Join us for three interactive online workshops this March, connecting small scale farmers with experts on soil health, land restoration and pest management!

Growers will have their questions answered and receive expert advice on challenges faced by farmers in Metro and the Fraser Valley.

Register for one session, or all three!

• Tickets are $5 per session, or $10 for all three.

Sessions, Speakers + Schedules

Sustainable Soil and Nutrient Management

• With UBC Soil Scientists, Amy Norgaard + Raelani Kesler
• Thursday, March 4, 10am - 11:30am

Integrated Approaches to Farm Pest Management

• With ES Cropconsult Integrated Pest Management Specialist, Dru Yates
• Monday, March 8, 10am - 11:30am

Bringing Degraded Soils Back to Life

• With UBC Professor of Forest Ecology, Cindy Prescott
• Wednesday, March 24, 10am - 11:30am

Speaker Bios

Raelani Kesler, Research Assistant at UBC Sustainable Agricultural Landscapes (SAL) Lab

Raelani is from Whidbey Island in Washington State, the ancestral territory of the Coast Salish, Stillaguamish, Suquamish, and Tulalip Peoples. After graduating from the University of Washington with a B.Sc. in Environmental Sciences, she worked on various organic vegetable farms in the Pacific Northwest learning from local land stewards and farmers. She also worked as a farm educator at the Organic Farm School as the field instructor and production manager. During this time, she set her sights on a life as a farmer and work in agricultural education and extension. Raelani joined the Sustainable Agricultural Landscapes Lab in fall 2019 pursing a M.Sc. in Soil Science under the supervision of Dr. Sean Smukler at the University of British Columbia.

Amy Norgaard, Research Assistant at UBC Sustainable Agricultural Landscapes (SAL) Lab

Amy is a research assistant in the Sustainable Agricultural Landscapes (SAL) lab, UBC, working on a greenhouse gas opportunity assessment for the agriculture sector in BC. She completed her MSc in Soil Science in the SAL lab in October 2020; the goal of her MSc research was to help improve nutrient management on organic vegetable farms to balance crop production with environmental stewardship. To do so, she worked with 20 producers across three regions of southwest BC (Fraser Valley, Pemberton, Vancouver Island). Amy has also worked on an organic mixed vegetable farm in Pemberton, BC for several seasons and was a program coordinator for the Richmond Food Security Society. She is a Professional Agrologist with the BCIA and teaches sustainable soil management with the KPU – Tsawwassen First Nation Farm School. Amy has been a speaker and facilitator of workshops on nutrient management, translating agricultural science at numerous producer events in the province.

Cindy Prescott, UBC Professor of Forest Ecology

Cindy Prescott is a Professor in the Department of Forest and Conservation Sciences, UBC. She is a forest ecologist who studies ecosystem processes such as litter decomposition, organic matter formation and nutrient cycling. She currently teaches ecological restoration, agroforestry and scientific writing. Cindy has received a Canadian Forestry Scientific Achievement Award and holds an honourary doctorate from the University of Helsinki.

Dru Yates, ES Cropconsult Integrated Pest Management Specialist

Dru is a consultant with E.S. Cropconsult Ltd. where she works on organic and conventional farms throughout the Fraser Valley in Integrated Pest Management (IPM). She loves working directly with growers to find effective ways of addressing their management challenges. Dru is very passionate about agriculture outreach and extension, and she is currently involved in a multi-year project to develop locally-relevant IPM resources for small-scale farms. Dru is also a registered Professional Agrologist with a M.Sc. in Soil Science from UBC.

Sessions Descriptions

Sustainable Soil and Nutrient Management

• With UBC Soil Scientists, Amy Norgaard + Raelani Kesler
• Thursday, March 4, 10am - 11:30am

Can’t figure out cover cropping / nutrient management / soil testing / winter cover / tarping / [insert soil management problem here]? Tired of researching and just want someone to answer your questions? Join us for “office hours” with UBC soil scientists Amy and Raelani!

Submit your question(s) ahead of time and we will investigate for you! During the session, we will work through these audience-submitted, real-life problems faced by small farms in BC, and discuss tangible steps to tackle them.

Plus, we’ll save some time for old-fashioned live Q&A at the end. See you there!

Integrated Approaches to Farm Pest Management

• With ES Cropconsult Integrated Pest Management Specialist, Dru Yates
• Monday, March 8, 10am - 11:30am

Coming soon!

Bringing Degraded Soils Back to Life

• With UBC Professor of Forest Ecology, Cindy Prescott
• Wednesday, March 24, 10am - 11:30am

Soil can provide for our needs in perpetuity if we treat it as a living ecosystem, and consider its needs in addition to those of the crops that it supports. I will discuss recent developments in our understanding of the processes that regenerate soil organic matter, and how we can manage land to promote a healthy soil ecosystem.

Thanks to Our Supporters

This year's event is supported by UBC Community Engagement, Vancouver Foundation, Patagonia and Kwantlen Polytechnic University.