusetts Farm to School Project LLC will remain an independently-operated program under the larger umbrella of Project Bread while Project Bread will provide fiscal oversight and human resources support to the organization.
Position Requirements
The ideal candidate will be a proven leader with significant fundraising, budgeting, public speaking and organizational planning skills. Significant management experience in some aspect of institutional food services, agriculture, food systems work, economic development or non-profit advocacy is required. She/he will be a strategic thinker and a pragmatic supervisor, able to inspire staff and stakeholders to create a vision for the future while overseeing the current work of the organization.
The Executive Director is based in Amherst, at our main office. Reliable transportation and the ability to travel throughout the state and region and to work weekends or evenings as needed is required. The Executive Director of Mass. Farm to School LLC reports to the senior leadership team of Project Bread. This is a 35 hour per week salaried position with outstanding benefits. Preferred start date is early October, 2013.
Application Submission
Candidates are strongly encouraged to apply by email as soon as possible. Please send resume, name and contact information for three references, cover letter addressing qualifications for the position, salary requirement, and where you learned of the position to info@projectbread.org. All applications will be acknowledged. No phone calls please! Application materials will be accepted until final candidate is selected.
Fall Home School Series
Dyken Pond Center is offering a Fall Home School Series for all Home Schoolchildren. This is a 6-week program starting September 10th andrunning until October 15th. Programs are every Tuesday from 1pm-4pm. Every week these classes will teach students about differentecosystems and general ecology beginning with a wetlands program on September10th. There is a $5 per student fee and pre-registration isrequired.
For a full list of programs please visit our website at: http://dykenpond.org
“When nature needs work to be done, she creates a genius to do it.”
-Ralph Waldo Emerson
Dyken Pond Environmental Education Center
475 Dyken Pond Rd.
Cropseyville, NY 12052
Phone: (518) 658-2055
E-mail: dykenpond@fairpoint.net
Web: http://www.dykenpond.org
Join the Revolution in Home Canning — Empower Yourself to Become a Self-Sufficient Locavore! (and Save Money, Too!)
Get the Can-Do Spirit: Jams, Jellies, Pickles, Butters, & More!
with MARISSA McCLELLAN, NOVEMBER 1-3
* Make apple mint jelly, pear vanilla jam, quince chutney, apple butter, apple rosemary jam, and pickled Asian pears like a pro!
Marissa McClellan is author of the bestselling Food in Jars: Preserving in Small Batches Year-Round and a popular blogger on her Food in Jars site, selected as one of Saveur magazine’s “sites we love,” where she writes on the subject of canning and preserving. She grew up in Oregon, learned from her mother to can local blueberries, blackberries, and apples, and brings her expertise and love for canning to workshops nationwide.
To see all of the Rowe programs, click here to use our NEW interactive online catalog! Just click in the contents page to go to a workshop page, or click on the workshop to go to online registration. It’s easy and fast!
The Rowe Center
22 Kings Hwy
Rowe, MA 01367
Grant Opportunity for Individual Artists, Community Organizations and Schools
The Cultural Council of Northern Berkshire (CCNB) invites local schools, artists, individuals, and community organizations to apply for their 2014 grants. The CCNB is a local branch of the Massachusetts State Cultural Council and it represents 11 Berkshire towns (Adams, Cheshire, Clarksburg, Florida, Hancock, Lanesboro, Monroe, New Ashford, North Adams, Savoy, and Williamstown), allocating state funding to local arts, humanities, and interpretive sciences projects. There are also “Individual Artist” grants offered to select residents of those towns. Details are available on the CCNB website: culturalcouncil.wordpress.com.
The CCNB is currently accepting applications to fund projects occurring between January and December of 2014. Applications must be postmarked no later than October 15, 2013. Anyone interested in applying is strongly encouraged to attend one of two FREE grant-writing workshops: Thursday, September 26, 6-7:30 pm, at the North Adams Public Library, and Wednesday, October 2, 6-7:30 pm, at the Williamstown Public Library. Even if you’ve applied in the past, guidelines and priorities can change each year, so chances of success increase after attending one of these workshops.
Grants are awarded based on: a project’s benefit to the community, the qualifications of the individuals/organization involved, the preparation and planning process, and the population segments served. Priority is given to: artists and organizations living within the 11 municipalities represented, proposals that reach under served populations, and collaborative projects between cultural groups and community organizations.
Applications and guidelines will be available at local libraries and town halls or online at http://www.mass-culture.org/ beginning September 13th. TWO copies of the completed application must be postmarked by October 15, and mailed to the CCNB, PO Box 227, North Adams, MA 01247. For more information contact Heather O’Brien at: 413-281-0455 or obriens12@verizon.net.