Working For Wildlife Habitat Hero: City Fresh by Sophia Sorboro, Ohio Partner Biologist, Pollinator Partnership

As part of Pollinator Partnership’s Working for Wildlife series, we have interviewed and are sharing the experiences of agricultural producers who have successfully undertaken projects that benefit pollinators and other wildlife with the help of technical and/or financial support through conservation provisions of the USDA’s Farm Bill. We hope their stories encourage and empower readers (including you!) and help foster a better understanding of the programs available to help support thriving food and ecosystems that we all rely upon!

In this installment, it is our privilege to feature Habitat Heroes Anna Kiss Mauser – Martinez and Emma Miner of City Fresh. We invite you to join us in learning about City Fresh’s habitat journey in the interview below. You can also watch the accompanying video featuring the story of these inspiring Habitat Heroes below:

Q: Introduce yourselves and tell us about your farm. How long have you been farming and why did you want to get involved with local food?

Anna Kiss: My name is Anna Kiss Mauser-Martinez, I'm the Executive Director of City Fresh. We're here at George Jones Farm in Oberlin, Ohio, which has been farmed off and on in some capacity for about 25 years and serves as the headquarters for City Fresh. City Fresh is a non-profit organization, founded in 2001, that advocates for sustainable and regenerative agriculture through learning, training and supporting both existing and new farmers to make a just and vibrant local food system.

Emma: I'm Emma Miner. I am the Farm Programs Coordinator for City Fresh. We're growing a bunch of different stuff right now. A lot of this land is farmed by the folks in our New Farmer Incubator Program, which is sort of like a step up from a community garden, but a step below renting out or purchasing a couple of acres to start your own farm. That's what's going on in the front field, and then I'm growing in a lot of the space that they're not, as well as managing our learning garden.

A lot of the crops that I focus on are specialty crops that are not as common for us to have in our Food Boxes, like herbs. We're doing a lot of basil right now; we have also done lavender and a handful of other things. I got into farming through a kind of circuitous route. I didn't initially study or go to school for environmental science or ecology or anything. I ended up getting a degree in history and peace studies. My parents weren't farmers, but my grandparents were, so it skipped a generation.

After I graduated, I realized pretty quickly that I was not suited to a job in front of a computer. I would rather be at a job where I am able to be outdoors and look up during the day and see the sky. So I started my journey into the green and outdoors industry through an AmeriCorps program where I was a naturalist for about a year and then worked at a number of different farms throughout Northeast Ohio before ending up here. It is great because I'm still able to do some of the STEM education stuff that I had worked on before and the production level farming that I'm really excited about.

Q: Why is this operation important to you and what impact do you feel this organization has had on the community?

Anna Kiss: I started with City Fresh as a low-income shareholder for our Farm Box program in 2007 and then became a volunteer in 2008. I volunteered for six years before becoming the program director of the Farm Box program and became the executive director of the organization in 2021, which is a very odd little trail.

The organization being about accessible food is how I got involved initially. I wanted to join a CSA (community supported agriculture), but they were unattainable for me at the time. City Fresh offered low-income share prices and accepted SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program), so it was accessible, and it is week-to-week. That was really intrinsic to my own life, my own needs. I think I just wanted to feed my kids and also wanted to make ethical choices in the world and support sustainable agriculture in particular. I just kept doing it somehow, and here I am, 17 seasons in!

Q: Since you started farming, what differences have you observed in farming practices?

Emma: Even in the six seasons that I've been farming, I have seen a lot of changes. Access to food has been the number one thing that I've seen change. I've also seen significant changes in the weather patterns and climate since I started working. There's a difference between how I was farming when I first started versus now. A lot of what I focus on with my crops is water retention and soil building with a regenerative agriculture tilt to it. I want to make sure that we're feeding our soil first because that's where all of the good stuff is coming from.

Anna Kiss: We've started saying that every year is a weird year. In all the seasons of working with farmers in the region, not just at George Jones Farm, there’s been seasons that had drought and seasons that had excess rain, late cold snaps and early cold snaps, late heat waves and up and down. We've had seasons that had all of those. It is a big challenge and if you're not accustomed to looking at your plants and really paying attention to things, then you're not going to have resilient crops. It is always a struggle, but soil remediation and soil health is at the forefront of every farmer we work with's mind. The Amish farmers that contribute to the Farm Boxes see their soil health as their personal legacy that they are leaving to their children. So that future generations will be able to feed themselves.

