Winter conferences and meetings

Here’s just a few of the winter meetings that have piqued my interest:

The Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture will be holding their annual conference at State College February 1 – 4, 2012. Brian Halweil, senior fellow at Worldwatch Institute and author of Eat Here: Reclaiming Homegrown Pleasures in a Global Supermarket will open the conference with a talk about trends in localizing food and the social and ecological impact of how we grow food. Farmer and writer Shannon Hayes will be the Plenary speaker; she is author of The Grassfed Gourmet, Farmer and the Grill, and Reclaming Domesticity from a Consumer Culture. Workshop topics include building and managing soil fertility on the farm, forest succession and its lessons for ecological design, four-season growing, raising healthy chicks, grafting fruit trees, pastured poultry 101, value-added products on the farm, using the web for marketing, advanced seed saving, and many, many more.

Practically in our (Crow’s Nest Preserve) backyard—Morgantown, Pennsylvania—there will be a workshop entitled, “Wildlife in our Backyard Woods: Create and Enhance the Wildlife Habitat Around Your Home.” It is being held by Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences, Forestry for the Bay, Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, and the Pennsylvania Game Commission. It will be held at the Morgantown Holiday Inn on Friday, January 27 from 8:30 – 4 and costs $40 per individual or $50 per couple. Click here for the brochure and registration information.

Bowman’s Hill Wildlife Preserve will be hosting their annual Land Ethics Symposium: Creative Approaches for Ecological Landscaping, on February 16, 2012 at the Sheraton Bucks County Hotel in Langhorne, Pennsylvania. Topics will include Great Natives for Tough Places, Make Waves with Native Wetland Perennials, and Landscape Design, Construction and Management from a Watershed Perspective. Registration information can be found on the Bowman’s Hill website.

There’s lots more to experience this winter—this is just a sampling!