The Worcester County Conservation District’s Annual Meeting will be held on Wednesday, November 20, 2024 at Lilac Hedge Farm in Rutland Doors open at 6:15 pm, meeting starts at 6:30 pm and ends by 8:30 pm We’re excited to feature: David Reed, Executive Director of Central Mass Grown. Tamara Beland, Executive Director of Overlook FARM Anne Gobi, Rural Affairs Director for the State of MA Light refreshments will be served. We hope to see you there!
We’d like to thank all of our customers for supporting our annual Fall Bulb Sale! This year, we were lucky with the amazing weather that allowed us to set up outside for pick up and on-site sales. Our new Plant Sale Coordinator, Jen Burt, jumped right in this year, with help from our Admins Jennifer Mason (new) and Lisa Trotto (now retired). We’re thankful for our community of growers and gardeners!
We have a variety of organically grown seed garlic as well as ornamental fall planted bulbs available online for purchase. The pick up dates of your choice are Friday, October 27th 1 pm to 4 pm and Saturday 9 am- 12 noon. The location is 52 Boyden Road in Holden. You will select your choice of dates during the checkout process. Click here to order- https://worcesterconservation.org/seed-garlic-and-fall-bulb-sale-2023/
What is a Local Working Group? Local Working Groups are composed of agricultural producers, owners/operators of nonindustrial private forest land, professionals representing agricultural and natural resource interests, and individuals representing a variety of disciplines in the soil, water, wetland, plant, forestry, and wildlife sciences who are familiar with agricultural and natural resource issues in the local community. Role of Local Working Groups Local Working Groups provide recommendations to the District Conservationist and the State Conservationist on local natural resource priorities and criteria for conservation activities and programs. Consider completing this survey to identify which natural resources issues are most important...
Written by Michael Leff, Director of MACD MACD’s Small Farms Engagement Guide (MACD+NRCS) titled “Engaging with Farmers: Conservation planning on the small and diverse farms of Massachusetts,” is at last ready for widespread dissemination. Led by a team of talented MACD consultants, the project was commissioned by and for our colleagues at NRCS, many of whom participated in the development process – along with many other professionals at various partnering agencies as well as some two dozen farmers who took time out of their busy days to provide their input during personal interviews with the project team. (You can see a...
OXFORD, OH – On July 29, the Massachusetts Envirothon team from Lexington, Massachusetts, was named the champion of the 2022 National Conservation Foundation (NCF)-Envirothon, an international environmental and natural resources education competition for high school students. “I’d like to congratulate the Massachusetts team and all the students for their hard work,” said NCF Executive Director Jeremy Peters. “Their dedication to environmental and natural resource issues have shown that the future of conservation is in good hands.” Forty teams from across the U.S. and Canada traveled to this year’s competition, from July 24-29, hosted in partnership with the Ohio Federation of Soil and Water Conservation Districts, at Miami University in Oxford, OH. Throughout the week-long competition,...
REGISTER HERE Food Preservation: Pressure and Hot Water Bath Canning presented by Nicole Richard, Research Associate/Food Safety Specialist, University of Rhode Island, Cooperative Extension Food Safety Education Program. The growing popularity of vegetable gardening and buying locally grown produce has sparked an increase in home canning and other food preservation efforts. While some home food preservation techniques are more difficult than others, it is most important to know how to preserve food safely. For more info click here
We are currently accepting online orders! To shop online click here for a selection of seed garlic, fall planted bulbs, naturalizers, and ornamental bulbs now available through Saturday, October 8, 2022. You can choose to pick up your order in Holden on one of these two dates: Friday October 28th between 3 & 6pm and Saturday, October 29th between 9 and 12noon. Orders will be filled as long as bulbs are available. Selections have been chosen based on their hardiness for our zone. Worcester County is determined as ZONE 6A. For more information click here.
National Association of Conservation Districts Worcester County Conservation District (WCCD) is providing forestry and conservation information and assistance to hundreds of people across Massachusetts through a Neighborhood Outreach Project. The online webinars grew as a method of providing education to county landowners at a time when in-person workshops scaled back due to COVID. On average, between 30 and 80 people logged into the workshops, depending on the topic. Afterward, WCCD uploaded the webinars to their YouTube channel, where they have garnered hundreds of views since. “It’s a great way to do outreach and get more visits for conservation practices,” WCCD Conservation Planner Joel...
Worcester County Conservation District was awarded $2,415 for the project of reaching out to landowners in Northern Worcester County through webinars that encourage long term land use planning. Funding is provided by the MA DCR Service Forestry Program through the Working Forests Initiative. The Worcester County Conservation District (WCCD) in partnership with the North County Land Trust (NCLT) and the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) will hold a webinar series reaching out to landowners in the towns of Northern Worcester County. A particular focus will be in the towns of Lunenburg, Fitchburg, Lancaster, Gardner, and Leominster, but any interested...