Emma: Another reason that biodiversity in crop production is so important is because there can be crop failure every year and sometimes you can predict it, but sometimes you don't know. Having a diversity of crops provides several sources of income and helps you stay afloat if something goes wrong. Biodiversity is also going to help your soil. Large monocultures are going to take the same things out of the soil in a broad swath, versus a more diverse cropping rotation which allows your soil to recover and relax in different areas.

Emma: Previous to the new farmer incubators coming in, there was a lot of teasel in particular which is an invasive plant that was brought over from Europe, historically for use in the textile industry. By farming and by bringing people into that front field to actively work the soil, not only are we able to physically remove a lot of the invasive plants, we're also able to put in stuff that is going to pressure that out. We're going to be able to utilize cover crops and bring life back to that soil.

Q: What pollinator friendly or other conservation practices have you implemented on your land?

Emma: We are not formally a USDA certified organic farm, but we use organic and regenerative practices, as well as traditional agricultural practices like permaculture and no-till or low-till. For us right now, it's mostly low-till because compaction is something that we deal with. We’re working toward a no-till system, but for now, tillage is one of the tools that we have and try to use smartly and sparingly where needed.

We're not using chemicals. We know that anything that we're putting into our soil will go directly into our wetlands. Our wetlands are one of the things that are super important to us to preserve and maintain not only as like wildlife habitat, but for us to use as an educational area, to go hiking or fishing, and for keeping a bunch of birds and stuff around that are going to hopefully eat the mice that are going to try and eat our crops. We want to make sure that we have a really active native ecosystem surrounding us because that's going to improve our agricultural ecosystem.

We also do a lot of native plantings. One of the folks in our new farmer incubator, Danielle Squire, runs Archers of Acadia, which is a native plant nursery that grows exclusively Ohio genetic native plants.

Anna Kiss: Our wetlands here are protected. This farm was actually founded to protect the wetlands in 1997. Community members and students at Oberlin College originally got together to keep this land from being sold or developed, so we have a commitment to biodiversity and to habitat construction in general for all kinds of wildlife. We've done a lot of bioblitzes over the years to try and identify all that wildlife. We have fish and birds and coyotes and all kinds of things. We have always focused on perennial natives. They grow along our fence lines, in our learning garden, and all over, and we're constantly adding to those. We have some permaculture sections of the farm, there's also a food forest that was installed. We've done a lot of different experimentation over the years, and that has been a continued goal of ours, to encourage looking at agriculture through a holistic lens.

Q: Have you noticed a positive impact to pollinators and other wildlife?

Anna Kiss: The bird diversity here is really remarkable, I think, in particular, but we definitely have a lot of pollinators.

Emma: There's a ton of monarchs. We did a monarch butterfly release party a little while ago. We raised caterpillars here, released them, and then went on a bug hunt through our wetlands. We've got a ton of different milkweed stands throughout the property! We've got milkweed growing in our gardens as well as just wild out in our wetlands, that's been pretty amazing to see.

We do have honeybees. We have two hives on site. They're great pollinators, I'm a huge fan of them. It's been really important to us to do a lot of native plantings to support our native bees and take care of our livestock bees. We want to make sure we have enough pollen and nectar available for everyone.

Anna Kiss: We do not have a shortage of bugs!

Emma: No, there's so many bugs! We've got tons of dragonflies and spiders too.

Anna Kiss: I think the bird diversity is cool because the entire property attracts a lot of migratory birds and there's a lot for them to eat here. We try to increase the food sources for everything.

Q: Describe how your farm benefitted from USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD), and/or other programs and how did you first learn about this support? If applicable, which type of NRCS Programs did you choose to work with?

Anna Kiss: We have worked with the USDA and our local FSA office in the past. Part of the property that we're on is under the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP). We gave over management of this area to Oberlin College just a couple years ago, but it's part of the property that we sit on and part of what was traditionally the entire preserve. We're both a nature preserve and a farm. So there's woods, there's wetlands, there's CRP land, and of course, farmland. We've also worked with the EPA and other folks and are continuing to investigate a variety of programs that can help us better steward the land.

Q: From your experience, what would you say other landowners can expect when working with NRCS, SWCDs, or other programs?

Anna Kiss: When we worked with the USDA I was newly the executive director, and handing over management between leadership is always kind of complicated but they were nice at the FSA. I was super relieved to find out that they do work with farmers all the time and that there's a lot of local offices. They offer a lot of technical assistance. We are interested in potential EQIP (Environmental Quality Incentives Program) cost-share programs and other avenues to support our work. We're interested in doing some irrigation stuff that might be a good fit for some of the work that they do and the projects that they have available. We're definitely continuing to explore that and we have received dollars from federal organizations and from the USDA in the past which have really helped our operation.

