Washington State district explores forest farming opportunities 05/12/2022
Agroforestry has made its way into Snohomish Conservation District (WA), with landowner interest flourishing and new programs specific to forest farming in the works.
The conservation district has been implementing about a half a dozen agroforestry practices around the north Puget Sound for the past five years, but the rising interest in forest farming is taking the lead and shaping the district’s vision of the region’s future.
“A lot of our landowners are becoming more interested in building diversity into their forest lands and finding revenue streams that include more than just timber, so forest farming is growing,” said Carrie Brausieck, Natural Resource Planner and Agroforester.
As a result of the growing interest in agroforestry within the state, Brausieck has started an agroforestry program for the district and has formed a partnership with Washington State University (WSU) Extension Forester Patrick Shults. He is researching understory log mushroom growing, and Bigleaf maple syrup tapping. Through the partnership, Brausieck and Shults, along with several Puget Sound conservation districts, are collaborating on the implementation of harvestable riparian forest buffers.
The growing interest in agroforestry in Washington has led Brausieck and Shults, along with WSU graduate student Mark Batcheler, to found Agroforestry Northwest Workgroup to collaborate with and train conservation district, Extension, and NRCS agroforestry professionals across the state. Through this workgroup the partnership is working to secure funding to work with landholders in the implementation of trial sites.
“From the trials, the district and extension will gather information like ecology, economics and social data about the success or modification of different programs,” said Brausieck. “It’s a new phenomenon out here, as land use competition is increasing. We need our landscapes now to perform not just one function but many functions to preserve biodiversity, to sequester carbon, produce food, and for recreation.”
Among the forest farming efforts identified for trials are Bigleaf maple dominant forest plantings with built-in biodiversity for the growing maple syrup interest in the area, as well as small forest landowners interested in growing berry species like huckleberry, blueberry and currants that can be cultivated in disturbed areas. There’s also a growing interest in medicinal plants such as elderberry, hawthorn, Oregon grape and wild ginger, Brausieck said, and potential exotic species such as tea plants and goldenseal.
According to Shults, much of the efforts are in the research and demonstration phases. “All of these efforts are based on landowner demand,” he said. “While the adoption of these practices is not yet widespread, farmers come to us wanting to know more about them and how they would look in the region. We have promising results, so once we get foundational understanding, I’m confident that adoption will follow.”
Already, there are landowners incorporating maple syrup tapping into their forest settings, he said, and others are introducing specialty mushroom growing in downed logs in their forest lands.
The district’s Harvestable Riparian Forest Buffer Partnership is a long-term program in partnership with NOAA, Tulalip Tribes, other conservation districts and WSU Extension Forestry. While more closely located on farmland that abuts rivers and other waterways, it is growing into a legitimate forest farming practice, said Brausieck.
The district is also working closely with partners on grafting cider apples to the area’s native crab apple root stock (Malus fusca) to incorporate cider apples – which typically do not do well in wet riparian soils – for a growing hard cider industry. Adding the crop to riparian buffers would generate additional income from these spaces.
This could present forest landowners with new opportunities, said Shults. “Maybe it could be supplemental income to break even on taxes. Planting understory crops, harvesting food for personal use, growing mushrooms, it presents a great opportunity to engage them with the land. My whole objective is to get people engaged in their forest, engaged initially and enjoying it and making memories, and over time it will de-incentivize splitting the land.”
Through this network of partnerships that has formed the Agroforestry Northwest Workgroup – which will officially launch in May 2022 – agroforestry practices like forest farming are becoming more accessible to forest landholders and farmers in Washington.
“We’re growing agroforestry in the Pacific Northwest, and we’re experimenting and documenting what systems work best in the region,” said Brausieck. “At the end of the day, the point of all of it really is to help farmers learn and help them implement some of these practices on their own lands.”
The Agroforestry Northwest Workgroup will put on an educational track on agroforestry at the Washington Association of District Employees annual conference in June in collaboration with a forestry track covering topics including silvopasture, forest farming, harvestable riparian forest buffers, and alley cropping.
Other projects Snohomish Conservation District has conducted and is in the crux of implementing and gathering data on are:
Snohomish Conservation District Agroforestry Program. Brausieck provides technical assistance to landowners, public outreach and education, and works to find funding to implement agroforestry practices on working lands throughout the North Puget Sound Region.
SARE Farmer Rancher Grant ($25,000 for two years). In collaboration with Raising Cane Ranch and WSU the district is researching economic, management, and soil health indicators in the establishment of an alley cropping system of cider apples and hay.
WSDA Specialty Crop Block Grant Work ($244,275 over three years). Partnering with Whidbey Island Conservation District, Skagit Conservation District, WSU Extension Forestry and WSU School of the Environment, Snohomish Conservation District is working to develop regionally-specific agronomic practices for creating multifunctional working buffers on overly-wet marginal farmlands. Such buffers are meant to produce viable, high value crops while increasing the ecological function and addressing resource concerns.
Pilchuck Julia Landing Planting Project ($40,000). Through collaboration between the district’s agroforestry program, the district’s Habitat Team and the City of Snohomish, a multifunctional riparian forest buffer has been established at Pilchuck Julia Landing, a public park along the banks of the Snohomish River. These innovative “multifunctional riparian forest buffer” systems offer ecological benefits to the river and local wildlife while also offering food to people.
Seed-to-Fork Community Food Forest. The district’s agroforestry program and Community Conservation Team have collaborated with the nonprofit Seed-to-Fork to begin the establishment of a two-acre community food forest and a large stormwater bioswale at North Creek Christian Fellowship Church in Maltby. Through this collaboration, the district hopes to increase local fresh food access to the community as well as nutritional and ecological education.
Tags: Washington, Forestry, conservation districts