Stockbridge School of Agriculture
2-year and 4-year career-minded degrees through hands-on learning
Upcoming Events
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May23
Professor Lisa Depiano Awarded $30,000 Grant to Host Climate Adaptation Learning Lab On Campus
Stockbridge professor Lisa Depiano founded the UMass Carbon Farming Initiative, which for five years has trained students at our Agricultural Learning Center (ALC) in the use of agroecology, regenerative food production and climate mitigation techniques.
Carbon farming, in which carbon is sequestered into soil stocks and above-ground biomass, reduces the harmful release of carbon into the atmosphere that comes from commercial farming.
Instructors Lisa Depiano and Nicole Burton, along with our Sustainable Food & Farming students, also manage the university's first Chestnut/Sheep Silvopasture, in which trees and livestock are used to enrich soil productivity without the use of powered tractors.
The new grant, awarded to Depiano by the Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) Partnership, will fund a new site at the ALC to teach "alley cropping," the integration of trees among farm crops, giving students additional hands-on learning opportunities to practice climate mitigation and sustainable farming techniques proven by science.
Stockbridge News
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Keiluweit and Xing Co-Edit Anthology of Soil Science and Environmental Research
Stockbridge professors Marco Keiluweit and Baoshan Xing are co-editors of a new book providing a state-of-the-art overview of research in soil biogeochemical processes, and strategies for greenhouse gas mitigation under climate change. Multi-Scale Biogeochemical Processes in Soil Ecosystems: Critical Reactions and Resilience to Climate Changes (Wiley 2022) offers a systematic and interdisciplinary approach to sustainable agricultural development and management of soil ecosystems in a changing climate. This authoritative text is essential reading for scientists, engineers, agronomists, chemists, biologists, academic researchers, consultants, and other professionals whose work involves the nutrient cycle, ecosystem management, and climate change. -
Elsa Petit Collaborates Internationally to Solve the Scourge of the Wine Industry: Grapevine Trunk Disease
Stockbridge professor Elsa Petit has co-authored research that may save the wine industry. An international collaboration has uncovered how Grapevine Trunk Diseases (GTDs) function. One fungus produces iron molecules, another fungus produces hydrogen peroxide, and the two come together to create a bomb-like effect inside the woody bases of grapevines. We'll soon be able to remediate the disease through bio-controls -- intentional releases of bacteria and fungi that produce antioxidant compounds to protect vines from disease. These are newly emergent research opportunities for Stockbridge students! Click for article, or copy/paste this URL to see video of Petit's research in the news! https://bit.ly/StockbridgeGrapevineResearch -
Alum Dave Johnson Honored for Management of US Open Golf Course
Stockbridge Plant and Soil Sciences alum Dave Johnson ('97) was recently awarded the E.J. Marshall platter for his management of the team that restored, prepared, and maintained the golf course for the 2022 U.S. Open. Johnson started as an assistant superintendent after earning his Stockbridge degree. Today he is Director of Agronomy for The Country Club in Brookline, MA, where he manages a crew of 36 turfgrass specialists and 100 volunteers. Watch video of them preparing the course: https://twitter.com/TheGCSNetwork/status/1538661655403499522 (copy/paste) And see video of Johnson accepting the award: https://twitter.com/turfgrassfed/status/1538660597998317568 (copy/paste) Click anywhere for an article about Johnson's career path that began at Stockbridge. -
Remembering Forestry Professor Joseph Mawson
Joseph (Joe) C. Mawson, 89, passed away peacefully at home, Wednesday, May 25, 2022. Employed by the Department of Forestry and Wildlife Management from 1958 till retirement in 1996, Mawson's area of expertise was Forest statistics, inventory, management, computer application and growth analysis. He consulted with MA Dept. of Conservation and Recreation on the management and growth analysis of MA forests and the USDA Forest Service. Mawson was a founding member of the Massachusetts Association of Professional Foresters. -
The Next Generation Lawn Mower Is A Sheep
Sustainable EweMass is a remarkable collaboration between the Stockbridge School of Agriculture and Hadley Farm, testing the transfer of some University’s lawn-mowing duties to the Stockbridge Sheep flock. The first test run of the program occurred on April 26 and 27, on the patch of grass between the Isenberg School of Management and the Fine Arts Center. Inspired by a program called Sheepmowers, Britt Crow-Miller and her 26 students spent the spring semester brainstorming how to engage the campus community in a discussion on alternative methods of managing UMass lands to better support the University’s mission. “Do big, mono-cultured green lawns, maintained by fossil-fuel burning machines and petrochemical fertilizers, accurately reflect our values and aspirations as a campus community?” -
Remembering Lyle Craker, Stockbridge Professor Emeritus of Medicinal Plants
Stockbridge Professor Emeritus Dr. Lyle Craker passed away on May 15 after a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease. Craker led the medicinal plant program at UMass, and his research into medicinal plants spanned several decades. He was an early proponent of scientific research into the medicinal properties of the cannabis plant, especially its anti-emetic and hunger-stimulating effects for pediatric cancer patients suffering the side effects of chemotherapy.
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