The whole farm ecosystem concept encourages stewardship of your farming community, shifting your focus to the natural environment and surroundings beyond the borders of your vineyard. Managing your vineyard as an agroecosystem requires you to take a “whole systems” approach to farming and to consider the effects of your actions on soil, water, air, plants and animals as well as your consumption of fossil fuels and other energy resources. A whole systems approach utilizes indirect and direct pest management techniques to optimize natural processes and to work with nature instead of trying to control it through pesticide applications. Indirect practices like matching variety, rootstocks, and clones to site and trellis system and planting clean material can help to avoid later problems with mildew and disease such as leaf roll viruses. When using the whole systems approach, consideration is given to the flow of natural resources as they pass through your farm ecosystem and to the intended and unintended impacts of farming practices. Steps are taken to mitigate negative impacts of your practices, improving or maintaining the quality of the “flows” of Soil, Water, Air, Plants, Animals, Energy and Human (SWAPAEH) as they move onto not off of your farm.

Components of a healthy ecosystem include the health and fertility of soils, diversity of plant and animal species, riparian areas, streamside buffers, and plant hedgerows. In many parts of eastern Washington desert plants, improving plant diversity means bringing a variety of plants—not necessarily native plants like sagebrush and other desert plants—near the vineyard’s edge to provide diversity, refuge, and food for wildlife and beneficial insects.

Opportunities are available for producers to receive financial and technical assistance in the areas of environmental quality and conservation security. Such incentive programs are funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Two popular programs that can provide funding to eligible producers for pest management and conservation related activities are the Environmental Quality Incentives Program and the Conservation Security Program (CSP). Some Washington State tree fruit growers involved in the CSP have received up to $30,000 per year in conservation payments for their good stewardship of the land. Growers are encouraged to visit their local conservation district or USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service to learn more about the incentives programs and how they can qualify.

Steps for developing a healthy and profitable agroecosystem:

• Inventory/Mapping Farmscape 
•  Whole Farm Ecosystem Goals
• Whole Farm Ecosystem Plan
• Cooperation
• Monitoring and Evaluation

Download Checklist

Go to Self-Assessment Evaluation Form

Download Action Plan