Two by boat: Wright State freshwater science profs to speak tonight at Stone Lab

Wright State’s Yvonne Vadeboncoeur headlines Stone Lab’s next guest lecture series event, which is tonight, Thursday, June 29, at 7 p.m. Her bio says she studies the “importance of energy linkages among habitats in freshwater ecosystems.”

Also speaking will be Wright State’s Stephen Jacquemin, whose research, his bio says, focuses on the “ecology and evolution of freshwater fishes and gastropods.”

Stone Lab is Ohio State’s island campus at Put-in-Bay on Lake Erie. Admission to the event is free. But there’s a charge for a ferry ride to Put-in-Bay and water taxi ride to the lab. There’s an option to watch online. (Photo: Stone Lab dock, Jill Bartolotta, via Flickr.)

A manure sidedress for a new occasion

CFAES’s Glen Arnold and Sam Custer have developed a way to spread liquid manure on young growing field crops like corn. Their new design serves to (1) boost the plants’ uptake of the valuable nutrients in the manure, (2) save farmers money on manure disposal and fertilizer costs, all while (3) reducing the risk of the nutrients getting into water. Read the story.

Where the river meets the road

Onboard the Valley Gem sternwheeler on the Muskingum River near Marietta, Darlene Lukshin, program specialist in OSU Extension’s Washington County office, and Ohio State President Michael V. Drake talked to WTAP’s (Parkersburg, West Virginia) Julie Dunphy about a high-tech, environmentally friendly way to keep roads by the river safe from erosion.

Organic crop, dairying field day is Thursday

CFAES’s research arm, the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center, is holding its annual Organic Crop Field Day on Thursday, June 29, from 2 to 6 p.m. near Wooster. Admission is free. Check out the event description. Learn more, including about the field day’s first-ever inclusion of organic dairying, in a CFAES press release.

OARDC’s Organic Food and Farming Education and Research Program is hosting the event, which is part of the 2017 Ohio Sustainable Farm Tour and Workshop Series. CFAES’s Sustainable Agriculture Team is a co-presenter of the series.

Download the series brochure.

June 25: Lessons learned by a beginning sustainable, diversified farmer

See how new farmer John Wood got off the ground during the Diversified Beginning Farm Tour on June 25 in southeast Ohio.

Wood manages his Homecoming Farm in Amesville, according to the tour description, “with a whole-farm approach with a focus on diverse, year-round income streams including fruit trees, vegetables, wood products and non-timber forest products such as maple syrup.” He’ll discuss his experiences as a beginning farmer and how to “best manage a mix of forested and unforested land.”

The tour is from 1-4 p.m. Admission is free; preregistration is encouraged. It’s part of the Ohio Sustainable Farm Tour and Workshop Series. CFAES is a co-presenter of the series.

Learn how to name that bee

CFAES is co-sponsoring a bee biology and identification workshop on four dates in August in northeast and central Ohio.

The workshop is called Bees in Your Backyard … and the Plants They Visit, and the instructor will be Olivia Carril, biologist and co-author of The Bees in Your Backyard (Princeton University Press, 2015).

Register for the workshop online.

June 24: Turning vacant lots into ‘beautiful, bountiful’ urban CSA

Next in the 2017 Ohio Sustainable Farm Tour and Workshop Series is an Urban CSA Farm Tour on June 24 in Cincinnati. It’s at the Urban Greens CSA farm. Urban Greens, the event description says, “turns vacant properties into beautiful and bountiful gardens” and relies on an “extensive network of like-minded farmers, who provide them with the best variety and quality.” The tour is free and open to the public. There’s an optional farm-to-table dinner that’s $20 and requires registering in advance.

Download the series brochure.