December 2017 | Edition 1
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North Coast Soil Health Hub
Newsletter
News, events and tools to maximize soil health on farms in
Sonoma, Napa, and Mendocino counties
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In This Edition:
- Upcoming 2018 Events
- Examining the Impact of Tillage
- Climate-Friendly Vineyard Redevelopment
- Take Our Survey: We Need Your Input!
- Discover More at SoilHub.org
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Welcome!
Welcome to the North Coast Soil Health Hub. Soil Health Hubs are networks of farmers and farm advisors to share successes, challenges, and needs related to building soil health.
Together, we will host farmer-to-farmer workshops, run on-farm demonstrations of practices, and use SoilHub.org to share stories and information.
We are starting with the vineyard industry, but will build the network to include other agricultural industries in the three counties over time.
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How Do Farmers Use
SoilHub.org?
The SoilHub.org website is a platform for sharing information, having discussions, and connecting farmers with the resources they need to be resilient and sustainable in the North Coast region and throughout the state.
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March 9th: Vineyard Soil Health Symposium
Sonoma County Farm Bureau, 3589 Westwind Blvd., Santa Rosa, CA 95403
This panel-style event brings producers and researchers together for a critical discussion of soil conservation practices. What practices are appropriate for the North Coast, and what results are farmers seeing. Exact time of this morning event will be announced soon.
May 1st:
Sonoma Winegrower’s Annual Sustainable Winegrowing Field Day
Shone Farm, 7450 Steve Olson Lane, Forestville, CA 95436
Growers gather for this annual field day at the Santa Rosa Junior College's Shone Farm for educational seminars and field tours focused on topics such as Integrated Pest Management, soil nutrition, and soil management. The North Coast Soil Health Hub is featuring a workshop on conservation tillage and cover cropping. Time to be announced.
Date TBD: Napa Soil Health Workshop
Stay tuned to SoilHub.org to learn about this exciting workshop for Napa County’s grapegrowers.
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Examining the Impact of Tillage on Soil Moisture and Health
By Keith Abeles, Sonoma RCD
To till or not till, that is the question. The ongoing, vigorous debate on this amplified during the drought years, and as proponents of soil health and climate beneficial farming practices advocate for reduced tillage. In vineyards, alternate tractor row tilling is commonly practiced, while many growers till all the rows, and some do no tilling at all, preferring to establish permanent cover. There are two primary camps of thought on which tillage approach is best.
Read More.
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Climate-Friendly Redevelopment of Huichica Creek Vineyard
By Frances Knapczyk & Charles Schembre, Napa County RCD
The immediate drought and changing climatic conditions of California challenges farmers to implement more drought‐resilient and carbon sequestering practices on their farms. What can grape-growers in Napa County do to improve their farms’ resiliency to drought and climate change, as well as ability to sequester carbon? With the help of many partners, Napa County RCD is trying to answer this question with a demonstration project at our
Huichica Creek Sustainable Demonstration Vineyard (HCV)
in the Carneros.
Read More.
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Attention, Grapegrowers:
North Coast Soil Health Hub Needs Your Input!
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Please take this survey by
April 1st, 2018
to tell us:
- What types of soil health practices are you doing? (e.g. cover crop, compost application)
- What types of soil health practices do you want to do, but can't?
- What types of soil health practices are you curious to learn more about?
We know your time is precious. We ask for it so that we can tailor our workshops, demonstrations and SoilHub.org to meet your needs.
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For vineyards in the North Coast region of CA, what does soil health mean? Napa County, Sonoma, Gold Ridge, and Mendocino County RCDs, along with NRCS, and others across the region, are in the second year of a grant-funded project to generate discussion, demos, and science on soil health/soil carbon as it relates to vineyards in our region.
In 2018, these partnering RCDs will be setting up 3 soil health demo sites in each county, hosting workshops, and offering free soil health assessments to growers. Stay posted on these efforts via the new North Coast Soil Health Hub website.
Thank you for your time!
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Discover More at SoilHub.org
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