Bring Your Branches pilot project helps farmers and homeowners

Salt Spring’s Agricultural Alliance is tackling two problems faced by farmers and homeowners with a trial Bring Your Branches Day.

“Farmers on Salt Spring just can’t get enough compost,” explains a press release. “Meanwhile, homeowners are sometimes faced with daunting piles of branches and trimmings and nowhere to put them.”

The first Bring Your Branches day will be held next Saturday, Feb. 18 between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. at two locations, one at the south end and one in Ganges.

Everyone is invited to bring clean branches and woody trimmings. There is no charge to drop off your material, but it must be clean with no invasive species (blackberry, broom and gorse), and no contaminants such as stones, plastic or garbage. The material must also be small enough to go through a chipper, so stumps and large diameter logs are not acceptable. If anyone has more than a pickup truck-load of branches, they must arrange in advance.

South-enders are invited to bring clean branches and woody trimmings on Feb. 18 to Hope Hill Farm, 235 Musgrave Rd. Hope Hill Farm is a small mixed farm, owned by Cam and Vera Robinson. They have prepared an Environmental Farm Plan and a priority for the farm is soil building, using animal manure, bedding and other compost materials.

“Any good carbonaceous material is welcome and we are excited to host the first community pilot project administered by the Salt Spring Island Agricultural Alliance,” say the Robinsons.

North-enders may drop off their clean branches and woody trimmings on the same day at the site of the new community gardens behind the pool at 262 Rainbow Rd. As a one-time gift, the material collected will be chipped and donated to the community gardens, to be used for path mulch and compost.

If the first Bring Your Branches day is successful, the Agricultural Alliance intends to sponsor Bring Your Branches days at different locations around the island on a regular basis. Bring Your Branches is part of a larger effort by the Agricultural Alliance, supported by funding from VanCity Credit Union, to increase the amount of compost available to island growers.

The alliance will keep track of the amount of material donated to Bring Your Branches to assess if a permanent composting site is viable. Enquiries from farmers wishing to host a Bring Your Branches day are welcome.

For more information, contact Agricultural Alliance composting coordinator Elizabeth White at 250-537-2616.