Celebrating the Rooted Agroforestry Project for the Youth Climate Action Fund
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Young people doing the Youth Climate Action Fund projects this year are beginning to see the fruits of their labor. Recently, we received updates from youth at the organization Rooted, as they began planting a new food forest at Troy Gardens.
Young people from Rooted applied to the Youth Climate Action Fund after working with our Sustainability Program to determine a good way to combine climate action with community based agricultural work. In their words, they wanted to create, “an example of a way to grow food that can help mitigate climate change through sequestering carbon in the soil and perennial plants and decrease "food miles" through growing food right in the neighborhood where it will be used as opposed to importing food and the fossil fuels used to transport it.” They began planting earlier this September.
This initial planting was done in collaboration with Brainplate Grows, a composting organization that takes restaurant food waste and composts it on site at Troy Gardens. The City of Madison is committed to reducing food waste going to the Dane County landfill, as organic matter decomposition in landfills is a source of methane, a far more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. Efforts like Brainplate Grows, alongside our Seasonal Farmers' Market Drop-Off and other composting initiatives are a part of the system that we are nurturing to reduce our impact on the climate. I’m glad to see that composted material will help get these trees off to a good start.
Along with planting for the future, these young people are learning good agroforestry practices. They planted trees far enough apart so that the roots would not compete for nutrients and water. They vigorously watered the trees as they were planted to ensure a strong root system would develop in the few months the trees had before the ground froze during winter. This is valuable experience that we hope they will be able to use as they graduate high school and move on in their studies and careers. Eventually Rooted will install educational signage describing the virtue of agroforestry and the importance of this particular forest to the community.
The fruit (peaches and cherries) from the trees will go to families who live on the Northside near Troy Gardens and the space itself will become a gathering place for the community. The creativity of youth in our community to engage in a project both addressing climate change and promoting sustainable agriculture was wonderful to see.
This content is free for use with credit to the City of Madison Mayor's Office.
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