Q: What is something you wish you knew before going through this process, especially in terms of habitat establishment and long-term management?

Emma: I think that one of the things that's been really incredible about farming recently is that we're starting to see a lot of turnover in terms of who is actually managing land and who is farming, which is very cool and I think there's also a lot of interest in utilizing practices that are better for our earth and our soil. That’s why our New Farmer Incubator Program is so important. In addition to running our own operation, we’re able to help the next generation of farmers get started and learn what works for them.

The biggest piece of advice I would have for new farmers is to really consider where you are getting your information from and seeking mentorship from folks who have been doing this for years. There's a lot of stuff on the internet and a lot of it is very helpful. There are also a lot of folks who are documenting their journey, which is also great, but isn't necessarily a guidepost. The land that you have might need different interventions, might need different strategies to manage it to build your soil than, you know, your neighbor or somebody a mile down the road.

I also think that there's a lot that can be learned from conventional farming. However, I think we’ve also come to rely too heavily on some of the tools that are used in conventional farming, and we're starting to see the negative effects of synthetic fertilizers and tilling things like that. That doesn't mean that tilling is bad and should never be done across the board. Like I said, it can solve compaction issues. I think that fertilizers can improve the quality of the soil, things like insecticides or pesticides if they're used for invasive mitigation or really thoughtfully and sparingly. They're all different tools that you can have and it takes time to transition and transition periods are important. It takes time to balance out and it takes time to build all of that soil back up and it's not all going to be done in a season or two seasons. So, I think it's being really conscious of the full scope of tools and then being thoughtful about when they're being used. The folks who have the best information about that are folks who have been farming for longer than me.

Anna Kiss: I think there's a lot of wishful thinking when people go into farming. I know that's how I approach my yard and that is a surefire way to just spend money and throw good money after bad. So go slow… That's probably the best idea. Farming regeneratively and rebuilding habitat is not aspirational. You could spend a lot of money and your yard could look like Martha Stewart's, right? But that's a very expensive proposition. If you want to have serious impact on habitat, you have to go slow. Non-mechanical and non–chemical methods for habitat maintenance, that's labor. That's time and energy. So, you've got to breathe through it. Get your hands dirty. Celebrate.

Q: What is your favorite pollinator or wildlife species?

Emma: I love the sweat bees. They're itty bitty and there's a bunch of different kinds of them. Some of my favorites are the ones that are green and blue and they look like tiny little jewels. They're gorgeous! You don't necessarily see them at first, but if you're looking at a flower there's oftentimes these tiny little emerald and sapphire bees. They like me a lot because they'll come and hang out and they'll drink my sweat. I find it very charming. I also like any bumble bee because you can pet them.

Anna Kiss: I just recently raised an eastern swallowtail that was on some fennel in the farm shares. That was really fun! My very favorite, most beloved moth is also considered the worst caterpillar in the whole world to some people, and that is the tomato hornworm - a type of hawkmoth. They are like the most evil caterpillar and the most gorgeous, amazing, freakish moth you've ever seen in your life.

Thank you for joining us in reading this installment of Pollinator Partnership’s Working for Wildlife blog and special thanks to Anna Kiss Mauser and Emma Miner of City Fresh for sharing their Habitat Hero story! Watch the Habitat Hero video featuring City Fresh.

This video series is made possible through funding and support from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and the USDA’s National Resources Conservation Service. The USDA is an equal opportunity provider, employer, and lender.

To ensure you never miss a new video, subscribe to the Working for Wildlife series here: https://tinyurl.com/mpjszd7k

To learn more about financial and technical assistance available to famers and landowners visit: pollinator.org/nrcs-regional-partner-biologists or https://www.farmers.gov/

Thank you again to City Fresh for sharing their Habitat Hero story! To read the full interview check out our blog post at https://pollinator.org/blog/ci...

To find out more about City Fresh and their operations check out the links below

Website: https://cityfresh.org/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cityf...

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/city...

To learn more about financial and technical assistance available to famers and landowners visit: pollinator.org/nrcs-regional-partner-biologists or farmers.gov  

This video series was created by Pollinator Partnership (P2). To learn more about P2’s mission and how you can help conserve pollinators, please visit the links below: