Climate Land Leaders:
Land Walk With The Bouska Sisters

“Ecological Design advised us to ask certain questions while we walked,” Carol says. “Where is there erosion? How does the water flow through the land? What plant and animal communities live there? What different soil types do you find? What spots seem particularly windy or rocky? Are there tire ruts from heavy equipment?”

THIS JUST IN: check out the beautiful story from the Women, Food and Agriculture Network (WFAN):

Carol Bouska (Minnesota) and Peg Bouska (Iowa), along with their sisters Sally McCoy (Wisconsin) and Ann Novak (Washington State), are third-generation owners of a 450-acre farm in Northeast Iowa. Carol and Peg got the idea for a land walk from Ecological Design, a women-owned firm they have hired to help them transition their conventional row crops to a system that increases plant and animal diversity, keeps the soil covered and maintains roots in the ground year around.

The Climate Land Leaders project helps farmland owners tackle the climate crisis with an extremely valuable resource: the farm and forest land they own. The Bouska Sisters, who are founding Climate Land Leaders, have an ambitious goal to turn their 450 acres of corn and soybeans into a regenerative farm over the next 10 years.

Climate Land Leaders is being hosted by Main Street Project, where the nonprofit is establishing a demonstration, training and research farm. Main Street Project is transforming 100 acres of cropped ground to a system of elderflower, hazelnut, asparagus, garlic, botanicals, chickens, sheep and more.

For more information on Climate Land Leaders, contact Project Director Teresa Opheim: [email protected]. For more on Main Street Project: www.mainstreetproject.org