1. Sustaining Sustainability: a management plan for ACRES Student Farm
Prepared and Presented by
Sarah Legg

2. What is ACRES? UW’s student-run farm Established in 2006
Vegetables and fruits
RSO Structure
Uses organic methods and practices
Located on 30th and Harney
Before I talk about my project, I want to give some background on ACRES
1.8 acres
Not certified organic

3. ACRES Mission Statement
“To provide Laramie and the University of Wyoming with fresh and sustainably grown produce while offering hands-on learning and awareness of local, sustainable agriculture.”

4. What does ACRES do? Farmers markets CSA Donations Direct Sales Compost
Volunteers
Education
2 laramie farmers markets
Briefly explain CSA
Donate to sharing the bounty and Laramie soup kitchen.
Washakie lettuce
Community wide composting program
Volunteers can take home leftover produce
Classes, tours, workdays. Laramie and UW communities

5. A.C.R.E.S G R I C U L T A O M U N I T Y E S O U R C V E R Y D A U S TB L Y
I neglected to mention this earlier, but ACRES is actually an acronym. [agricultural community resources for everyday sustainability]. And I emphasized sustainability here because that is what I am focusing on for this project. I was going to put it in red to grab your attention, but green seemed to be more fitting.

6. Sustainability
Previous ACRES handbook identified four types of sustainability that are central to ACRES:
Temporal
Generations of students
Economic
Must be able to turn a profit!
Social
Equal distribution of resources
Environmental
Maintaining resources
Alyssa Wechsler’s original 2007 handbook
Social = maximizing the number of people who have access to ACRES products and services. This is perhaps the easiest form of sustainability for ACRES (donations, reasonable prices, not just UW community)
Environmental = measure to ensure that future generations have access to the same resources  using/developing them in a way that allows them to continue to be there
Temporal and economic sustainability are the biggest challenges for ACRES

7. a Solution Handbook and management plan for on-farm use
Builds off of Alyssa Wechsler’s original 2007 handbook
Based on my four years of ACRES experience (volunteer, secretary, asst manager, VP)
Based on research of other student farms as well as specific documents regarding farm practices (high altitude growing, composting, etc)

8. Sections Introduction Sustainability History
Overview of ACRES Operations
Duties and Responsibilities
Record Keeping
Crop growing instructions
Calendars
Compost protocol
Harvest protocol
Safety
Weed and Pest Management
Things that don’t work
Student Research
Funding
Vision
Useful Contacts
References
Acknowledgements
The idea behind this handbook is to establish continuity between years. Ideally, if ACRES were to be left in the hands of people that had no prior knowledge of ACRES or farming, this handbook would be able to serve as a stand-alone document to teach these people everything that they would need to know to run the farm
This handbook is about 50 pages long, so I really tried to make it fun and easy to read. It is going to be finalized and printed before the end of the semester and will be required reading for all summer employees.
Example of a page in the “calendars” section

9. Conclusion: this handbook is like the soil
Conclusion: this handbook is like the soil. It will provide a foundation and support for ACRES to grow, blossom, and extend its roots.
Questions?