Washington State Department of Agriculture (WSDA) is hosting informative webinars over the coming months on regulatory changes occurring within the Pesticide Management Division. These webinars are open to all our stakeholders and the public. These changes will have far-reaching impacts and your input is valuable to us.

Pesticide License Fee Increases (SB5317)

September 9 – 10:00 am-11:00 am
September 9 – 5:30 pm-6:30 pm (repeat)

Rulemaking Updates – Testing Fee/Penalty Matrix

The WSDA Licensing & Recertification and Compliance Programs will cohost these two webinars.

September 16 – 10:00 am-12:30 pm

• 10:00 am – 10:30 am – Testing Fee (Licensing)
• 10:45 am – 12:15 pm – Penalty Matrix (Compliance)

September 23 – 2:30pm-5:00pm (repeat)

• 2:30 pm – 3:00 pm – Testing Fee (Licensing)
• 3:15 pm – 4:45 pm – Penalty Matrix (Compliance)

C&T (Part 1: Competency Standards and Categories)
October 21 – 10:00 am-11:30 am
October 21 – 5:30 pm-7:00 pm (repeat)

C&T (Part 2: Direct supervision of noncertified applicators, miscellaneous updates)
November 4 – 10:00 am-11:30 am
November 4 – 5:30 pm-7:00 pm (repeat)

For more background on each of these webinars and links to the events, please see our Pesticide Licensing Webinars page.

Contact Christina Zimmerman, program manager, at CZimmerman@agr.wa.gov, with questions or comments.

Being offered online, statewide, and with Spanish interpretation
Course runs from September 21st through December 7th, 2021.
Cultivating Success™: Whole Farm Planning will walk you through a step-by-step process, to help you prepare a well thought out plan for your land, life, and farm business. Learn how to use a whole system lens to create a living plan for your small farm future. Classes will meet weekly through Zoom, in an online classroom environment and you will be able to connect with a statewide community of other aspiring farm planners. Leave with tools for decision making and a road map to plan for your farming endeavors. Includes many opportunities for networking and community building in smaller breakout groups too! Come build a solid plan for a farm or food business that suites you.

Register Now!

Ofrecido a nivel estatal, en línea y bilingüe en español
El curso comienza el 21 de septiembre y termina el 7 de diciembre de 2021. Cultivating Success ™: Planificación de toda la granja le guiará a través de un proceso paso a paso, para preparar un plan bien pensado para su tierra, su vida y su negocio agrícola. Utilice una lente de sistemas completos para crear un plan de vida para el futuro de su pequeña granja. Las clases se reunirán semanalmente a través de Zoom, en un ambiente de aula en línea. Usted podrá conectarse con una comunidad estatal de otros agricultores principiantes. Salga con herramientas para la toma de decisiones y una hoja de ruta para planificar sus esfuerzos agrícolas. ¡También incluye muchas oportunidades para la construcción de redes y comunidades en grupos pequeños! Venga a construir un plan sólido para una granja o negocio agrícola que se adapte a sus necesidades.

¡Regístrate ahora!

Gardeners can donate produce NOW at the Bremerton Farmers Market (Thursday 4-7), Port Orchard Farmers Market (Saturdays 9-2) and Poulsbo (Big Valley Road – Mondays before 5:00 PM). And we now have two Neighborhood Captains hosting donation stations in Bremerton on Sundays! Check out the map on the Kitsap Harvest website to find these and other donation stations opening soon near you.

– August 6, 2021

The Kitsap Juvenile Department Howe Farm Garden Project is a court ordered restorative program providing year-round services to youth under court supervision who live in Kitsap County. This program is designed to offer a variety of different learning possibilities to youth. The Howe Farm youth garden project brings youth under court supervision into the garden. At the garden, youth learn how to cultivate, plant, grow, and harvest. They work with and receive instruction from different volunteer master gardeners. The volunteers are very much like gardening mentors – educating and teaching youth on gardening practices, sharing their experiences, perspectives and telling stories. Youth not only learn about gardening, but they also learn about work ethic, teamwork, pride, and accomplishment. The goal at the end of the season is to have the youth share with their families both the pride in what they have learned and the success of what they have grown. All extra vegetables are donated throughout our community by South Kitsap Helpline and Kitsap Harvest.

For more information, contact Paisley Gallagher.

– July 30, 2021

Washington State University now offers a terrific resource for mapping air quality in the Pacific Northwest. The goal of the AIRPACT (Air Indicator Report for Public Awareness and Community Tracking) project is to provide timely air quality (AQ) information to people throughout the region. Check it out!

– July 28, 2021

More photos from our United Way Day of Caring last month!

Kitsap Harvest’s Day of Caring brought together seasoned volunteers and new participants, eager to create a functioning place for the storage and distribution of gleaned produce. Floors were cleaned, tools were washed, and blackberry brambles were fought back to a more manageable growth. Despite the extreme temperatures of the day, there were smiles on our faces, a sense of purpose, and accomplished satisfaction. There’s more to do to further make the warehouse the home base for Kitsap Harvest, but it was the most collaborative foundational effort that makes future work so much easier to pursue! Thanks so much to our volunteers, the organizer of Volunteer Kitsap’s ‘Day of Caring’- Tamra Inglewaldson, and to the United Way for providing us water and lunches!

– July 21, 2021

FREE!

Join WSU Master Gardeners and Kitsap County 4-H on Wednesdays at Blueberry Park Children’s Garden for hands-on activities and learning opportunities!

Blueberry Park
737 NE Sylvan Way, Bremerton

4-H Food & Fun
Wednesdays, 10:30 am to 12:00 pm

July 14, 2021 through July 28, 2021

• Learn to read labels and recipes
• Hands-on activities and take-home recipe kits

Master Gardeners
Wednesdays, 10:30 am to 12:00 pm

July 14, 2021 through August 11, 2021

• In-garden and take-home activity kits
• Master Gardeners on hand to answer questions

LIMITED IN-PERSON ACTIVITIES – DUE TO COVID RESTRICTIONS

Fruit and vegetable incentives for SNAP shoppers are expanding to more grocery stores and farmers markets this summer. Families can use their Pandemic EBT cards for these programs as well!

More information

– June 30, 2021