MADISON, Wis. — Green Lands Blue Waters and the Conservation Professional Training Program are excited to announce the launch of our training development project, Continuous Living Cover 101 – Building a Foundation for Early Career Conservation Professionals. This program is funded by a 2022 North Central SARE Professional Development Grant. Ultimately, the training will empower those working with landowners to increase successful implementation of Continuous Living Cover (CLC) in the Upper Midwest.Â
Continuous Living Cover encompasses a diverse set of agricultural production strategies to keep living plant roots in the ground all year. This self-paced, online training will deliver accessible introductory Continuous Living Cover (CLC) training materials that meet current professional development needs of early career conservation and technical advisors. It will explain CLC strategies and benefits and how they integrate with soil health principles, and give trainees confidence in communicating CLC practices to farmers and identifying CLC resources.Â
Content will be developed with the guidance of farmers and researchers on topics including cover crops, winter annuals, perennial grains and forage, agroforestry, grazing, and soil health. Three partner organizations – Pheasants Forever, WI Land + Water, and MN Board of Water and Soil Resources – will pilot the training with staff to refine content and delivery methods. The training will be hosted on an accessible platform in late 2024 and will be designed for compatibility with the NRCS AgLearn Learning Management System. In addition to the training modules, this project will develop a CLC Resources Toolkit and a CLC Champions list of farmers and practitioners willing to speak, advise, or host field days focused on Continuous Living Cover.
For more information about the project, please reach out to Evelyn at reill163@umn.eduÂ
Read the announcement on the North Central SARE website.
https://northcentral.sare.org/news/ncr-sares-2022-professional-development-awards/
A full list of the SARE Professional Development Awards for 2022 can be found here.
The USDA is an equal opportunity employer, provider and lender.Â
About The Conservation Professional Training Program (CPTP)Â
The Conservation Professional Training Program is a program of UW–Madison’s Division of Extension’s Natural Resource Institute. CPTP offers conservation courses in convenient formats from online to classroom and the field, ranging from introductory courses for new employees to advanced training for conservation advisors. Our trainings cover all aspects of conservation, from conservation and nutrient management planning to healthy soils and forestry to help you deliver smarter solutions to farmers and rural landowners. We have access to the latest university knowledge and research which we translate into management practice recommendations and customized courses for conservation professionals. As a national leader in conservation training, we work with public and private organizations to develop and deliver targeted trainings taught by local experts.
About Green Lands Blue Waters (GLBW)Â
Green Lands Blue Waters (GLBW) is a vision for profitable agriculture based on keeping the soil covered productively year-round: farming with Continuous Living Cover. GLBW is primarily a networking organization with a broad range of partners – universities, researchers, educators, producer associations, environmental groups, businesses, nonprofits, governmental agencies, and practitioners. GLBW acts as a connector, collaborator, convener, and communicator serving multiple partners and focusing on opportunities and challenges that our partners identify but cannot tackle alone. GLBW is a member organization of MRN. Learn more about GLBW at https://greenlandsbluewaters.org/Â
–The Conservation Professional Training Program
Green Lands Blue Waters
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