Black Walnut Nutgrowers' Network

This is an idea whose time, I think, has come. As it is mine, I can suggest vision, objectives, etc., until the prospective membership becomes disenchanted and wants to reformulate them. Why am I pushing this? Because I am convinced that innovative nutgrowing, in my neck of the woods, at least, needs a single-species focus. Each species is not only different in management requirements, but also in technology for use, markets even. Now, I am not suggesting that there are not already BWN networks - for instance, there is one within the NNGA, but I find it constrained by its cultivar focus, and it would (perhaps does) find me an awkward animal. My intention here is to explore ways of widening debate, including what I feel is a viable alternative model, and perhaps through methodology, bringing approaches together, with a wholly satisfactory outcome for all. What would this outcome be? I suggest we would measure it in economic terms.

There will generally be no directed call for members. Instead, membership accrues by a simple email to me, which implies you have read at least this post, and are sufficiently interested in my vision of a sustainable partial rural livelihood to wish to learn more.

Why sustainable? Sustainable because there is little point in even starting unless we appreciate the value of trees as intergenerational assets and their importance to future generations, especially from a perspective of environmental services.

Why partial? Partial because the days of a single job for life have largely gone (if they ever existed for the majority) and we need a portfolio of economic actions upon which to base our earnings. This is only one of them.

Why rural? Rural because nutgrowing upon the scale that I am interested in implies ownership and management of rural property, perhaps land that even now is being actively farmed.

Why livelihood? Livelihood because we want to live from something we enjoy and make it part of our daily economic activity.

From these stem two possible memberships: those who aspire to this concept and own the property to pursue it, and those who are not landowners but are just interested. I’ll call them landowning (L) and non-landowning (NL) members, as this is the biggest defining variable of them all. It doesn’t matter where the land is or what you are currently doing with it. It doesn’t even have to be in North America (black walnut exists considerably farther afield than this).

So, let’s get to objective. The objective is to generate and disseminate the knowledge necessary to achieve the vision, in location-specific terms. I live on the northern fringe of the species current range, and outside its historic range, and my knowledge needs may be different from someone who lives, for example, on the southern fringe. But we need to be actively involved in the generation of knowledge, because no-one else is going to do it for us. If you think they are, you probably shouldn’t think of membership in the BWNN. This doesn’t mean you need to be an immediate contributor, but it would be more interesting for us if you at least saw yourself as an innovator.

Here, then, is the idea. In the next post I’ll put forward my suggestion on how to start. With the trees. And if you wonder how I think about a network, I consider it: a purpose-oriented operational form for delivery of outputs and results (I admit to reading that elsewhere but don’t recall the reference). In these days of interconnectivity, there’s no reason to believe we can’t do most of this on-line.