Field Trip!

August is a fairly quiet month around the URWA headquarters. Many of our staff members and volunteers take some time off for annual summer vacations, while the ones who remain in the area use the time to catch up on research articles we've been meaning to read, prepare work plans for the coming fiscal year and make repairs to nets, gps units and other equipment that gets used heavily during the not-quite-so-hot and muggy months of the year.

August is also a month that affords us the unique opportunity to close the office for an entire day so our staff can venture out together on a field trip to a place we've all been wanting to explore. That's just what we did a couple of days ago! Nine of us piled into two vehicles (both hybrids) and drove to Kutztown, Pennsylvania to tour the 333 acre organic certified farm owned and operated by the Rodale Institute.

The farm is devoted to research, education and certified organic production and is highly regarded for its Farming Systems Trial, the longest-running U.S. experiment specifically designed to compare organic and conventional farming practices. During our tour, we got to see many research and demonstration plots, and we were really impressed by all of them!

The people of the Rodale Institute believe that changing the way we farm (and the way we eat) could be the most important step the world can take to address climate change and to help end the horrific cycle of hunger that afflicts so many of the world's economically poor people. Their research in the critical fields of soil health, water supply/water storage and regenerative farming practices (among others) is providing farmers, consumers and policy makers across the globe with tremendously important information that we can use to achieve our common goals of creating healthy human populations and healthy natural systems.

We highly recommend a trip to the Rodale Institiute Farm to everyone in our watershed who is interested in seeing firsthand some of the cutting-edge research into farming practices that can give us all hope for a healthier future. The Institute offers guided tours, or you can take a self-guided tour. It also offers a variety of workshops and special activities throughout the year, including the upcoming Organic Apple Festival on September 12th. The farm is just over an hour away from most communities in our watershed.