About Amy Stratton
 Amy Stratton is the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy's Rural Communities Organizer. She works to find viable solutions to economic and environmental challenges rural communities face. "In the Field" is Amy's blog from her travels throughout the Midwest.
For more, visit IATP Rural Communities.
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| April 2007 »
It is with great gusto and zest that Beverly Dougherty enters a room. She is full of energy and excitement; perfect qualities for the leader of the Willmar Design Center. I met Beverly one morning at earlier this month at the Design Center office in downtown Willmar.
We were meeting so I could learn more about the Willmar Design Center and the process the community went through to develop such an asset. Beverly explained that the Minnesota Design Team came to the community two times, the first time in early 2005. This remarkable team of design experts from around the state work to translate the values of Minnesota communities into practical sustainable design ideas the community can implement. The Minnesota Design Team met with local people, and even stayed at their homes to get a better understanding of the community's vision for the future. They left the community many concepts and drawings of what they could do to fulfill their vision. The Web site Willmar - Planning for the Future has more information about the process.
From this opportunity, Beverly and several other local volunteers formed the Willmar Design Center to carry out the concepts. These include restoring a major east-west throughfare in downtown that was left abandon when a highway bypass was created years before; establishing a downtown commons place for green space, play and events; urbanizing a street for private redevelopment that includes walkability, parking and development; and connecting people to the lakes by trails, walking bridges over railroad tracks and shelters along the trails. Additionally, they are creating a "model downtown street" where their office is located by adding live flowers, bike racks and benches. The Willmar Design Center has also worked on development of a downtown Thursday Farmers Market that successfully brings community members together for food and community connections. Through these projects, and the many other ways Beverly and the Willmar Design Center volunteers get involved, they are achieving the community's vision and creating an even greater Willmar!
Here are some photos of the renewable energy projects at Prairie Woods Environmental Learning Center in Spicer. They have a goal of 100% Renewable Energy as you can read about in my previous post "Goal:100% Renewable Energy."
 The entry sign.
PWELC solar panel - portable too!
 Corn hopper for boiler at PWELC.
- Barren County, Kentucky
- Warren County, Pennsylvania
- Randolph County, Illinois
- Gillespie County, Texas
- Union County, South Dakota
- St. Lawrence County, New York
- Sac County, Iowa
- Garfield County, Okalahoma
- Amador County, California
- Polk County, North Carolina
Progressive Farmer used statistics and then attributes beyond statistics to rate the best rural counties to live, listed above in top ten order. If you don't agree with their findings, you can go to their Web site and create your own top ten best places to live based on your criteria and their data sets. While this is fun to look at, and probably much more fun if your community is high on the list providing bragging rights, we all have great communities. Each rural community has unique attributes and exciting, innovative people that make it a great place to live!
"Goal: 100% Renewable Energy use at Prairie Woods by 2010," is what the PWELC newsletter states. And I believe it! Earlier last week, I met Dave Pederson, Executive Director at Prairie Woods Environmental Learning Center, in Spicer, Minnesota. On this cold and snowy (yes, still snowing here) day I pulled into the long driveway at PWELC, and stopped within a few feet. The view of the wind turbine was spectacular! I jumped out of my car and snapped a photo. I will have to take new photos and post on a later day due to an unfortunate incident when transferring them to my computer. Anyway, on with the energy story. This 20-kw Jacobs Wind Turbine was installed last year in hopes that it will provide for about 60% of PWELC electric needs.
Further up the driveway, a solar panel sits on a trailer in the yard, waiting for sunshine to spark it up. This portable panel gets connected to the learning urts for lights and fans. Closer to the buildings, I pass a 400 bushel corn hopper that PWELC uses to fire a large corn boiler that heats two on-site buildings. This burner uses about 4-7 bushels of corn each day. The cost was about $9,000 and they anticipate it will pay for itself in 3 years; already they have seen savings from using corn over propane this winter. Dave said it's been a learning experience to increase efficiency, but that's what PWELC hopes to do; learn and share their experiences with others interested in using renewable energy for their personal or commercial use.
And this is just the beginning of their renewable energy story. PWELC utilizes composting toilets, airsource heating and cooling, corn stoves when necessary, and recently purchased a Fuelmeister Biodiesel Processor to make their own transportation fuel.
Camelina sativa, commonly known as false flax, gold-of-pleasure or German Sesame, is a weed according to some. This mustard seed family member was once an important oilseed crop throughout the world until the middle ages. It persisted as a weed within flax stands.
 Could this be the next oilseed crop for the Midwest? Well, it might be one of many options, and can be used in cosmetics, edible oil, biodiesel, lubricants, animal feed and other oil markets. Siberian Tiger Naturals and Sterling Bio-Technologies already market camelina products.
Great Northern Growers, a Montana producers cooperative, planted over 6,000 acres of camelina in 2006 and have plans to grow more. Other companies and research organizations have investigated camelina. Montana State University Northwestern Agricultural Experiment Station, Blue Sun Biodiesel researchers, and others including at the University of Minnesota, found that camelina has many sustainable production capabilities. For example, camelina:
- requires low inputs of fertilizer, herbicide, pesticides and energy,
- requires little seedbed preparation or tillage,
- can be planted into cover crops,
- may be broadcast on frozen ground in the winter, or planted in the spring,
- tolerant to drought and
- tolerant to cold temperatures.
Camelina, like other emerging crops, may not provide all our energy needs, but it may be one of many opportunities to move toward sustainable production.
For more information: Camelina Profile
Rural people trust others more than those who live in cities according to a recently released Pew Research Center report. While the report, and the Pew Research Center, does not focus specifically on rural issues, they do have some interesting research on their website. Check it out at Pew Research Center.
The rural community of Madelia, Minnesota touts itself as the “Pride of the Prairie.” And they really have something to be proud of - it's called the Madelia Model. Rural Advantage recently completed Madelia Bio-Based Eco-Industrial Assessment, an assessment of the available biomass for energy and other bioindustrial operations within a 25-mile radius of Madelia. Linda Meschke, Executive Director of Rural Advantage, brought this concept to the community of Madelia some time ago. The City of Madelia, Chamber of Commerce and local utility have been working with Ms. Meschke to create this competitive advantage for the community, called “The Madelia Model.”
The concept includes a renewable energy plant constructed at Madelia that utilizes mixed biomass from surrounding farms. Farmers have an opportunity to grow perennials, or crops other than corn and soybeans, for profit. Additional bioindustrial plants would be brought to the community, and a system utilizing waste streams from various business sectors would be developed in Madelia and the surrounding community. This model creates local, sustainable opportunities for farmers, industry and citizens of Madelia.
With the assessment now complete, local partners are seeking input from citizens, businesses, public service sectors and farmers on their vision and guiding principles for creating this competitive advantage for the project. You might not know Madelia now, but keep an eye out for this community; they are taking the reins and plowing forward!
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