2008 Partner of the Year Award Recipients

This information was provided as part of the 2008 Partner of the Year Award announcement.

ORGANIZATIONAL AWARD: KENNEBEC COUNTY SOIL & WATER CONSERVATION DISTRICT

The Partner of the Year Award is made to the organization that has demonstrated the greatest degree of collaboration among diverse public and private sector stakeholders within any of MRP’s activity areas during the past year.

The Kennebec County Soil & Water Conservation District’s innovative leadership and commitment to collaboration has created a nationally recognized pilot project in farm energy audit and conservation practice adoption, while building widespread energy efficiency capacity among Maine’s farm advisor network as well as Efficiency Maine small business auditors. Critical elements of the award rationale include:

Creation of a nationally recognized innovation program to leverage state and federal energy conservation incentives for high level farm audits delivering on farm energy saving recommendations
Alignment among agency policies and programs to deliver more effective service
Potential for permanent institutional program alignment through recommended program adjustments within NRCS Environmental Quality Improvement Program (EQIP)
Delivered in collaborative partnership with Efficiency Maine and all members of the Farm Energy Partners network
Expansion beyond Kennebec County to share resources to serve farms wanting audits outside of immediate stakeholder area
Demonstrated willingness to build capacity within other county soil & water conservationdistricts.

INDIVIDUAL MERIT AWARDS:

Individual merit awards are bestowed upon standout performers who have delivered “above and beyond” collaborative leadership on behalf of their organization while participating in a partnered effort. This year we feel compelled to officially recognize 7 extremely dedicated individuals from among many who have made the Harvesting Clean Energy program a success:

JOHN BLAIS, Kennebec County Soil & Water Conservation District

Farm Energy Partners Audit Program Development: John hit the ground running to create a new program with energy and enthusiasm, building robust partnerships, doing outreach to dozens of farms, working closely with the Efficiency Maine auditors to accomplish 19 audits, helping farmers interpret their audits for maximum benefit, building helpful decision-making tools and increasing his own qualifications by taking commercial energy audit and solar installer certification classes.

AJ BALLARD, Efficiency Maine

Farm Energy Partners Audit Program Development: AJ was assigned to help develop the project by manager Shirley Bartlett due to his initial understanding of farm applications and dedication to high quality audits. AJ worked with John and our national trainers to develop automated payback calculations and a quality audit report template to facilitate the efficiency and usefulness of Efficiency Maine farm audit reports. AJ delivered a quality on-farm efficiency workshop at Grassland Farm in Skowhegan, presented a water heating efficiency workshop at Maine Farm Days and is always cheerfully ready to help share his knowledge with other auditors, advisors and farmers. Through AJ’s recognition, we also thank and honor the entire Efficiency Maine small business audit program for their willingness to invest in farm expertise and direct limited audit resources to over 30 farm businesses in 2008.

CARAGH FITZGERALD, University of Maine Cooperative Extension

Farm Energy Field Guide Development and Exceptional Team Leadership: Caragh was 8 months pregnant with twins whiles she led the network publications team through a best practice literature review to select and organize the contents of the Farm Energy Field Guide. Following maternity leave, Caragh returned to lead the network Crop Team, focusing on bio-energy production and processing research and development. Demonstrating leadership and commitment within Cooperative Extension, Caragh created a Farm Energy Team so that the most strategic and collaborative use of Extension’s resources can be brought to bear and integratedwith all network activities. Finally, Caragh’s clear thinking, positive outlook and generous willingness to pick up the ball has contributed greatly to the collaborative leadership culture ofthe Harvesting Clean Energy program overall. We were proud to have Caragh present the Farm Energy Partners’ accomplishments at the Northeast Renewable Energy Conference in Pennsylvania this August.

SUSAN GAMMON, Androscoggin Valley Soil & Water Conservation District

Maine Soils Carbon Program: The Maine Soils Carbon Program will offer Maine farms of all size the ability to enter the ecosystem services market for carbon sequestration. The road to enable Maine farmers to participate in the green credit market is a long one, requiring painstaking modeling of historic land use patterns by soil type and tying the relationship of land management practices to atmospheric carbon uptake. In addition to creating the base data from which to measure the relative value of land management improvements, systems to aggregate, market and verify must be established so that Maine’s small scale farms can be rewarded for ecosystem services in a market scaled for large mid-west and western farms. Maine is the first state in the northeast to tackle this challenge, and Sue Gammon of the Androscoggin Valley Soil & Water Conservation District is making it happen through sheer determination and unwavering dedication despite constant funding challenges. Sue’s work entails close working partnerships with the Departments of Agriculture and Environmental Protection as well as the University of Southern Maine and the Maine Association of Conservation Districts. Sue is building capacity for all Maine farmers and conservation districts and she is a true team player for all aspects of the Harvesting Clean Energy program, including team fundraising — a place where many partners draw the line. We are all inspired by Sue’s leadership and commitment to serving Maine farmers by accessing marketplace rewards for best practice environmental stewardship.

SUE JONES, Community Energy Partners

Community Wind Capacity Building: Sue has served as co chair of the Farm Energy Partners network since it was created in June 2006. Sue has worked with several Maine farms and rural businesses to secure USDA Rural Development grant funds for energy efficiency and renewable energy projects. During the last year, Sue served as a technical resource and lead policy advisor to the network and has successfully introduced network members to the great potential of community (locally owned) wind energy. Local ownership has been shown to return from 2 to 20 times more economic return to local and state economies than absentee owned wind turbines. Starting by forging Maine connections at Windustry’s Community Wind conference in Albany, NY last April, Sue successfully enticed five national community wind experts to come to Maine last month for the Presque Isle Wind Conference, with several of them staying to meet with policymakers and deliver a great small wind workshop in Augusta. Thanks to Sue’s leadership, we now have an enthusiastic Community Wind Team of the Farm Energy Partners network and are on a first name basis with national leaders willing to help us get on top of this. We are creating critical mass so that we can move this agenda forward and have been encouraged by Legislative leaders to develop bold legislation to facilitate local ownership of wind turbines.

TANYA SWAIN, Western Mountains Alliance

Farm Energy Partners Team Building: The Harvesting Clean Energy program is built on the ability of partnering organizations to work together connecting farmers with energy resources. Tanya and the Western Mountains Alliance has been a model outreach partner, engaging farmers in audit workshops (there is one in Farmington on Friday) and building the long term relationships that grow capacity for the future. Tanya and Western Mountains Alliance brought Joel Haskard of the Minnesota Clean Energy Resource Teams to Maine last fall for their 20 th Anniversary Celebration, and generously shared Joel and his expertise across the network. The CERTs model is an inspiration of what a modest investment in technical assistance can deliver and we have sought to emulate their work as we implement our program. Tanya and WMA deliver cutting edge technical assistance to farmers in their 4 county region, such as the Internet marketing tool featured at Saturday’s conference in Fairfield. When it comes to our network, Tanya and WMA have always been willing to step up, bring organizational discipline to good intentions, share involvement and credit and help carry the load of whatever project we’re working on. We recognized last spring that we needed to move from our initial focus onefficiency into renewable energy technical assistance — something hands on. Tanya and WMA offered to host a renewable energy trade show on behalf of the network. This plan has melded with a student-led initiative at UMF that will deliver a series of practical, how-to advice for residents and businesses to help them select appropriately scaled renewable technologies. The series will begin on February 12, and we all look forward to attending. Tanya is a model team member and Western Mountains Alliance is a model outreach partner. They bring out the best in all of us.

RON DESROSIERS, Time and Tide Resource Conservation and Development Council

Strategic Initiatives & Relationship Building: Ron is the founder of the Farm Energy Partners network and he continues to keep his eyes on the future — what’s next? Ron is a natural connector and continually sees new opportunities to grow partnerships and build collaborative solutions from among those with shared objectives. He always starts by offering what he can do and typically inspires others to step up and make their own generosity felt. His gentle style is both disarming and hard to resist as he usually starts one if his strategic initiatives with something like “I wonder what might happen if together we could….” Perhaps nothing Ron does is alone or without a purpose, whether it’s building his sons’ entrepreneurial skills at the Unity Farmers Market or finding a good startup project that builds trust among organizations that may have lacked it in the past. Wherever he goes, he makes new friendships and contributes to a better community. We greatly appreciate Ron’s optimistic and inspirational leadership as chair of Farm Energy Partners as well as the organizational contributions he brings from the Time and Tide RC&D Council, the Natural Resources Conservation Service and the new friends he makes every day — enlisting in work for a better shared future.