Over the last several years, Bee Happy Lands has successfully taken on larger open space projects such as: 600 acres of the Electra Lake Sporting Club and 560 acres of the Town of Telluride Valley Floor, Cottonwood Park in Mancos, Tara Mandala in Pagosa Spring, the town of Ophir, a large scale private ranch in Ridgeway, homeowners associations and several of the organic parks in Durango to name a few. Rotary Park was recently added to the list of organic parks in Durango, which is the home of the annual Dandelion Festival held the first Saturday in May to celebrate organic land stewardship.īee Happy Lands continues to teach tolerance and value of the local weeds as well as support businesses’ and homeowners’ lawns, wild lands and gardens to transition into organic management. Today, the community of Durango continues to be committed to managing public parks organically and educating the City staff about best management practices leading to reduction of herbicide and chemical fertilizer use on public parks and open space lands. The City hired a national organic lands consultant, Chip Osborne, to train and help implement the organically managed lands program. In 2012, the City of Durango unanimously passed an Organically Managed Lands Resolution and added 9 parks to the list of organically managed parks: Brookside, Pioneer, Riverview Sports Complex, Folsom, Fanto, Iris, Needham, Riverfront, and Schneider, making up over a third of Durango’s parks. In 2010 another organic parks was added to the program. In 2009,Turtle Lake Refuge collaborated with the City of Durango's Park and Recreation Department by volunteering our efforts in applying compost tea to Brookside Park, setting up bat boxes and leading weed harvesting parties. Turtle Lake Refuge along with dedicated City Council members, staff and volunteers from our community helped establish the movement of Organic Parks in Durango. Thank you so much for caring about our precious earth and all the living creatures who dwell here too!īee Happy Crew working in the Valley Floor of Telluride in 2017 Organic Stewardship Management EducationĪnd follow us at /beehappylands/.Spreading compost top dressing and mulch over disturbed areas.Inoculation of mycelium and beneficial soil microorganisms.Seeding with native grass and wild flowers.We aim to lessen our toxic impacts in our global ecosystems by eliminating the use and need for herbicides and chemical fertilizers. Our goal is to support the native ecosystems by building healthy soil to grow forage for the honey bee population and local pollinators and promote the health of our children, grandchildren and multi-species community.īee Happy Lands can support your desire to manage your land organically! As a community we can make a difference in improving the quality of life within our native ecosystems by supporting organic land stewardship practices. The benefits of organic land stewardship practices are infinite. C ompost tea not only provides food for the plants and grasses, but it also creates a healthy ecosystem and stabilizes the soil, promotes microbial life, aeration, and efficient distribution of minerals and vitamins for the plants and soil microorganisms living underground.
#DURANGO WILD LANDS FARMING FERTILIZER FULL#
When the underground ecosystem is vital and thriving, the wild lands, grasses and garden plants grow to their full beauty and potential. Locally made compost tea is a liquid fertilizer made from finished garden compost, worm castings, molassas, and seaweed and brewed for 12 - 48 hours. Compost tea is packed full of microbes that help the native and desired plants grow. Ultimately we encourage land stability with our practices while increasing the overall health and fertility of the land. We apply soil amendments including a locally made weed remedy (a biodynamic recipe made from weed seed and/or root ash and water) to minimizing the pioneer species from grow prolifically and encourage next succession species diversity to take hold and balance the ecosystem. We remove weeds by manually harvesting them, seeding the area with native grasses and beneficial wild flowers, amending the soil with organic compost tea, mulch and compost top dressing and inoculating the soil with mycelium and beneficial microorganisms. Bee Happy Lands, a project of Turtle Lake Refuge, provides organic integrated land management within Southwestern Colorado. Our focus is on creating stabilized, fertile and healthy soil.