The Coexistence of Farms, Fish, and Flooding

The Coexistence of Farms, Fish, and Flooding

The Sustainable Lands Strategy (SLS) coalition initially convened in 2010 to unite individuals and community organizations dedicated to improving the coexistence of farming and fishing in Snohomish County’s floodplain areas. Snohomish Conservation District has been involved in this collaboration since the start.

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Persimmons and Patience

Persimmons and Patience

If you visit Niky Schultz’s food forest, you might get the sense she’s planting her own little Garden of Eden, an edible landscape where bees nap in her “Pollinator Paradise” and salamanders swim like little dragons in her pond. It’s hard to believe that she’s spent most of her adult life living in apartments with only enough space for a container garden.

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Crabapples and Camas: Alley Cropping at Northwest Meadowscapes

Crabapples and Camas: Alley Cropping at Northwest Meadowscapes

Twenty years ago, Eric Lee-Mäder found a strange-looking bottle in a wine shop that would end up changing the course of his life. The French cider inside was unlike anything he’d ever tasted.

“It was much more complex than sweet,” Eric said. “I got a sense of the whole orchard, from the bloom of the apple tree to the fungus growing in the understory.”

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Agroforestry Challenges (And 3 Reasons Why They’re Worth It)

Agroforestry Challenges (And 3 Reasons Why They’re Worth It)

Agroforestry can provide major benefits for farms—it also presents unique challenges. Unlike traditional monocultures, agroforestry requires farmers to understand the needs of multiple plants and how they interact with each other. It takes planning, adaptation, and patience to create a successful system. It also isn’t static. Many agroforestry practices incorporate trees that affect shade conditions as they grow. That means crops may need to shift over the years.

So why bother with all the trouble?

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Conservation in Action at “Farm, Fish, and Forest Field Day”

Conservation in Action at “Farm, Fish, and Forest Field Day”

Last week, we welcomed Snohomish County Council members Nate Nehring and Sam Low, Town of Darrington Mayor Dan Rankin, and Linda Neunzig, Snohomish County Agriculture Coordinator, on behalf of Executive Dave Somers, for a tour of three of our conservation projects throughout Snohomish County.

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Harvestable Riparian Buffers

Harvestable Riparian Buffers

Nick Pate, owner of Raising Cane Ranch in Snohomish, has incorporated several agroforestry practices on his farm. His food forest also serves as a harvestable, multi-functional, or working buffer. The trees and shrubs in the food forest essentially act as a second layer to his native forest riparian buffer, which borders the Snohomish River.

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Raising Cane Ranch Switched to Solar: Find Out If You Can Too!

Raising Cane Ranch Switched to Solar: Find Out If You Can Too!

Are you interested in renewable energy for your farm or rural small business? Snohomish and Pierce Conservation Districts have teamed up with Spark Northwest to help farms and rural small businesses apply for grant funds for renewable energy and energy efficient projects through the Rural Energy Development Program.

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Fruit to Nuts: Raising Cane Ranch’s Food Forest

Fruit to Nuts: Raising Cane Ranch’s Food Forest

Tucked towards the back of Raising Cane Ranch, beyond their farm stand and Highland cows, you’ll find a food forest filled with chestnut, walnut, and hazelnut trees, black currants, evergreen huckleberries, and aronia berries.

“It’s one of the most peaceful places on the property,” says farm owner, Nick Pate. “I just love working out there.”

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Carbon Crushers Series Wraps Up

During the first winter of the pandemic, our Agriculture Resilience Team brainstormed ways to engage the public when we were unable to physically gather. The result was a Carbon Crushers series of workshops focused on ways to reach “drawdown”—the point when levels of greenhouse gases stop climbing and start to actually decline

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Agroforestry Farm Tour Held at Raising Cane Ranch

Agroforestry Farm Tour Held at Raising Cane Ranch

Nick Pate of Raising Cane Ranch, in cooperation with Snohomish Conservation District and Washington State University, hosted a group of 33 people at his Snohomish farm the last week of September, to discuss agroforestry opportunities in Western Washington.

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