December 11, 2007
Tower Hill Botanic Garden - Boylston, MA Directions
$65 Admission for NOFA Accredited Organic Land Care Professionals (AOLCPs)
$75 Admission for non-AOLCPs

This course is worth 4 AOLCP Credits and Pesticide Applicator Credits are pending.

Register by mail or register online!
Questions? please contact Ashley Kremser at 203-888-5146 or email akremser@ctnofa.org

Schedule:

9:30 – 10:00
Coffee, Bagels and Registration
Optional: Roundtable Discussion on Athletic Turf

10:00 – 10:15
Welcome and OLC Updates

10:15 –11:00
Controlling Invasives Organically

Join us for a short presentations by Donald Bishop, Bryan Connoly, Dr. Jeffrey Ward and Seth Wilkinson about their techniques and experiences with controlling invasives organically.

Donald Bishop is the President of Gardens Are… and is widely recognized for his work in organic landscaping.
Donald is an appointee of the Massachusetts Invasive Plant Advisory Group, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Vegetation Management Plan Advisory Panel, the board of directors of the Ecological Landscaping Association, the City of Marlborough Open Space Committee, and the Marlborough Storm Water Management Advisory Committee. He is also a founding faculty member of the Northeast Organic Farming Association, Organic Land Care Program.

Donald holds accreditations and certifications in organic land care and landscape management from the Northeast Organic Farming Association and the University of Massachusetts.

Bryan Connolly is a Ph.D. student at the University of Connecticut researching the affects of invasive plants on the native flora. He has been a visiting instructor of botany at Connecticut College and has worked with endangered species for Connecticut DEP, additionally he trained volunteers throughout New England how to ID invasive plants for the New England Wild Flower Society and is also a small scale organic farmer.

Dr. Jeffrey S. Ward received his BS (forest biology) and MS (silviculture) at The Ohio State University, and his PhD (forest ecology) at Purdue University. Both his Ph.D dissertation and early research at the Station focused on long-term population dynamics of woody plants in unmanaged forests. Both studies were begun in 1926 and have continued through the present. His work has shown that disturbances such as fire, affect the composition of our forests for at least sixty years. His more recent work has included controlling invasive species such as barberry, examining the impact of deer damage on landscape plantings, methods of reducing deer damage in natural forests and forest plantations, alternative forest management practices, and use of prescribed fire to maintain oak. He is the Chief Scientist of the Department of Forestry and Horticulture at The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station in New Haven, Connecticut.

Seth Wilkinson earned his BA in Enviornmental Studies at Connecticut College and his MA in Landscape Design at Conway School of Landscape Design. He now is considered one of the regional experts of in the field of invasive plant management in Cape Cod. He has participated in many invasive plant management projects for land trusts, conservation commissions and private individuals.  He is a licensed wildlands fire fighter and works closely with the Cape Cod National Seashore Fire Management Officer on many prescribed fires to restore local ecosystems. He is also the principal of Wilkinson Ecological Designs and lives on a small organic farm where he and his wife raise poultry, dairy goats and hogs, blueberries as well as a small homestead garden.

11:00 – 11:45
Controlling Invasives Organically Panel Discussion (Donald Bishop, Bryan Connoly, Dr. Jeffrey Ward and Seth Wilkinson)

11:45 – 12:45
Lunch

12:45 – 2:00
Compost and Compost Quality
Will Brinton, founder of Woods End Research Laboratory, joins us to discuss quality considerations for finishing compost, the quality and safety of compost tea, reducing the high energy cost of manufacturing compost and other topics related to compost. Will Brinton's firm focuses on compost analyses and process management and is widely recognized for compost assessment and for quality waste to soil application.

2:00 – 2:15
Break

2:15 – 3:30
Plant Growth and CO2 in a Changing Climate

According to a new report by the Northeast Climate Impacts Assessment (NECIA), if heat-trapping emissions are not significantly curtailed, global warming will substantially change critical aspects of the Northeast's character and economy. The NECIA was a collaboration between Union of Concerned Scientist and a multi-disciplinary team of more than 50 scientists and economists from across the region was formed to explore future climate change in the Northeast states. Erica Spanger-Siegfried of the Union of Concern Scientist, who coordinated and oversaw the NECIA, joins us to discuss this recent study. Plant hardiness, changes in precipitation and the possible impact climate change will have on the land care industry will be discussed.

3:30 – 4:00
Organic Land Care Program open dialog

Tell us about your experience with NOFA! How can we improve our program? This is a chance for the AOLCPs to suggest ways for the NOFA Organic Land Care Program to grow and serve you better!