The AFTA Board of Directors has approved a proposal from the Center for Integrated Natural Resources and Agricultural Management (CINRAM) at the University of Minnesota to host the 9th North American Agroforestry Conference in 2005. Preliminary plans are to hold the meeting in Rochester, MN in June. The conference theme will be "Generating Economic and Environmental Benefits from Agroforestry Systems." Although CINRAM will take the lead, the Southwest Badger RC&D in Wisconsin will be working closely with CINRAM to plan and carry out the event.

This cattle and firewood silvopasture o­n the Malinowski farm near  La Crosse, WI is evidence of growing interest in agroforestry among private landowners in the Lake States (Photo: M. Baughman)

Sponsor and Partners

CINRAM and the University of Minnesota have experience organizing major events such as the AFTA Conference. In 1998 CINRAM hosted the North American Conference o­n Enterprise Development Through Agroforestry and published the proceedings in the publication "Farming the Forest for Specialty Products". SW Badger hosts an annual spring agroforestry conference which draws over 100 participants from the upper Midwest. They will be not hold a conference in 2004 as they prepare for the 2005 AFTA Conference.

CINRAM (which is a joint effort of the Colleges of Natural Resources and Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences) has been carrying out agroforestry research and extension activities since it was founded in 1995. Recently (2002) we began working o­n two major projects with partners from state and national agencies, local NGO's and communities and researchers from a number of departments in the Colleges of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences and Natural Resources. o­ne project is modeling the environmental and economic impact of agroforestry and perennial cropping systems o­n water quality and storage in the Minnesota River Basin and the second complementary project is promoting trial plantings by landowners of agroforestry and perennial cropping systems and measuring their impact both economically and ecologically.

The intent of those activities is to identify agroforestry systems which can provide financial benefits to landowners while providing environmental benefits to the landowners and society. These o­ngoing efforts will be highlighted during the conference field tour and should provide opportunities for discussion between AFTA members, conference participants, UMN researchers and local farmers implementing the systems.

Co-Sponsors

Our partners in sponsoring and planning the conference bring their own experience to the conference. Trees Forever which operates primarily in Iowa and Illinois has a great deal of experience promoting riparian buffers. The Minnesota Department of Transportation is saving thousands of dollars through their "living snowfences" program. A willow/poplar burning biomass plant is scheduled to be constructed in the next couple of years. Because of many of the current efforts in the upper Midwestern states, we feel that the conference in 2005 would provide an excellent opportunity to present and discuss those activities as well as the experiences that conference participants will be presenting.

In addition to Trees Forever, several other organizations have agreed to help organize the agroforestry conference. At present, these include the USDA National Agroforestry Center, Blue Earth River Basin Initiative, Southwest Badger RC&D, the Minnesota Agroforestry Cooperative and Pete Ffolliott of the University of Arizona.

Location

The conference would be held in Rochester, Minnesota. Rochester is located in Southeastern corner of Minnesota making it more accessible by road to participants coming from Wisconsin, Iowa and Illinois. Rochester is a major city with ample opportunities to find adequate facilities for hosting the event. We will be identifying an appropriate facility in the coming months. Rochester is easily accessible from the Minneapolis-Saint Paul airport (1-1.5 hours) and also has an airport for those who may want to fly directly to the conference site. A shuttle from airport in Minneapolis could be arranged if necessary.

Potential Field Visits

We plan to offer three field trips as part of the conference program. For the mid-conference field day, visits would include a number of agroforestry systems in the general vicinity of Rochester highlighting some of the University's/CINRAM's current research. This will provide opportunities to visit sites demonstrating living snow fences, riparian plantings, decorative woody florals, research o­n the impact of agroforestry plantings o­n water quality and storage, wildlife plantings and biomass plantings for energy production among others. Many of these plantings are in areas of some of the most productive agricultural land in the country but also agricultural fields which contribute a disproportionate amount of nutrients and chemicals to the Minnesota and Mississippi Rivers.

Pre- and Post-conference Tours

The pre-conference tour would begin in Duluth, MN (easy airport access). It would cover a variety of agroforestry systems from specialty forest products to silvopasture and some of the work with hybrid poplar and end up in Rochester for the start of the conference. This would be a good opportunity to see a broad array of systems in different settings across the state. Mike Demchik with UM Cooperative Extension will take charge of developing the pre-conference tour.

The post-conference tour would be sponsored by Mark Shepard and Steve Bertjens of the SW Badger RC&D in Southwestern Wisconsin. SW Badger has been a leader in introducing agroforestry to southwestern Wisconsin and the upper Midwest. Their annual spring conference draws participants from Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa and Illinois. Researchers from the Universities of Minnesota, Missouri and Nebraska and the National Agroforestry Center have participated in the event. AFTA members participated in that event in 2002 which coincided with the Annual Meeting. This tour would highlight some innovative agroforestry systems being developed around horticultural and vegetable crops as well as decorative woody florals.

Details to Come

Now that the AFTA Board has decided to select Minnesota as the venue for the 2005 conference, our next step is to convene the organizing committee and start defining sessions and themes. We will work o­n getting out an announcement and call for papers in early 2004. As plans develop, the latest information will be posted o­n the AFTA website, and o­n the official conference website.

By Dean Current, CINRAM, University of Minnesota