Sustaining Sustainability: a management plan for ACRES Student Farm Prepared and Presented by Sarah Legg

What is ACRES? UW’s student-run farm Established in 2006 Vegetables and fruits RSO Structure Uses organic methods and practices Located on 30th and Harney Before I talk about my project, I want to give some background on ACRES 1.8 acres Not certified organic

ACRES Mission Statement “To provide Laramie and the University of Wyoming with fresh and sustainably grown produce while offering hands-on learning and awareness of local, sustainable agriculture.”

What does ACRES do? Farmers markets CSA Donations Direct Sales Compost Volunteers Education 2 laramie farmers markets Briefly explain CSA Donate to sharing the bounty and Laramie soup kitchen. Washakie lettuce Community wide composting program Volunteers can take home leftover produce Classes, tours, workdays. Laramie and UW communities

A.C.R.E.S G R I C U L T A O M U N I T Y E S O U R C V E R Y D A U S T B L Y I neglected to mention this earlier, but ACRES is actually an acronym. [agricultural community resources for everyday sustainability]. And I emphasized sustainability here because that is what I am focusing on for this project. I was going to put it in red to grab your attention, but green seemed to be more fitting.

Sustainability Previous ACRES handbook identified four types of sustainability that are central to ACRES: Temporal Generations of students Economic Must be able to turn a profit! Social Equal distribution of resources Environmental Maintaining resources Alyssa Wechsler’s original 2007 handbook Social = maximizing the number of people who have access to ACRES products and services. This is perhaps the easiest form of sustainability for ACRES (donations, reasonable prices, not just UW community) Environmental = measure to ensure that future generations have access to the same resources  using/developing them in a way that allows them to continue to be there Temporal and economic sustainability are the biggest challenges for ACRES

a Solution Handbook and management plan for on-farm use Builds off of Alyssa Wechsler’s original 2007 handbook Based on my four years of ACRES experience (volunteer, secretary, asst manager, VP) Based on research of other student farms as well as specific documents regarding farm practices (high altitude growing, composting, etc)

Sections Introduction Sustainability History Overview of ACRES Operations Duties and Responsibilities Record Keeping Crop growing instructions Calendars Compost protocol Harvest protocol Safety Weed and Pest Management Things that don’t work Student Research Funding Vision Useful Contacts References Acknowledgements The idea behind this handbook is to establish continuity between years. Ideally, if ACRES were to be left in the hands of people that had no prior knowledge of ACRES or farming, this handbook would be able to serve as a stand-alone document to teach these people everything that they would need to know to run the farm This handbook is about 50 pages long, so I really tried to make it fun and easy to read. It is going to be finalized and printed before the end of the semester and will be required reading for all summer employees. Example of a page in the “calendars” section

Conclusion: this handbook is like the soil Conclusion: this handbook is like the soil. It will provide a foundation and support for ACRES to grow, blossom, and extend its roots. Questions?