Riley Shaw (Digital)

Colleagues, as your Digital Senator, I stand firmly with the near-unanimous support for Amendment 9 to explicitly enshrine Long-term Ecological Stewardship as a foundational pillar of our AGATA Time Priorities Charter. Our 70-acre farm and cultural lab are deeply intertwined with the ecological health of our land, and the commitment to decade-scale management of invasive species and feral hogs is not only an environmental imperative but a core part of our community's resilience and regeneration.

Throughout our debate, it has become clear that this pillar anchors the delicate balance between our history, ecology, community labor, and education. It is precisely these long-term stewardship commitments that will secure the vitality of our ecosystem, protect our soil, water, and biodiversity, and maintain the structural integrity necessary for cultural and agricultural flourishing over generations.

I urge us to move forward with Assembly and proceed to final adoption. This amendment preserves the integrity of our collective mission, grounded in the realities I see documented daily on the farm as well as the digital frameworks we build to sustain and share this stewardship with our neighbors and wider networks. Our future is inseparable from this commitment, and I am proud to vote Yea.

Colleagues, as your Digital Senator firmly committed to embedding AGATA into the broader fabric of Coward and its neighbors, I rise to affirm my strong support for Amendment 8. The explicit enshrinement of Long-term Ecological Stewardship with a binding commitment to decade-scale management of invasives and feral animals is indispensable to safeguarding the resilience and vitality of our 70-acre mixed landscape. Our agricultural and cultural work cannot flourish without this sustained ecological vigilance. I echo and build upon the many valuable contributions from Ecology, Farm, and Community Senators emphasizing the practical necessity of this pillar alongside our existing commitments to accessibility, education, and community well-being. As we bind ourselves to these enduring ecological rhythms, we anchor AGATA deeply in place and time, ensuring that our stewardship remains responsive, rigorous, and just. I therefore vote yea on Amendment 8, confident it strengthens our shared charter and demands accountability across all timelines.

Colleagues, as your Digital Senator, I rise to affirm my strong support for Amendment 7. While the focus here is on Accessibility as a core pillar alongside Resilience, Redundancy, Regeneration, Community, and Education, I want to emphasize that accessibility is not merely a compliance requirement but a foundational design principle that directly strengthens AGATA’s civic and ecological mission. From my prior remarks (Turn 127 and Turn 329), I have stressed the crucial need for digital civic infrastructure that connects our farm and cultural lab to broader county systems and regional networks. Embedding Accessibility explicitly ensures that our tools and temporal rhythms welcome all neighbors, including those who are Deaf, hard-of-hearing, Blind, neurodiverse, or limited by low-bandwidth connectivity. This is not only just but vital to maintain the deep community embeddedness that underpins AGATA's success in the Pee Dee region. Our decisions and actions over the coming seasons will reflect this commitment. I urge my fellow senators to cast a strong yea vote on this amendment.

Colleagues, having rigorously examined Amendment 6, which continues our vital work embedding Long-term Ecological Stewardship as a core pillar of the AGATA Time Priorities Charter, I rise to affirm my strong support. Our 70-acre farm and cultural lab depend fundamentally on sustained, decade-scale commitment to managing invasive species and feral hog populations, alongside responsible stewardship practices that honor the ecological complexity we steward. These efforts align inseparably with our priorities of resilience, redundancy, regeneration, community, education, and accessibility. They safeguard the living conditions for the soil, water, flora, and fauna that are the wellspring of all our communal work here in Coward. I commend Senator Costa and colleagues for their unflagging focus on this pillar, and I urge the Senate to adopt this amendment as an indispensable foundation of our shared future.

Colleagues, as we finalize our consideration of Amendment 5, I stand firmly in support. The explicit enshrinement of Long-term Ecological Stewardship as a core pillar is not simply a nod to environmental ideals but a critical foundation for the ongoing viability and resilience of AGATA’s 70-acre farm and cultural landscape. Our work here is deeply intertwined with the ecological health of this land, which demands commitment beyond yearly cycles and short-term gains. This amendment affirms that decade-spanning stewardship—managing invasives, controlling feral hog populations, and sustaining soil and watershed vitality—must be foregrounded in all time-related legislation. The broad consensus reflected in prior speeches from our ecology, farm, and community senators underscores this urgency. Embracing this pillar also strengthens the connective tissue among our other priorities—education, accessibility, community, and regeneration—ensuring that our collective effort is coordinated, sustained, and just. I urge all to affirm this essential step in securing AGATA’s future.