Ron Desrosiers
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| Ron began working with the learning community in 2000 while he was working with the NRCS in New Hampshire. He recruited four cooperators in Cheshire county and one in Sullivan county, and worked with them to establish ginseng, goldenseal, and mushroom trials. When Ron transferred to Maine a year later, NRCS District Manager Deborah Hinman joined the learning community, and now works with these five cooperators who are all continuing their trials. For more information on these New Hampshire trials see the profile for Deborah Hinman. | ||
| Now that Ron is living and working in Maine he has recruited two more cooperators from Kennebec county who are running improved sugar maple trials. Dan Tibbetts is a second generation family farmer who runs a dairy farm and produces maple syrup. He is also a district conservation supervisor. Dan planted some of his trees near the house, to replace larger maples that had been cut down in recent years. The rest he planted in a buffer zone between a stream and a cornfield. Buffer zones are gaining popularity as many residents and farmers in Dan's area are rethinking their land use patterns because of a newly listed endangered atlantic salmon. (See photos below) | ||
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 This maple seedling is just beginning to peek out over the top of the tree shelter. |
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| Ron's second cooperator in Maine is Joe Suga. Joe runs a business selling maple sugaring supplies and syrup, he taps trees using a bucket collecting system, is involved in a maple producers association, is an electrician, and does some haying on the side. Since Joe's trees are planted near his store, which is on a fairly major road, he gets a lot of questions about them. Some of his neighbors have mistaken the shelters for fence posts.(see photo at right) |
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