Workshop Series: Adapting Your Farm to Climate Change

Join CISA on your climate change adaptation journey for a series of farmer-to-farmer workshops, this year focused on water – too much of it and not enough. This six-session workshop series is geared towards farmers and will explore different water management strategies and adaptations farms are making in the face of climate change. Beginning with an online introductory session in March lead by Christine Hatch, water resources and climate change extension specialist at UMass and Joshua Faulkner, coordinator the Farming and Climate Change Program at the UVM, later sessions will include four on-farm workshops and a final wrap-up discussion, also on Zoom. Register now!

Schedule: This workshop series will take place over the Spring, Summer and Fall of 2022. On-farm workshops will be held in June and September. See below for more details.

Cost: Intro and wrap up workshops on Zoom are free to attend. All 4 field days $10 each, whole series for $30. We don’t want finances to be a barrier to participation; If you can’t afford this cost, please let us know.

Register Here

See class descriptions:

March 22th, 6-7:30pm: Adapting Your Farm to Climate Change – Workshop Series Intro Night (Free)
Join Christine Hatch, water resources and climate change extension specialist at UMass and Joshua Faulkner, coordinator the Farming and Climate Change Program at the University of Vermont for CISA’s first annual Adapting Your Farm to Climate Change Workshop Series. This year the series focuses on water management in times of too much or too little water, both scenarios increasingly part of our regional farming system. Find out how aquatic flows are changing and some best practices and opportunities for adapting your farm to a changing climate. This workshop will be followed by four on-farm workshops and a final wrap-up discussion.

TBD, June: Small-medium farm drought management ($10)
Looking at water management on small to medium farms in Western MA. In this on-farm session, attendees will visit one such farm to learn about how they manage their water systems when there is not enough water, and how this informs their irrigation, drainage, crop management and more.

TBD, June: Large farm drought management ($10)
Looking at water management on larger farms in Western MA. In this on-farm session, attendees will visit one such farm to learn about how they manage their water systems at this scale when there is not enough water, and how this informs their irrigation, drainage, crop management and more.

TBD, September: Small-medium farm excess water management ($10)
Looking at water management on small and medium farms when there is too much water. This session will include a visit to a farm to discuss adaptation, drainage, crop selection and more.

TBD, September: Large farm excess water management ($10)
Looking at water management on large farms when there is too much water. This session will include a visit to a farm to discuss adaptation, drainage, crop selection and more.

Oct 18, 6:00-7:30pm: Fall follow up (Free)
Our final session of the series will be a facilitated discussion over Zoom to discuss results. Has this series inspired you to try anything new on your farm to adapt to climate change? What are the challenges and innovations that come with doing this?