The Nature Conservancy’s Mashomack Preserve and Sylvester Manor Educational Farm announced Thursday they’re going to be partners in compost. The two nonprofits are working together to establish a closed-loop system of carbon cycling right here on Shelter Island.
“This partnership will optimize the use of the Preserve’s supply of carbon-rich materials (leaves and wood chips) by turning them into compost at Sylvester Manor,” they said in a joint news release.
Sylvester Manor currently cultivates 3 acres of vegetables and plans to expand crop production by another 3 acres in 2021. Director of Farm Operations Cristina Cosentino wants to transition the farm towards regenerative vegetable production and reduced tillage.
“These practices are hugely beneficial to building soil health, sequestering carbon, and reducing reliance on fossil fuels, but require large volumes of organic matter in the form of compost,” the joint news release said.
To meet the farm’s soil fertility needs, Sylvester Manor is implementing a significant expansion of its composting program.
It began with an internship
The first step in this initiative was a Soil Fertility and Compost Program Planning internship funded by the Ida and Robert Gordon Family Foundation. This year, Farm Apprentice Delaney Sondag filled the role. Sondag arrived at Sylvester Manor with experience managing food waste at Baldor Foods, a Long Island City-based distributor of fresh produce and specialty food products.
“Securing a continuous supply of chemical-free carbon-rich material is critical to producing compost and has proven to be a challenge on the Island,” Sondag said.
Turns out, the fallen leaves and brush in Mashomack’s 2,039 acres of natural lands are a perfect source of carbon feedstock for composting, said Alex Novarro, Conservation and Outreach Manager at Mashomack Preserve.
“We’re excited that composting these materials will help Sylvester Manor enrich its soil, making it more fertile and better able to absorb carbon pollution from the atmosphere,” Novarro said. “In that way, the program is a win for everyone. And it’s a win for us, too, because removing fallen branches and leaves from our Manor House complex reduces the risk of preserve visitors coming into contact with ticks, and by extension, helps to protect public health on Shelter Island.”
New use for food waste, too
Food waste from Mashomack will also be composted at Sylvester Manor. And, the Manor says Sylvester it will begin composting food scraps from staff, board members, and CSA members in 2021.
The long-term goal is to expand this program to Shelter Island residents in an effort to redirect food waste to the farm’s compost.
This collaborative effort furthers the organizations’ collective mission to combat climate change, improve land management practices, and turn green and brown waste into a resource.
Together, Mashomack Preserve and Sylvester Manor hope to move Shelter Island in the direction of establishing a scalable compost system that recycles and returns nutrients back to the soil, their joint statement said.
