Meet the presenters

Presenter works as a climate and agriculture specialist with American Farmland Trust in New England, helping farmers with soil health and climate adaptation. A former organic vegetable grower, she keeps everyday farm realities front and center. She was a 2021 Climate Adaptation Fellow and holds an MS in plant and soil science from UMass Amherst.

Also presenting: the Hensley’s team

Guest farmer has grown vegetables in Massachusetts for two decades. After an internship at the Land Institute and a master's in plant and soil sciences from the University of Maine, he started a farm at the New England Small Farm Institute and later moved it to a 40-acre community farm in North Amherst, run with a farm partner. They have received several USDA SARE grants for on-farm research and manage the farm as an ecological system.

Guest panelist

Guest panelist is a research faculty member who coordinates farming and climate change programming at the University of Vermont Extension Center for Sustainable Agriculture. His applied research and outreach address soil, water and nutrients across Vermont, and he helps farmers find practical ways to manage those resources, from single farmsteads up to whole watersheds.

This page gathers the learning materials for our Climate Adaptation for Vegetable & Flower Farmers webinar. The live event is over; if you missed it or want to review it, the related resources are below.

In partnership with

OVERVIEW: Shifting temperature and rainfall patterns put more farms at risk of losing crops, soil and infrastructure. Some farms now see drought and flooding in a single season. How can you get ready for both? We teamed up with American Farmland Trust to explain adaptation planning and how to begin.

An adaptation plan helps a farm identify where it is vulnerable and put practices in place that make the farm and its surrounding ecosystem more resilient. This session is meant for vegetable and flower growers of every size who want to think through what a changing climate could mean for their land and start planning. Farmers also describe adaptations they have tried themselves.

The talk is followed by audience Q&A.