BROOKLYN — Wisconsin Women in Conservation (WiWiC) is a collaborative of four Wis. ag organizations funded by the USDA’s Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) to get more conservation education and resources to women farmers and landowners. Women are an increasingly powerful force in agriculture — now making up 35% of primary producers in Wisconsin.
Additionally, many women are non-operators, owning property they either rent to farmers or maintain in a conservation state. Though WiWiC is working throughout the state, the organization has formed a special relationship with Green County’s Soil Sisters — a loose affiliation of local women farmers and farm entrepreneurs. Twenty of these Soil Sisters are working with WiWiC and Green County Soil Conservationist Tonya Gratz to create “Conservation Plans” to improve their land over time. These plans help women organize their own goal setting for land stewardship, but also help them access resources and cost-share from conservation agencies.
WiWiC invites the public to participate in one of these conservation land walks, find out what sort of goals landowners can aspire to, and learn about how these conservation practices are improving water, building soil, and sequestering carbon to mitigate climate change.
The next Green County/Soil Sister land walk is May 20, at 2 p.m. at Green Haven Gardens in Brooklyn and should last about an hour.
“As a conservation professional for twenty years, my greatest joy comes from facilitating a land walk with a beginning landowner or perhaps even someone who has lived on their land for decades but never had the opportunity to really understand all the natural wonders going on,” said Tonya Gratz, Soil Conservationist for the Green County Land & Water Conservation Department. “Through working with the women in this Cohort, I see their eyes light up and minds start to think and plan for long-term conservation on their land as they go through this process, which adds up to a healthier landscape and community for all in Green County.”
Green Haven Gardens owner, Heather Lynch, is very open to sharing her story.
Heather has always been passionate about local, seasonal food and has been dedicated to using her backyard to grow as much of her own food as possible for the last 8 years. She has her UW Extension Master Gardener certification, and enjoys volunteering at a food pantry garden, teaching youth groups how to grow food that is donated directly to local food pantries. She provides consultations for anyone who wants to start a garden or just needs some support in making their garden more healthy and productive. She shares her gardening adventures, seasonal meals, unique preserves, and so many dog photos on her Instagram feed.
In 2019 Heather Lynch and her husband Dylan moved out of Madison to rural Brooklyn. They found the perfect piece of land, and have been working hard to shape it into the homestead of their dreams.
“My husband and I purchased our property less than two years ago,” Lynch said. “As a new landowner, to have the opportunity to work with local resources to both better understand the land and develop a long-term conservation plan in partnership with a local group of women who share my passion to be good caretakers of the land is just the educational and confidence boost I need.”
Over the past two years they have worked together to install a large raised bed kitchen garden, added a flock of chickens, planted a diverse fruit and nut orchard, and have started a conservation plan for the “wild” part of their property. They eat something that they grew themselves every day of the year. They share and sell their garden harvests and colorful eggs with friends and family, and are working towards sharing their love of homegrown food with others.
“Rural women intuitively know how to bring together different skill sets and resources, and this partnership in Green County exemplifies that through connecting the Soil Sisters network with WiWiC support to develop land conservation plans,” said Jan Joannides, Executive Director, Renewing the Countryside. “Stewarding our rural land goes way beyond what happens today; this cohort model plants community-rooted seeds that will grow for years to come.”
Soil Sisters, a program of Renewing the Countryside, connects and champions women in the Green County area and beyond committed to sustainable and organic agriculture, land stewardship, local food, family farms and healthy and economically vibrant rural communities.
“This Soil Sisters WiWiC cohort is an inspiring example of how we as women are stronger together,” Esther Shekinah, WiWiC Project Lead, Michael Fields Agricultural Institute. “Collaboratively creating this space for women landowners and connecting different opportunities together while building relationships and networks locally is the secret ingredient for women landowners to propel conservation forward, both in Wisconsin and beyond.”