Saturday, June 16, 2018

GROW Pilot Study - A call for action on climate change





 The stylish GROW soil monitoring device


Chairperson of Community Gardens Ireland Joanne Lindsay Butler from OurGanics in Gortahork is moving one step closer to a sustainable future. 

Joanne is spearheading a pilot study on soil quality around Donegal as part of a wider European study and is calling on all growers in Donegal to get involved in GROW.

Community Gardens Ireland have been selected as GROW ‘Community Champions’, and will be joining similar organisations from Portugal, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Austria, Greece, Spain and Scotland to develop GROW Places. 

Joanne tells us “Through my work with community gardens Ireland, I have now been selected to roll Donegal out as a pilot stage to advise land owners/users how to use simple soil sensors and collect soil moisture data to help with environmental monitoring for climate change adaptation. This means we will contribute data to help scientists develop more accurate climatic models and help predict severe weather events such as droughts, flooding and fires. We are hoping to engage with a wide audience and especially in Inishowen with recent flooding! "

Taking Part
All we need to do is welcome Joanne and her soil monitoring device and she will guide us through the simple operating procedure. 

“We will provide growers and interested parties with all the details and support that you will you need to join in” Joanne continues.  “This includes printed materials, on-line supports and sensors. We will also organise fun and engaging face to face events, these will be a great opportunity to learn more about soil and meet likeminded growers from this region. This is a big project from a grass roots level to possible global impact to help mitigate climate change.”

What is GROW?
The GROW Observatory (GROW) is a European-wide project engaging thousands of growers, scientists and others passionate about the land.  Working together using simple tools to better manage soil and grow food, while contributing to vital scientific environmental monitoring.

What is GROW doing?
There are many human and environmental challenges facing us today and two challenges that GROW is focusing on are saving our soils and adapting to climate change by collating information to improve both soil and food growing practices.  The information gathered will contribute to soil moisture data over a large geographical scale and empower us to work on these topics collaboratively. Changes could come from adding to climate science, impact on environmental policies, and make a difference in how we manage the land. 

Online
Thousands of growers are learning together on the GROW website and via the online courses available both locally and across Europe. Growers are trying out exciting new ways to improve their soil and food production methods. With the simple, coordinated soil experiments to capture and make sense of data on our environment, collectively this helps validate good local growing practices and international environmental monitoring.

GROW Vision – Building Better Soil Through Citizen Science

GROW’s vision is to create and support a movement of thousands of citizens across Europe that will produce, exchange and use information related to land and soil.
This can lead to more sustainable land use practices, better soil and land governance and policy, and a unique data repository for science. Through this, people gain a voice on local issues and tailored advice on which new crops to plant, when to water, sow and harvest. In turn, their insight will underpin better-informed decision­-making and policy objectives, while improving soil, land use, climate change adaptation and our overall sustainability.

All we need to do is a simple soil moisture test with the sensor supplied by Joanne.
Joanne is out and about around the county on a daily basis and is bust dropping off the sensors to individuals and groups interested in taking part.

You can read more on the GROW website https://growobservatory.org/

If you would like to get involved and host sensors, contact Joanne on 0861789971 or growdonegal@gmail.com





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