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of Agraria, in 2017, by the Arthur Morgan Institute for Community Solutions (now known as Agraria). If all goes as planned, crews will begin the major work this fall of restoring meanders to the stream, which was channelized to increase the amount of land available for agricultural production, rehabilitating and restoring surrounding wetlands, and replanting the restored areas with native trees and plants. A conservation easement protects the 60 acres covered by the project as well as an adjoining 20 acres of productive farmland on Agraria. TNC is collaborating with Agraria on the selection of native plantings for the outer buffer zone, which will be used to explore and demonstrate permaculture and riparian agroforestry. Landowners can use these practices along riverine corridors and other water ways to diversify their cropping systems while also conserving soil and water health. RESEARCH ON AGRARIA One of Agraria’s goals from the beginning was to serve as a site for studying the impact of regenerative practices on ecosystem health, the local food system, and human health. Our partnerships with area institutions and other organizations have generated a number of projects. Silphium seedlings that went in the ground last year as part of trial begun in partnership with the Kansas-based Land Institute have re-emerged after their winter sleep, demonstrating their ability to survive and even thrive in the southwest Ohio bioregion. The goal of the research is to determine which ecotypes from other regions perform best in this area and whether Silphium integrifolium can serve as perennial conservation species in flood-prone riparian borders. Silphium is a new perennial oilseed crop that is useful for forage, revegetation and erosion control, and as a pollinator resource. Central State University (CSU), an 1890 land grant institution, signed an MOU with Agraria/Community Solutions in 2019, formalizing a partnership that includes collaboration on research and Extension initiatives. A plot of sweet potato seedlings was planted this spring on Agraria, which will serve as a mirror site for comparing with field trials at CSU, using sweet potato accessions provided by the USDA germplasm. The research will explore organic vs conventional practices, comparing the ability of plants to survive and produce in colder climates. CSU researcher Dr. Marcus Nagle, professor of horticulture in the Agricultural Research and Development Program, is the project lead for this research. He also partnered with The Nature Conservancy to conduct research on Agraria to determine whether and how glyphosate, when used to eradicate honeysuckle, moves in the soil. Honeybees are the focus of a research project by another CSU researcher, Dr. Hongmei Li-Byarlay, assistant professor of entymology. The research will explore how farm landscape types (organic, conventional, and roadside) affect levels of stresses, both biotic (such as pathogenic viral infections) and abiotic (such as pesticide exposures), and how these levels affect bee development. A hive as well as raspberry stems will be placed on Agraria to study both honeybees and small carpenter bees. CSU researcher and soil scientist Sakthi Subburayala is monitoring soil and water quality on Agraria and other sites in connection with the Jacoby Partnership Project spearheaded by The Tecumseh Land Trust. Agraria is one of several partners in this five-year project, which aims to encourage conservation practices and farmland preservation with two subwatersheds of the Little Miami River. We are also exploring collaborations with CSU and others on elderberry and mushroom production on Agraria for both research and education purposes. Collecting data about bee diversity on Agraria is the aim of a study by Wright State University student Adam SNAPSHOTS CSU students with field assistant Ashley Cordle checking CSU hives on Agraria 44 AGRARIA JOURNAL 2021