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2006 Annual Report
Working Landscapes
ANCA focuses on using the wealth of the region’s "green infrastructure" for the economic and environmental benefits it provides. The region’s working landscapes are the heart of the regional economy, whether it is the agriculture or forest products industries, or the wilderness landscape and its draw of tourism for recreation. Highlights of the 2006 annual work activities in Agriculture and Natural Resources are as follows:
Agriculture:
- ANCA staff developed twenty-five grazing plans on beef, dairy, goat, sheep, mixed species, horse and poultry farms across the ANCA region. Plans were developed in St. Lawrence, Franklin, Herkimer, Lewis, Oswego and Clinton counties.
- ANCA conducted thirty-one farm visits to producers throughout the region.
- ANCA hosted two farm visits with staff from the Grazing Land Conservation Initiative (GLCI) at farm locations in Lewis and Oswego counties.
- ANCA and GLCI hosted a series of rotational grazing workshops in the spring in Oswego and St. Lawrence County. The events were attended by forty-one guests.
- ANCA staff attended a pasturewalk in Jefferson County as an invited guest speaker in May.
- ANCA and Heifer Project International hosted four pasture walks at locations in St. Lawrence and Franklin counties. Ridge Shinn of the Bakewell Reproductive Center in Massachusetts was the guest speaker to eighteen producers at two of the pasture walks addressing "Linear Measurement" and "Critiquing Your Grass-Based Herd."
- ANCA implemented a working partnership with Heifer International. Staff attended the Heifer International Project Partner Meeting in Rutland, Massachusetts in November. Staff brought two producers from the New York Farmers Partnership to the meeting.
- ANCA staff assisted with the coordination of a Heifer International Group Meeting of farmers in six meetings and one teleconference.
- ANCA secured year-two funding toward a $94,250 three-year grant through Heifer Project International for a Northern New York Farm Partnership program. The partnership consists of a core group of small to medium-scale farmers working together to create opportunities for small farmers.
- ANCA posted the revised copy of the North Country Meat Directory on ANCA’s website at www.adirondack.org. The Directory supports ANCA’s goal to develop producer/buyer networks to encourage local purchases of food.
- ANCA developed a producer/buyer network between a producer in St. Lawrence County and buyers in the Tri-Lakes.
- Staff participated as an invited speaker at the Farmers Direct Marketing Conference in Cobleskill, NY in February. Staff addressed the topic of permaculture.
- Staff attended a workshop Strategies for Going Grass Fed in Vernon, NY in March. The event was attended by 200 producers from the Northeast.
- Staff participated in a GLCI Training Workshop in April in Hamilton, NY and received training on principals of animal behavior, grazing animal nutrition and grazing infrastructure.
- Staff attended a Weston Price Foundation Workshop in High Falls, NY in May. Over 200 farmers and health practitioners were in attendance. Staff participated in sessions on the health benefits of grass-fed meat and dairy products and will provide input to a newly-formed Weston Price chapter in the Tri-Lakes community.
- Staff attended a 100% Grass-Fed Dairy Conference in December in Harrisburg, PA. ANCA provided Heifer Project funding for five Heifer members to attend the conference.
- Staff prepared an article addressing common mistakes that are made when implementing a rotational grazing system that was published in Country Folks, July 2006.
Wood Products Industry Development Project:
Southern Cross Trading Company booth at International Gift Show at the Javits Center, New York City. ANCA’s Wood Products Industry Specialist, Carl Golas, assisted with the marketing.
- Staff assisted Lyonsdale Co-Gen Plant in Lyonsdale in lumber procurement and outreach to the logging community.
- Staff continued outreach and planning services to the NYS Woodsmen Field Days in Boonville and assisted with development of the seminar program and exhibits. ANCA staff assisted with the development of a two-day panel discussion on the pros and cons of outdoor wood boilers. Staff from the Attorney General’s office became involved in the program. National manufacturers were also represented in the program.
- Staff provided support to the Black River/St. Lawrence RC & D through involvement with their Forestry Committee in the development of three training seminars on native produced lumber in Camden, Harrisville and Moriah in conjunction with the NYSDEC. The program benefited building code officials, small sawmillers and businesses selling and using native species. Code officers received continuing education credits for attending the program.
- Staff assisted a local school district in Lewis County, South Lewis, in providing information about biomass wood burning and the Fuels for Schools Program. The school district has hired a consultant and has a proposal to put in a wood burning system for heat generation that could result in significant savings in fuel cost.
- Staff continued to provide marketing assistance to companies and worked directly with Southern Cross Trading Company in Lowville on a new marketing initiative.
- ANCA implemented a $99,017 competitive grant through the USDA Forest Service toward the rewrite of a national marketing publication that will highlight trends in internet marketing, networking and best practices. ANCA staff worked on the research of national case studies calling upon individual marketing specialists from companies, utilization and marketing foresters, and trade associations to secure marketing case studies that were either successful or unsuccessful for illustrations in the marketing manual.
- Staff attended a New York Power Authority Meeting in Albany in May to discuss the potential for a proposed Tupper Lake Biomass facility.
- Staff and Tim Holmes attended a Utilization and Marketing Council Annual Meeting in Vermont in June to present the goals of the USDA Marketing Project. In addition staff consulted with various state foresters, utilization and marketing specialists from the Northeastern states.
- Staff at ANCA continued work with 3-B Timber Company and the Tug Hill Commission on the economic benefits of the rail siding project and assisted Commission staff with a follow-up meeting in the fall of 2006.
- ANCA staff addressed company planning needs in the areas of internet marketing opportunities, training, and production analysis. The resource information will be a valuable component to the new marketing guide.
- ANCA developed a user-friendly version of the wood products directories posted to www.AdirondackWood.com for convenient printing and distribution. The project was an innovative and important next step in an evolving program that continues to improve the competitiveness and market readiness of wood products producers throughout the region. The project also serves as a prototype for refining online and offline marketing and sales assistance tools for special forest products throughout New York, and in other states where wood products are an important component of local economies.
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