NORTH COAST, Calif. – The North Coast Resource Conservation & Development Council is holding its inaugural “Cultivating Commerce Poetry Competition” with the themes of agriculture and natural resources, including farm and ranching life.

Submission fees are $10 per poem, and the first prize is $100.

Poems of any length and style may be submitted, and contestants may submit an unlimited number of poems.

The competition ends Sept. 30.

The proceeds from this competition will be used to further the group's mission of improving pollinator habitat, enhancing agritourism, supporting eat local/grow local gardens and fostering sustainable biomass energy production.

In addition, the funds will be used for the new initiative Cultivating Commerce which will provide entrepreneur support for business start-up or expansion in agricultural and natural resource areas.

The council is a nonprofit organization serving Mendocino, Lake, Sonoma, and Marin counties.

Founded as a grassroots organization in 2003 to support sustainable agriculture and resource use, the council has worked on local projects ranging from constructing rainwater collection systems at local schools – including the catchment tank for the Fort Bragg High School Learning Garden rainwater collection system – and funding a pollinator planting at Salmon Creek School in Occidental, with native species for pollinator use.

The council has held educational workshops throughout Sonoma and Lake counties with landowners to increase pollinator habitat, help create and expand community gardens, educate landowners to prevent the spread of sudden oak disease, prepare detailed feasibility studies for biomass-to-energy production in Fort Bragg and the Mendocino County area, and has conducted workshops with ranchers and farmers interested in adding an agritourism element to their operations.

 

Complete contest rules can be found at www.cultivatingcommerce.org.