Climate Friendly Farming

FREE FARM TOUR

Monday, August 12 from 6 to 7:30 PM

People who want to be part of local climate action can see how area farms that practice climate friendly agriculture can help restore the land, heal the atmosphere, and produce good food for the community. Powered Up Baraboo (PUB) invites the public to participate in a free tour of Bula’s Pleasant Valley Farm on Monday, August 12, from 6 pm to 7:30 pm. During the tour featuring the no-till garden and livestock on pasture, members of the Bula family will explain the regenerative agricultural practices they use, and the benefits these practices have for building healthy soil, growing healthy plants that feed people and animals, sequestering atmospheric carbon, and contributing to clean waterways. After the tour, there will be a free door prize drawing in which tour participants can win farm-fresh food products from the farm. Bula’s Pleasant Valley Farm is located about 8 miles west of Baraboo at S4473 Scenic Rd., Baraboo, WI. To make sure parking for tour participants can be accommodated, attendees are asked to pre-register for the tour at https://www.poweredupbaraboo.org/upcoming-events/climate-friendly-farming.

Donna Baker, member of the Powered Up Baraboo board, on July 16, 2024, at the Baraboo City Hall.

On July 16, Powered Up Baraboo board member Donna Baker presented the recently completed Sustainable Development Guide for Baraboo to Baraboo Plan Commissioners Roy Franzen, Tom Kolb, Barry Hartup, and Matthew Boegner. Other Plan Commissioners, Alder Jason Kent and Alder David Olson, along with Mayor Rob Nelson, had already received their copies of the Guide.

As Donna stated in her presentation remarks, "The purpose of the Sustainable Development Guide for Baraboo is to deepen the conversation about what kind of new [building] development in Baraboo would best align with the goal of sustainability. The Guide’s audience is both elected officials and ordinary citizens. It describes how new development projects get approved at the City level and the points at which citizens can have input. It includes a list of questions to be raised with prospective developers to spark discussion. Also included are ways to reduce the cost of energy efficiency measures and renewable energy in new construction. So, the Guide will be useful for real estate developers and business owners too."

The Guide, Donna acknowledged, took many hours of volunteer effort to research the development process and gather input from City staff and citizen stakeholders. On behalf of the Board of Powered Up Baraboo, Donna thanked those who provided such input and feedback, including Mayor Rob Nelson, Pat Cannon (then co-interim City Administrator) and Raegen Trimmer, Broker/Owner of RE/Max Preferred.

The authors of the Sustainable Development Guide for Baraboo hope it will be useful to members of the Plan Commission, as they work with prospective developers to make their building projects the best they can be with regard to sustainability, energy conservation, reduction of harmful greenhouse gas emissions, and the health of Baraboo residents and the earth.

In April of this year, PUB held our first ever “Earth Month Fundraiser", which was a huge success. We more than doubled our goal of $2,000.  After expenses, we raised $4,702.19. Sixty-eight percent of our donors were first-time contributors. A big “thank you” again to all who donated!

Because PUB is a one hundred percent volunteer organization, one hundred percent of the money raised will go towards programming. Because of all of you, PUB will be able to fund our educational public programs, as well as these ongoing projects: signage interpreting the solar arrays at the Baraboo School District, planning for a level 3 EV charging station in downtown Baraboo, continued advocacy with City of Baraboo staff and elected officials to reduce the carbon footprint of City operations, and further promotion of our Sustainable Development Guide for Baraboo.

On Saturday, July 20, Powered Up Baraboo Green Spaces Action Team, under the leadership of PUB board member Lena Nissley, sponsored a free sustainable yard and garden tour at several Baraboo locations.

Tour participants traveled as a group from one tour destination to the next. Hosts were available at each location to tell the story behind their sustainable landscaping design. Our tour guide for the morning was landscape designer Marcy Huffaker, owner of Half-Aker Designs, specializing in native plants.

The tour began at the Carnegie-Schadde Memorial Public Library (below), where host Beth Persche, who is a member of the library's board of trustees, was closely involved with the landscape design for the expanded library.

The second tour stop was next door, at the First United Methodist Church (below). The host for this stop was Jen Stewart, who was instrumental in creating the rain garden at the church about 20 years ago, in cooperation with the Sauk County Conservation Department, as it was known then. Jen explained how the project was conceived both as a practical solution to the church's rainwater runoff challenges, and as a public education effort to bring awareness of this landscape technique to control storm water runoff and prevent it from draining into the storm sewers and then into the Baraboo River.

The third stop was hosted by PUB board member Rick Eilertson (below), who, with his wife, Yenti, has put a tremendous amount of time and effort over the past 29 years into both beautifying their property and using sustainable methods to control rainwater runoff, grow healthy plants, and save water and power. Rick showed the tour group their recently installed rain garden, their rain barrel system, compost system, and lush beds of vegetables and ornamental native plants.

The fourth stop on the tour was hosted by Cindy Mayer (below), who with her husband Rick Mergen, has created a soothing and art-filled haven in their Baraboo yard. Over the course of 35 years, Cindy and Rick have gradually built their garden areas to grow with their family and adapt to changing conditions over time, such as trees that have turned a once sunny front yard to one with significant shade during the day. Their improvements, made with imagination and flair, invite visitors to linger and draw inspiration for their own gardens.

The fifth tour stop was hosted by Kathy Skrivseth (below), whose move to this sunny hillside lot with her husband Craig, from a home in the woods, offered an interesting new landscaping challenge. One of her first projects was having a rain garden installed in her steeply sloped front yard. Kathy maintains her rain garden with an eye towards keeping it attractive and visually interesting year-round. The tour participants also experienced her lovely and spacious back yard, which has both tallgrass and shortgrass prairie areas, as well as vegetables.

The last stop of the day was the garden and yard of PUB board member Lena Nissley (below), who moved into her home in 2019. Since then, Lena has been steadily working to reduce her lawn area and replace it with native plants, especially those that attract pollinators. She has established two rain gardens, and planted beds of beautiful, tall flowering plants to create a "living wall" that help define her corner lot and offer some privacy in her yard. Lena describes herself as "pretty DIY", someone who does most of the yard work herself, and who spends a lot of time "moving things around".

Each yard we toured was unique, displaying interesting features and stories behind their development. A few themes emerged: The gardens have been developed gradually over years; if something doesn't work, the gardeners try a different approach; and gardeners are the most generous people around, offering cuttings and seeds to anyone who shows interest!

You can see in-person tours of Cindy Mayer's and Kathy Skrivseth's yards and gardens as they were in 2020, on the Carnegie-Schadde Memorial Public Library YouTube channel (below).

Do you know someone who might be interested in receiving the PUB CONNECTIONS newsletter and favors working together to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the Baraboo and Sauk County area? Leave a message at the PUB website contact page.