RC&D encourages and improves the
capability of people and communities within designated RC&D areas to
plan, develop and carry out projects for resource conservation and
development. The RC&D program helps people care for and protect
their natural resources, and improve local economies and living
standards. The program is successful because they pull together
people, communities, various units of government, and grassroots
organizations – uniting in shared purpose and pooling resources and
skills to get work done. RC&D projects and activities are
determined by the area’s problems and needs.
NRCS manages five RC&D areas in
Maine: Down East RC&D (Hancock and Washington Counties), Heart of
Maine RC&D (Penobscot, Piscataquis and Somerset Counties), St.
John-Aroostook RC&D (Aroostook County), Threshold to Maine RC&D
(Cumberland, Franklin, Oxford and York Counties), and Time and Tide
RC&D (Knox, Lincoln, Waldo, Kennebec, Androscoggin and Sagadahoc
Counties).
During Fiscal Year 2007, 56 new
RC&D projects were approved, 40 projects were completed for a total
value of $887,069, and at the end of the fiscal year there were 82
ongoing RC&D projects.
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Heart of Maine RC&D
Sponsors KNEADING Conference
The
Heart of Maine RC&D sponsored a two-day Kneading Conference in
2007. Professional and home bakers, farmers, millers, oven builders
and innovative community members were invited to participate in
hands-on demonstrations and lectures on progressive ideas in the art
of wood-fired bread baking and food production, local grain growing
and milling, and oven building.
The idea for the
Kneading Conference came from a group of local community members,
oven builders, millers and bakers who liked the idea of producing a
staple food item, bread, in a completely local process (as opposed
to the current bread production system, which involves thousands of
miles in shipping from farms to mills, to bakeries, to supermarkets,
and finally to the kitchen table). They partnered with a number of
local and statewide organizations, including Heart of Maine, to
organize, plan and promote the event.
The conference
included whole and half day workshops, panel discussions and
lectures on the topics of grain growing in Maine, small scale
milling, wood fired oven construction and wood fired baking. To
encourage community involvement, the keynote lecture and reception
were held in the evening and were free of charge for community
members.
The event brought
together over 100 participants, presenters and volunteers from all
over Maine and as far away as Hawaii and France. The success of the
event has already had a far reaching impact throughout Maine,
Canada, and many other parts of the country in the area of
sustainable local food production.
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Threshold to
Maine RC&D Coordinates Development of Economic Development Plan for
Agriculture
With the assistance
of the Threshold to Maine RC&D, a small group of residents from the
River Valley area formed the River Valley Agriculture Commission to
explore the facets of agriculture in the area today or that could be
developed there in the future. They received financial assistance
in part through a grant from the Northeast Sustainable Agricultural
Research Association of the University of Vermont. As a result of
their efforts, a five year Agricultural Economic Development Plan
has been finalized.
The commission
would like to see the towns get involved with agriculture through
their comprehensive plans, open space preservation, expanding their
operations, and perhaps turning areas that were once farmed back
into agricultural production.
Most of the towns
have returned letters of support for the commission's goals. The
commission now needs to prioritize the projects. Plans are to
develop a speakers' bureau to talk about what the commission has
been doing, the future of agriculture, and how people can become
involved.
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