An initial step towards establishing a "community of practice" that combines forestry and farming into a single discipline will be held March 29 when a day-long workshop on agroforestry is held at the Railway and Forestry Museum.
Long a practice in the southern hemisphere, but still uncommon North America, agroforestry is the "planned integration of trees and short-rotation crops," said Melanie Karjala, general manger of Resources North, which is hosting the event.
"Alley cropping," "silvopasture," and "forest farming" will be among the topics discussed as experts give presentations in the morning and discussion groups are held in the afternoon.
The workshop is both an effort to "build capacity" in agroforestry and to determine the extent of interest.
"We don't really have any formal networks around this practice," Karjala said. "There are people in Quesnel that we know of who are very active in promoting agroforestry but other than that the networks are very loose and potentially hidden."
The workshop is the first event to be held as part of a two-year program funded by the federal government's agoforestry industry development initiative and is, in part, in answer the effect the mountain pine beetle has had on the Central Interior.
"It's basically diversifying how we use our land base," Karjala said who added it should appeal to ranchers, woodlot owners, farmers and community forest representatives.
The registration fee of $22.40 includes registrant package, mid-morning refreshment break, lunch, mid-afternoon refreshment break and HST.
For more information on this workshop, call Karjala at 250-612-5844 or [email protected], or go to www.resourcesnorth.org. Registration closes on March 25.
