Agroforestry
Learning Communities
in the Northeast
1st Generation Activities

Our learning community initiative was launched at the International Conference on Ginseng in the 21st Century, September 2000, in the Catskill Mountains of New York State. The conference, hosted by Greene County Cooperative Extension Association, convened 300 educators, scientists, international business representatives, local entrepreneurs and landowners to learn about the changing American ginseng industry. Within the conference setting a 3-day agroforestry workshop was conducted with 23 natural resource educators from 8 states who were selected though a competitive application process.

The agroforestry workshop participants followed a selected set of the concurrent conference sessions in addition to special units on golden seal and mushroom cultivation. They also occupied a designated bus for a day long tour of woods cultivated ginseng demonstration sites in the Catskill Mts. This "first generation" of learning community members was given planting material for the three crops (ginseng, golden seal, mushroom) to establish with small farm and forest owners in their respective counties.

The members record information about establishing their trial plots using protocols that were agreed upon during the training workshop.

Who are the members? See descriptions of their programs on the 1st Generation Member Page.

2nd Generation Activities  
Ginseng Visual Site Assessment Criteria

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