Agroforestry Fact Sheet Series

The PEI Department of Agriculture has created an Agroforestry Fact Sheet Series about common agroforestry practices for farmers and landowners on PEI.

What is Agroforestry?

Agroforestry mixes trees with other agricultural land-use, such as fields crops and livestock. These features provide numerous benefits to farmers, their communities, and the wider environment. Agroforestry comes in many varieties. Examples include hedgerows/windbreaks, silvopasture, and ecobuffers.

• Agroforestry Planting Considerations - Trees can be planted on-farm for a variety of reasons, such as providing shelter, protecting water quality, improving biodiversity and increasing income streams. To ensure a successful planting, care must be taken in establishment and maintenance of the stand. 
• Hedgerows for Field and Crop - Hedgerows are purposefully planted rows of woody perennials that not only protect farms from adverse weather, but provide a variety of ecological goods and services, including improved biodiversity, pest mitigation, moisture retention, and potential for additional on farm revenue streams.
• Hedgerows for Infrastructure - There are many efforts that can be implemented to retrofit or enhance the integrity of buildings and equipment (see resilience series), however, well placed, mature trees and shrubs can contribute to buffering the effects of extreme weather conditions.
• Silvopasture - The intentional integration of trees, pasture, and livestock, managed as a single system.
• Ecobuffers - Eco-Buffers are dense, diverse plantings of perennial species (i.e., trees, shrubs and flowering herbs) designed to mimic natural forest habitat. When established on farm, these stands diversify the landscape, bringing with them an assortment of environmental benefits.

For more information contact:

Hardy Strom, Regenerative Agriculture Specialist
PEI Department of Agriculture 
5th Floor, Jones Building
11 Kent Street,
P.O. Box 2000,
Charlottetown, PEI C1A 7N8
Email: hastrom@gov.pe.ca
Phone/Fax: 902-213-2389