Category Archives: Archive

OSU Extension’s Wildfire Wednesday webinar series

graphic showing a forest and hills in silhouette, saying "Fire Aware. Fire Prepared."

“OSU Extension Fire Program’s Wildfire Wednesdays webinar sessions are back this fall! These weekly webinars offer important information on fire safety and preparedness, and related actions people can take to make their homes and landscapes safer. The workshops will run through December 8th, 2021. Visit the Online Webinar Guide on the Fire Program website for more information:

View the Online Webinar Guide here.

Remaining workshops:

  • November 10th: 2021 Fire Season – A learning opportunity
  • November 17th: Prioritizing your home hardening approach
  • November 24th: Thanksgiving BREAK – no webinar
  • December 1st: From the home to the landscape (defensible space): Fall Edition
  • December 8th: Prescribed fire

Office hours

Office Hours Horse

We’re coming to you, virtually!

Join Jeremy for a live (and free) one on one discussion about your farm. Bring your questions and explore strategies and solutions around:

  • Management of livestock
  • Pasture care and grazing management
  • Mud management
  • Manure management and composting
  • Cropping and cover cropping
  • Integrated Pest Management- using beneficial plants to attract beneficial bugs
  • Soil health and how to take a soil sample
  • Irrigation systems and water management to reduce your costs
  • Noxious weed control
  • Natural areas and planting for wildlife and birds
  • General farm planning

Sessions will be scheduled for 50 minutes but may require additional time. You can work with Jeremy to schedule follow up visits as needed.

Make an online appointment with us!

Sign up using the form below.

    Fields marked with an asterisk "*" are required.

    First Name*

    Last Name*

    Address*

    Email*

    Phone Number*

    What are your resource concerns? Please select all that apply.*

     

    Have questions?

    Contact Jeremy Baker at:
    (503) 488-9939
    jeremy@emswcd.org

    Join our upcoming online workshops on farm transition planning!

    Headwaters Farm graduate lessee doing field work at Mainstem

    It’s never too early (or too late!) to begin securing your farm’s future. A farm transition plan is essential to protecting your interests and minimizing attorney fees, taxes, and family stress. This free virtual workshop series will help you understand your options and navigate the planning process.

    In partnership with the Clackamas Small Business Development Center at Clackamas Community College, Clackamas SWCD and Tualatin SWCD, EMSWCD will host four virtual workshops covering the following topics, each from 1 to 4 PM:

    • January 27th: The estate planning process and options
    • February 10th: Strategies for having difficult conversations
    • February 24th: Organizing your finances and business structure
    • March 10th: Preparing your operation and heirs for transition

    Pre-register for the workshops here! You can also find out more about the importance of farm transition planning here.

    EMSWCD takes a “strategic pause” for the 2021 PIC Cycle (updated)

    Recently-planted red flowering currant at a grant project restoration site

    To EMSWCD grantees, partners, and supporters: We know how deeply all of you have been affected this past year by the upheaval and uncertainty that surrounds us. Here at EMSWCD, we have continued to do our work the best we can and to look for ways to support our communities. Ironically, it is in these extraordinary times that we are presented with a rare opportunity to consider how we may want to do things differently, to move in a direction that responds to the weight of this historic moment.

    In this vein, EMSWCD has decided to take a “strategic pause” for the 2021 Partners in Conservation (PIC) Grant cycle – suspending the competitive grant opportunity for one year. While we will forgo the normal application process for PIC 2021, EMSWCD is committed to supporting our grantees and partners through this challenging time, and we intend to do this by extending some current grants and offering non-competitive new grants for our regular grantees for the fiscal year 2021/22. We have developed our initial criteria for this continued funding (please see below). The SPACE grant program will continue to operate as usual.

    During this time, our staff will have the opportunity to address many aspects of our grant funding program with an eye toward greater equity and more strategic funding. We plan to conduct an evaluation of EMSWCD’s grants program in light of changes in the context of our regional funding, to implement new DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) and other strategic initiatives, and to more fully engage with partners, grantees and other stakeholders about the future of our grants program. Read more →

    EMSWCD is suspending the 2021 Native Plant Sale

    Here at EMSWCD, our highest priority is the health and safety of community members, volunteers, and staff. In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, EMSWCD has made the extremely difficult decision to suspend its Annual Native Plant Sale for 2021.

    Under normal circumstances, this event consists of plant sorting (in an enclosed tent), additional event preparations, and pick-up day activities that bring together over 100 volunteers, over 20 staff, and over 1000 plant sale customers within a one-week period. Given the pandemic-related restrictions, we realize that holding an event of this scale is not feasible or safe.

    We are taking time this year to examine ways to make future plant sale events even better. We appreciate your patience while we work to identify how we can best serve our wonderful community of native plant enthusiasts. Read more →

    A message from EMSWCD in Solidarity

    Dear partners and friends,

    At EMSWCD, we stand in solidarity with the movement striving to hold law enforcement accountable, and with the protestors demanding nothing less than a just, equitable, and inclusive society.

    On May 25th, 2020, George Floyd died at the hands of police, an institution meant to protect him. He was unarmed. His murder is among the latest in a long pattern of brutality and discrimination towards Black members of our community – Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, and too many others. The loss of their lives is an overwhelming tragedy.

    At EMSWCD, our mission is to help people care for land and water. We cannot care for land and water without caring for people. Throughout American history, Black, Indigenous, and People of Color have been forcibly removed from and denied access to land. They have experienced significantly greater impacts from contaminated water and soils, polluted air, flooding, fire, and the increasing effects of climate change. We can do better. Until everyone has equal access to a safe and healthy environment, dismantling racism must be central to our work.

    When we are not actively fighting against racism, we are perpetuating it with our silence and inaction. We must be anti-racist. EMSWCD is committed to using our power and privilege to stand with the Black community and help dismantle the racist system. We are committed to listening, learning, and speaking out against injustice. We will make mistakes. We will build practices to check our privilege, but we know it may still sometimes obscure our view of what is right and urgent.

    We ask you to hold us accountable and we ask you to join us in this work.

    Stay safe. Take care of yourself. May you find the highest and best use of your voice, and be sustained on this long journey by love, hope, healing, and connection.

    Carrie Sanneman
    Board of Directors, Chair
    East Multnomah Soil and Water Conservation District

    Public hearing notice regarding conservation easement: June 23rd, 2020

    EMSWCD will hold a telephonic public hearing on June 23rd, 2020 at 1:00 PM in connection with the acquisition of a working farmland easement to encumber property located at SE 322nd Avenue, Gresham, OR 97080 and identified as Tax Parcel numbers 1S4E16B-00300 and 1S4E16B-00400. This easement will ensure the agricultural resource values of the property are protected in perpetuity.

    Interested persons may submit written testimony prior to the hearing to Matt Shipkey at matt@emswcd.org, or may attend the hearing in person by calling 1 (877) 568-4106 and using the access code 505-109-629.

    Additional information on the working farmland easement may be obtained by contacting Matt Shipkey, Land Legacy Program Manager at (503) 935 5374 or matt@emswcd.org.

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