Agroforestry can take many forms—from establishing riparian buffers to protect our streams, to growing the urban canopy to cool our cities; from food forests, to silvopasture, to alley cropping. Ultimately it means planting more trees on farms.
Trees help draw down more carbon, reduce runoff, lower surface temperatures, and improve the health of our soils, waters, and air. Agroforestry also helps farms protect their fields from increasingly extreme weather. Increasing biodiversity on the farm can generate financial, environmental, and social co-benefits that help farmers get the most out of each acre.
We're currently working with 12 crop and livestock farms in Western Pennsylvania to provide technical assistance for designing alley cropping and silvopasture plans.
Alley cropping is the practice of growing annual crops between rows of trees. We’re working to develop agroforestry demonstration sites on working farms to show farmers a variety of approaches for integrating trees into crop systems.
Learn about Pennsylvania farms experimenting with the agroforestry practice of alley cropping.
