Ecosystem revitalization & Land Management in Stowe Farm’s
Solar Field.
Two years ago one of our Stowe Farm members developed a multi-year plan for our “solar” field, a 33 acre parcel of field and woods bordered by Vincent brook and sloping up to Kennedy Ridge from Adamsville Road.
Special thanks to Jonathan for all of his work on this!
The plan is inspired in part by:
- Recommendations in Mass Audubon Society’s Best Management Practices for Nesting Grassland Birds;
- By the ecological vision and theory for temperate climate permaculture set out by Jacke and Toensmeier’s Edible Forest Gardens;
- By the collective knowledge, experience, and vision of Stowe Farm Community members.
Our plan intends to balance and integrate agricultural uses (haying, livestock browse, etc) with ecological management of our mixed riparian, forest edge, and grassland habitat to support pollinators, birds, and other wildlife. In particular, our plan intends:
- to minimize mowing during bird nesting season;
- develop valuable livestock browse along field edges; and
- cultivate extensive areas of productive, beautiful, and diverse vegetation as a transition between the forest edge and cultivated grassland areas.
The lower part of this parcel is a south facing field of about 10 acres; it is home to our 16 kW solar array and has served as pasture for livestock and home to wildlife, birds, pickerbushes, and apple trees descended from what once was an orchard. On an open plateau north of the solar array is a fire circle, originally constructed as part of wedding festivities in 2019.
Above is one of the plans developed for 2021
The multi-year plan allowed for mowing of some areas on a rotating annual, 2 and 4-year cycle, reserving some areas for grazing, maintaining existing apple trees along with a good number of young “volunteer” apple trees, and avoiding mowing during nesting season.
The original plan was discussed and approved by the community and is reviewed yearly to evaluate results and discuss lessons learned.
Over the years modifications have included moving some areas from 4-year to the 2-year rotation and expanding some buffer areas around long grass bird nesting areas to avoid disturbing them.
This past autumn we worked on a 4-year mowing area, which was quite high in briars and bittersweet surrounding a very old, mostly dead apple tree.
Above is the flyer for last fall’s workshop
Stowe Farm Community is proud to be part of Colrain’s ad hoc Pollinator Committee which recently held a pollinator habitat planning workshop to look at landscape-scale maps to help brainstorm ideas about how to continue to connect and enhance pollinator habitat corridors in and around Colrain. The intent is to create a Colrain Pollinator Action Plan, to be part of the Regional Pollinator Plan for Franklin County.