Backyard Conservation Workshops have returned this year, with 23 workshops and 5 sales over three months to help Fairfield residents lead more sustainable lives. This year 18 organizations partnered to develop educational programming on a wide range of topics including organic gardening, permaculture, composting, pollinators and beekeeping, DIY solar, backyard chickens, invasive plant species, stormwater management, food preservation, historic preservation and restoration, seed saving and much more. Jefferson County Extension is sponsoring the programming, and this year local sponsors have generously covered registration costs so that all of the educational workshops are free! Local experts will lead many of the sessions, which will be held at various locations across the community.
The Backyard Conservation workshops have also developed some unique partnerships that will improve visibility and increase outreach. The Fairfield Public Library is working closely with the presenters to have weekly displays prepared on resources specific to each workshop. The Library will host four of the workshops, and will be available to help participants locate more resources if needed. FPAC will be filming many of the workshops, archiving the videos, and will weave them into their regular programming for residents who could not attend in person. Workshops begin March 12th and run through the end of May.
The Fairfield Go Green website contains full program information, social media tools for the events and links to our sponsors. On the Fairfield Go Green website you can sign up for our mailing list, which will provide you with weekly email updates and reminders about upcoming workshops and sales; and on the main page Calendar of Events you can browse workshops by month and add the event calendar to iCal. Look for us on Facebook too!
If you have any questions, full program information is available on the Backyard Conservation website at http://www.fairfieldgogreen.com/backyard-conservation/, by phone at Jefferson County Extension Office at 641-472-4166, and by email to Scott Timm at stimm@iastate.edu.