PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
City of Springfield to Receive Organic Leadership Award at NOFA Annual Gathering of Organic Land
Care Professionals
Where Accredited and Aspiring Organic Land Care Professionals Gather to Learn from Industry Leaders
Derby, CT, November 19, 2015 – Northeast Organic Farming Association of Connecticut (CT NOFA) is
pleased to announce the 10th Annual Gathering of Organic Land Care Professionals on December 14,
2015 in Sturbridge, Massachusetts. Accredited Organic Land Care Professionals (AOLCPs) from across
New England gather each year, along with non-members and the public, to learn the latest organic
practices from top industry professionals, to honor leaders who are expanding organics in their
communities, and to earn continuing education credits.
"The Annual Gathering is a fantastic opportunity for AOLCPs and landscaping professionals to learn fresh
ideas and innovative ways to move their businesses towards even more environmentally-friendly and
sustainable land care practices” said Jenna Messier, NOFA’s Organic Land Care Program Director.
“Ongoing training and development is essential to the continued success of land care professionals and
we’re pleased to offer continuing education credits from various institutions to our attendees.”
This year’s theme, Innovations in Organic Land Care, brings a host of prominent guest speakers to the
stage including Todd Harrington, owner of Harrington's Organic Land Care in Bloomfield, CT.
Harrington, one of the original authors of the NOFA Standards for Organic Land Care: Practices for the
Design and Maintenance of Ecological Landscapes will co-present important updates to this document
with Chip Osborne, Founder and President of Osborne Organics in Marblehead, Massachusetts.
Osborne is a regular NOFA lecturer with over twenty years’ experience in creating safe, sustainable and
healthy athletic fields and landscapes through natural turf management.
Osborne will also present the City of Springfield, Massachusetts with an Organic Leadership Award
from NOFA OLC in recognition of their work transitioning twenty-two acres of public land to organic
management, including parks, athletic fields and traffic medians. “Springfield is one of a few national
cities that has taken action to change their protocols and practices surrounding land management in
order to reduce exposures to toxic materials for the citizens of Springfield, as well as to protect their
natural resources" said Osborne. “Springfield was awarded a UMASS Lowell Toxics Use Reduction
Institute (TURI) grant which has funded horticultural consulting, staff training and soil amendments; the
City has shifted its own budget expenditures to purchase the equipment and products needed to build
healthy soil and reinvigorate their turf without chemicals.” Osborne is the lead project consultant to the
city and will detail the transition process and specific practices being employed to move to organic land
care management.
James Urban, a Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects (FASLA), will deliver a keynote
address on the topic of managing large landscape installations for sustainability. Urban specializes in
urban forestry, soils analysis and design, trees and horticultural design and site-specific landscape
architectural projects and has completed commercial projects for institutional clients including the
Smithsonian Institution, the National Park Service, and the National Gallery of Art. His most recent book,
Up by Roots, Healthy Trees and Soils in the Built Environment, was published by the International Society
of Arboriculture.
Dr. Jamie Banks, Founder and Executive Director of Quiet Communities, a Lincoln, Massachusetts
based non-profit organization dedicated to protecting our health, environment, and quality of life from
the excessive use of industrial outdoor maintenance equipment, will present about landscaping
practices to increase environmental health.
Organic Mechanics Soil Company founder Mark Highland will discussing running his "triple bottom
line", socially-conscious business which manufactures and distributes peat-free, premier organic potting
soils and soil amendments for professionals and consumers.
NOFA’s 10th Annual Gathering of Organic Land Care Professionals also provides guests with invaluable
networking opportunities and access to twenty vendors supplying premium products and services to the
industry. Landscaping professionals, gardeners, landscape architects and designers are invited to
register to attend online at organiclandcare.net for the December 15 event.
About NOFA Organic Land Care
NOFA Organic Land Care (OLC) provides education and professional accreditation programs to landscape
and garden professionals, maintains and updates OLC standards, educates the public about OLC, and
advocates for OLC locally and nationally. The Organic Land Care Committee first developed NOFA
Standards for Organic Land Care, Practices for Design and Maintenance of Ecological Landscapes in 2001
to present a vision of how organic agricultural principles can be applied to the landscaping profession.
The cornerstone of our educational program is our 4-day Accreditation Course, a 30-hour,
comprehensive course based on our written standards. Those who pass the accreditation exam become
Accredited Organic Land Care Professionals (AOLCPs) and pledge to practice according to the NOFA
Standards for Organic Land Care for those clients who ask for organic landscaping. This course is now
offered in CT and has trained over 1,800 professionals since its inception in 2002. organiclandcare.net.
About CT NOFA
The Northeast Organic Farming Association of Connecticut, Inc. (CT NOFA) is the first and leading
grassroots association advocating for organic food, farming, gardening and land care in Connecticut. We
connect people in the local-sustainable food and land care movements with organic resources and
cutting-edge educational opportunities. Our organization’s emphasis is on training organic farmers,
gardeners and land care professionals on the latest sustainable practices; promoting organic products
and practices to consumers; and bringing attention to critical state and federal policy issues affecting
our international food system and global environment. CT NOFA is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization
founded in 1982 and one of the seven State Chapters of the Northeast Organic Farming Association.
ctnofa.org.
Media Inquiries:
Contact:
Jenna Messier
Program Director
NOFA’s Organic Land Care
126 Derby Avenue, Derby, CT 06418
jenna@organiclandcare.net
203-308-2584
organiclandcare.net
ctnofa.org
or
Analiese Paik
Communications
Analiese@snet.net
203-520-3451
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