A Washington Cohousing Project Could Help Preserve Farmland
/by Lena Beck
It’s a rare sunny day in January, and about a dozen people gather on a farm in Snohomish County, Washington. The farmer, Brett Aiello of Reconnecting Roots Farm, wants to suppress the weeds around some newly planted fruit trees without disturbing the soil, and he’s enlisted some help.
The people in the field work together to sheet mulch the patch of land — some lay sections of clean cardboard, others cart wheelbarrows of bark chips across the field, carefully layering the chips onto the old boxes… Boehnlein says they’ve worked extensively with the Snohomish Conservation District. In one instance, the Snohomish Conservation District received a grant to explore agroforestry as a solution to farming wet ground.
