reflections on teaching my first college course

This fall I had a really good time teaching a 200-level agroforestry class at Hocking College. The students were very engaged with the homework. Each week we had around three readings, and the students were required to write a one-page summary of what they found interesting from the readings to aid in our in-class discussions. After an hour of in-class discussions, we normally got out into the field and visited local, profitable agroforestry practitioners. The students told me they enjoyed the class and learned a lot, and the farms we visited enjoyed getting to geek out with us. I’m writing this post to share about the class content, about the field trips that we took, and also to share the readings. Perhaps you will find all this useful for investigating agroforestry on your own, or perhaps you will come take my agroforestry class next year! On a personal level, I find that I really came alive as I connected compelling people and ideas. I want to teach more, and I want to connect with other teachers to talk about pedagogy. I also want to recruit more students for teaching this course again in autumn 2020.

Our first class was on historic agroforestry in oak-hickory woodlands. We discussed the native American use of fire to maintain savannas of masting tree species and a grassy, herb-rich understory for game species. We visited the Woodcock Nature Preserve (WNP), an organization I’m deeply involved with that is managing 50 acres of native warm season grasses and forbs with prescribed fire, primarily for gamebird habitat. We also looked at the WNP’s conversion of woody biomass from invasive shrubs to biochar and lump charcoal. Our readings were as follows:

• Training Manual for Applied Agroforestry Practices 2018 ed Chapter 1 Defining Agroforestry
• Anthropology of fire in the Ozark Highland region

Our second class was on a subject that is near and dear to my heart, namely forest utilizing the forest understory as a growing space and co-managing the herb layer with the overstory species. In particular we discussed co-managing sugar bush with  ginseng and goldenseal cultivation. This linked back to our oak-hickory management conversation from last class. In drier sites where oak regen isn’t too much of a struggle in southeast Ohio, growing goldenseal doesn’t make any sense. Even-age management strategies such as shelterwoods or seedtree clearcuts could get good results for oak regen while uneven-age management practices will only yield maples. On more mesic sites in southeast Ohio, regenerating oak and hickory, especially without the use of prescribed fire, is impossible and is not really worth attempting, according to local consulting forestry guru Dean Berry. Given that you’re going to be managing a maple overstory anyway, and that single-tree selection is very compatible with both maple regen as well as slow-growing, long-lived herbal non-timber forest products, why not co-manage for both maple syrup, maple lumber and high-value herbs? We visited United Plant Savers and got a great tour from their outreach director John Stock. Seeing a multi-million dollar herb patch that is protected without guns dogs or fences really changed my mind about the value of knowing your neighbors, building trust and supporting each other as an effective security strategy on these kinds of operations.

• Training Manual for Applied Agroforestry Practices 2018 ed Chapter 7 Forest Farming
• Growing American ginseng in maple forests as an alternative landuse system in Québec, Canada

Week three we discussed silvopasture, particularly using trees as a windbreak and source of shade for livestock. As with all of these agroforestry practices, profitably implementing it requires intensive management of all living elements. We visited Integration Acres and assisted in thinning their paw paw orchard. Service learning is a proud tradition at Hocking College, particularly in our Natural Resource school. Thinning the overstory in hopes of increasing the light reaching the ground and improving forage quality for their sheep and goats, namely replacing the ground ivy with white clover and orchard grass. This thinning should also improve paw paw yields from the orchard. I hope to continue working with Chris on this project.

• Training Manual for Applied Agroforestry Practices 2018 ed Chapter 4 Silvopasture
• Integrating silvopastures into current forage-livestock systems
• Are sown legume-rich pastures effective allies for the profitability and sustainability of Mediterranean dehesas?
• Greg explaining silvopasture establishment with sheep

Our fourth class was the one where I personally learned the most. We looked at riparian buffers and edge-of-field soil conservation practices. Our discussion revolved around retaining topsoil on-site and improving stream water quality with these conservation practices. We visited the famous Ohio farm business, “Basket Farmer”, where the Altons grow decorative willow varieties. They have approximately three acres and net a very respectable income off this modest parcel. I had never seen alluvial soils that flood too often to rationalize growing annuals be utilized so profitably. Thank you Henry Alton, you’re a solid comrade and an impressive agronomist.

• Training Manual for Applied Agroforestry Practices 2018 ed Chapter 5 Upland and Riparian Forest Buffers
• Landowner interest in multifunctional agroforestry riparian buffers.
• Monarch Habitat as a Component of Multifunctional Landscape Restoration Using Continuous Riparian Buffers
• Shifts in attributes along agriculture-forest transitions of two streams in central Ohio, USA

For our fifth class, we discussed windbreaks and creating more favorable living  conditions using shelterbelts. Tricia Ward and I filmed a conversation detailing her history with Ag Canada and their shelterbelt program out of Indian Head, Saskatchewan. We also had a phone call with Mike Epp of Hickory Lane Farms. Both windbreak experts indicated that contemporary shelterbelts are mostly being installed around homesites, and mostly in otherwise deforested landscapes where high winds pose problems to residents. Not losing sight of species diversity, and planting trees far enough apart to fill in and not overcrowd over the course of a decade, were both recommended for people who are planning shelterbelts.

• Changes in deep soil organic carbon and soil properties beneath tree windbreak plantings in the U.S. Great Plains
• Training Manual for Applied Agroforestry Practices 2018 ed Chapter 6: Windbreaks
• Trees and Shrubs for Agroforestry on the Prairies

Our sixth class focused on alley cropping. We talked about using the “wasted” space and sunlight in a young orchard to grow row crops before the canopy closes. This strategy is similar to doing silvopasture in a young orchard, but may be more appropriate if the land you’re starting with is already growing row crops. We visited Weston Lombard and Solid ground farm, and saw his efforts to diversify his farm income by growing butternut squash on hillside terraces between rows of Asian pear, Chinese chestnut and other tree crops.

• What are the impacts of tree shade on the absorption of light by grapevine in alley-cropped vineyards?
• Training Manual for Applied Agroforestry Practices 2018 ed Chapter 3: Alley Cropping
• Alley cropping in a hillside terrace system

Our seventh topic was of particular interest to the students, some of whom only ever plan to run homescale-sized farming operation. Forest gardens are usually small, and can provide a diverse supply of goods for homesteaders and their communities. We visited with famous network weaving expert June Holly, who grows a lot of vegetables between fruit trees in her yard. She uses her fence to grow grapes, and her neighbors all bring their food waste to her to be composted, which enhances vegetable yield. She shares garden products with them, it’s a nice model for neighborhood-level cooperation in urban agriculture. We also visited Jeroch Carlson at the Sunflower Community, and learned about their success cultivating goji and schizandra berries. Did you know there is a species of goji that was cultivated my native people in the desert southwest of what is now the US? I didn’t! I’ll stick with the more productive Chinese cultivars, and if I’m going to lazily vegetatively cultivate the goji from living branches I’ve pruned off my bushes, I’ll make sure to do it on a hillside with a protected aspect to prevent desiccation. What a hardy plant.

Our final class was dedicated to presentations by the students. Their assignment was to design profitable agroforestry systems they’d like to implement on parcels of land that they have some connection to. We looked at soil maps together, different plant nurseries, and pulled on the readings and field trips we took together for ideas. Each student took a turn having their  5+ page report. It was a free-wheeling, light-hearted peer review discussion. Students had time to incorporate a round of comments from all of us and submit the manuscript to the group. My hope is that this document will be a time capsule for each of them. Most of them have a year or two more of full-time schooling before getting released back into the wild. That way if they come back around to agroforestry after graduating they can easily pick up where they left off on their studies.