ADVANCE REGISTRATION REQUIRED. LIMITED SPACES: 500

Designing wine farming to mimic healthy ecosystems has created resilience to the vagaries of climate change, labour shortages and continuous increases in costs of production.  Holistically designed vineyards function primarily off of solar energy by using adaptive grazing during any season.  Soils remain covered throughout the year, tillage is eliminated, biodiversity and soil carbon can significantly increase while tractor use (fossil fuels), labor, water and fertility inputs can be reduced.  These systems encourage reciprocity to other lives and are fun to manage. 

This session will cover the principles and practices for designing, creating and managing vineyards that mimic nature. Time will be spent examining economics, grazing practices, vine training systems, management benefits and challenges, increasing biodiversity, building soil/ecosystem health and sequestering carbon.  We will also briefly discuss creating similar systems in orchards and vegetable crops.