Outdoors For All | Passion For The Land, Support For Each Other

ANDI SEDLACEK

Andi Sedlacek is a public information officer in the DNR’s Office of Communications.

More than one-third of farmers in Wisconsin are women, according to the 2017 U.S. census, meaning there are more than 38,000 women farmers in the state.

“It isn’t a small number,” said Noemy Serrano, southeast regional coordinator for Wisconsin Women in Conservation, or WiWiC. “Yet there aren’t many resources specific to women farmers.”

Enter WiWiC, a statewide collaborative led by the Michael Fields Agricultural Institute in partnership with Renewing the Countryside, Marbleseed and the Wisconsin Farmers Union.

The multi-faceted project, funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service, brings together women farmers and landowners in Wisconsin to learn about conservation practices, resources and funding opportunities.

Through in-person and virtual events, field days and a team of conservation coaches, WiWiC is creating a space for women to learn, meet each other and, most importantly, care for the land they manage.

WiWiC works with women from traditional farmers to urban gardeners and backyard growers.

“Statewide, we are seeing a lot of diversity in the women we’re connecting with,” said Serrano, whose passion has been driven by her grandfathers, both farmers.

“We’ve connected with young farmers who are just getting started or women who have just retired and have purchased land,” she said.

“Others come to us by way of being recently widowed, and they’re managing their family farm for the first time and trying to figure it all out.”

Serrano’s role focuses on women farmers in Milwaukee, Racine and Walworth counties.

“I’m connecting with a lot of urban growers,” she said. “And as a Mexican-American woman, being able to connect with women of color has been really important to me.”

The beauty of WiWiC is that it provides conservation resources applicable on any scale — whether a farmer is experienced or a novice, managing a large piece of land they own or a rented plot in a community garden.

A significant part of these resources is WiWiC’s team of conservation coaches. Patti Schevers is one of them.

Schevers manages her family’s 100-acre farm in Oneida. She’s the fourth-generation steward of the land, which was a working farm for over 100 years and has a history of being guided by women, including her mother and great-grandmother.

When her family did not want to remain active farmers, Schevers and her partner worked quickly to restore more than 90 of the acres into native prairie and wildflowers in just one year.

“It was a lot more than we ever thought to get it off the ground,” Schevers said.

She studied sustainable agriculture and used guidance from the USDA plus her own determination to complete the restoration project. At the time, WiWiC was not yet established.

“I wasn’t sure where the resources would be for a land manager like me,” Schevers said. “If WiWiC were around when I was starting, I would have leaned on them a lot.”

These days, Schevers relishes her role as a WiWiC conservation coach.

“It’s great to meet other landowners, learn what they’re doing and traverse the joys and pains of it all together,” she said. “That’s the best part about WiWiC — you get to be part of a group of people like you and know you’ve got some support.”

With events all year and around the state, WiWiC offers women farmers and landowners many opportunities to connect and learn from each other, Serrano noted. It’s a source of pride for her as a WiWiC coordinator.

“It’s always been very important to me to uplift women, push for change and create inclusive spaces,” she said. “And to work on a project that does all of that is absolutely amazing.”

For details on Wisconsin Women in Conservation, a statewide collaborative of women focused on land stewardship, check wiwic.org.