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Here are some of the questions posed about the Raising Fields Project.  Answers are by Mitch Chester.

What is the significance of Vista View Park?

 

Vista View is symbolic. Iconic, if you will. The Park is about what is possible in the near future. The specific reference to Vista View is only demonstrative in nature. In other words, a raised field demonstration project landscape does not have to be constructed today to show the potential of this kind of agricultural solution.

 

Before using Vista View as an illustration, I looked for good drawings or pictures on the internet that would help convey the concept. Finding none I thought would work, I realized that Vista View offers the platform for a vision of what agricultural fields could look like by 2030-2040 in our region. Those interested in elevated landscapes for agricultural purposes can see for themselves what such higher elevations offer by seeing Vista View’s example of a low-tech, but higher, solution.

 

Vista View is not suggested as the place to grow crops for production; it is offered as a venue where we can…now…demonstrate a tangible vision. Such raised fields (but not landfills), if employed to meet our agricultural challenges, do not have to be as high as Vista View. When one goes up to Vista View however, you see and imagine what is possible from a new and frankly exciting perspective. I visited the site again in early November, 2014, and the person I took up to the expansive summit was more excited about the potential of raising farm and growing properties than he was by just looking at this website or discussing the idea. 

 

You have to see, and experience, Vista View, to understand the positive implications for our future in the era of rising seas.

What technologies can be used in elevated
landscape agriculture?

 

We have great opportunities with the Raised Fields Project. Rainwater capture technology, to lessen groundwater and aquifer dependence for crop irrigation, is but one of the fields of study which this endeavor offers.

 

Others include:

 

  • Experimentation with growing foods with salt water;

  • Exploring the best engineering and design tools and plans to create sustainable elevated landscapes;

  • Learning how to increase crop yields with controlled environments to counter increasing temperatures;

  • Rainwater retention technologies;

  • Use of "Reclaimed Water" in growing S.E. Florida crops;

  • Composting to insure quality soil resources;

  • Use of the best soils for elevated farming;

  • "No-till frming";

  • Effective drain water and freshwater strategies in raised field growing;

  • Phosphorus runoff containment and filtering systems; and

  • Regulated atmospheres with LED lighting.

 

I am certain there are many more ways we can link technology to this adaptation vision.

Raising

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