Jim Chamberlin
- Sep 13
- 4 min
Farmer-to-farmer Learning Makes Meaningful Change
Sustainable agriculture gives me hope. What gives me hope is the knowledge that much of what ails us and the planet we are part of can be...
Jim Chamberlin
- Aug 30
- 4 min
Clean Water Strategies Paying Off, Continued Effort Needed
Learn how conservation efforts to curb nutrients in the Mississippi River in Minnesota are going.
Jim Chamberlin
- Jul 26
- 4 min
Farming with Trees
I believe nature is abundant, and too often we overlook the forest for the trees. Farmers for centuries have cleared land of trees to...
Jim Chamberlin
- Apr 12
- 4 min
Doing Better for Soil Is Better for All
I entered college in my early thirties, looking for a career change from the foodservice industry. My parents owned a bakery when I was...
Jim Chamberlin
- Mar 22
- 5 min
Pools of Energy Key Frame to Soil Health
I was at the Minnesota Organic Conference many years ago, sitting in a session on testing soil biology. The presenter was showing a...
Jenny Hill
- Jan 19
- 3 min
Want to DIY? These Workshops Can Help
For the 18th Annual Back to Basics, there are more than 45 workshops on a wide variety of topics. From Zero Waste to Gardening to Clean...
HDT Team
- Dec 13, 2023
- 2 min
Winter Care for Indoor Plants
Indoor plants brighten our lives by providing much-needed color in the winter months. Research suggests they may also reduce stress and...
Jim Chamberlin
- Dec 8, 2023
- 3 min
Meat that Meets the Cut
Plant based diets are all the rage, and for good reason. Livestock is responsible for much of the environmental damage caused by...
HDT Team
- Oct 12, 2023
- 3 min
Getting Your Pollinator Friendly Yard Ready for Winter
The population of pollinators is declining worldwide. Habitat loss and lack of food for pollinators are the primary reasons for the...
Jim Chamberlin
- Sep 26, 2023
- 3 min
Long Game of Soil Health Reduces Drought Impact
Well into the drought this summer, I drove by a corn field east of Brainerd and was surprised how healthy the corn looked. Just a mile or...
Jim Chamberlin
- Aug 7, 2023
- 2 min
Digging Into the Lives of Dung Beetles
Dung beetles came late in my soil health journey. More than three decades after becoming an “organic” farming advocate, the dung beetle...
Jim Chamberlin
- Jul 26, 2023
- 3 min
Grassland 2.0 Update
Grassland 2.0 is a social project involving grass, water, cows, and people. On a recent Saturday, a group of around 30 people gathered at...
Jenny Hill
- Jul 3, 2023
- 3 min
Adventures in Sustainability: Food Waste and Some Great Alternatives
The numbers are sobering: According to the Environmental Defense Fund, 160 billion pounds of food goes uneaten every year in the United...
HDT Team
- Jun 2, 2023
- 4 min
Watersheds 101
Minnesota sits atop a triple, continental-scale water divide. As one of the exhibit pieces in We Are Water MN describes it: “This means...
Jim Chamberlin
- May 5, 2023
- 3 min
Keyline Design Works with Water
Happy Dancing Turtle recently hosted journalist and National Geographic Explorer, Erica Gies, to discuss Water Always Wins, a book in...
Jim Chamberlin
- Apr 14, 2023
- 3 min
Grazing Update for the Pine River Watershed
Jim Chamberlin is a long-time member of the Pine River Watershed Alliance. Below is his most recent update on grazing initiatives. The...
Jim Chamberlin
- Mar 3, 2023
- 4 min
Bringing It All Together for Soil Health
The Change Exchange discussion group the last couple of months have focused on the life under our feet. This month we bring it all...
Jenny Hill
- Feb 17, 2023
- 5 min
Garden Tips
As we watch the snow melt, then rain come and go, and then the snow start all over again, many of us have fallen for the siren call of...
Jim Chamberlin
- Feb 3, 2023
- 4 min
Soil Health: The Challenge of Our Time
Soil health is defined as the ability of soil to function as a vital living ecosystem. The soil's ability to function, to cycle water and...
Jim Chamberlin
- Dec 2, 2022
- 4 min
Celebrate World Soil Day
World Soil Day is December 5th and is dedicated to focus attention on the importance of healthy soil and to advocate for the sustainable...