Need a sounding board or some help to support your ideas & goals?
The New England Agri-Woodland Network (NEAWN) - a subgroup of Southern New England Landcare, has an agroforestry Peer Group Mentoring project where local experienced farmers and tree-growers are available to mentor other farmers on any aspect of agroforestry. Agroforestry is about multi-purpose tree growing on farms or small acreage. Download a copy of the flier here.
To date, more than a dozen New England landholders have taken advantage of the service, and here’s what some of them have had to say:
“I now feel that I have a way forward and can develop a plan that will contribute to sustainability in ways that are aesthetically pleasing, adding value to the property, benefiting the environment, improving productivity and the flexibility to diversify”. Silvia Danielli, “Boolaan Burra”, Thalgarrah.
“The suggestions and guidance of what species to try, planting locations, when and in what season to plant, as well as planting designs have all been of tremendous value”. Helen Hine and David Menzies, “Castlebrook”, Salisbury Plains.
“The mentors passed on valuable insights about the diversity in my forest and helped me see it as a whole ecosystem. They also provided useful practical tips which filled out much of my own opinions on where to go with its management.” Rob Laurie, “Brigadoon”, Nowendoc.
How it works
A key part of the mentoring service is the site visit where peer group mentors (usually 2 or 3) visit a landholder’s property. The visit focusses on what the landholder wishes to achieve and how multipurpose trees and shrubs (native or exotic) can be integrated to achieve those goals. A comprehensive three or four way discussion will take place on the visit with different and often innovative ideas canvassed.
A site report is then produced by the mentors reflecting the options and discussion that took place during the site visit. Upon report completion, further discussion may take place and a process for ongoing support is then established. The expressed purpose of the peer group mentor is to help ensure that any projects implemented by the farmer have the best chance of success.
All mentors are local farmers/landholders who have been fully trained in the peer group mentoring approach. They are also graduates of the Master Tree Grower Program and some have additional professional qualifications in in various fields of natural resource management.
This approach was pioneered by the Otway Agroforestry Network who has been of great assistance in enabling NEAWN to get this current project off the ground. Its goal is to maximise farm productivity and diversity; increase knowledge and confidence in natural resource management; increase community networking and continuous learning; increase the adoption of a “biological Infrastructure” on farms for expressed farm benefit; and retain long term local knowledge in farming systems.
More information
The Agroforestry PGM project is ongoing and there is plenty of scope for many more landholders to become involved. Anyone interested should enquire at the SNELandcare office by phone 6772 9123 or email or contact Shane Andrews, the Agroforestry Project Coordinator, on 0427 753 808 or by email. This project is supported with funding from the Australian Government, and in-kind contributions from the Australian Agroforestry Foundation.
