News and Information for SWCDs

Rain Barrels: Coming Soon to an SWCD Near You!

2012-03-06T07:33:00.001-08:00

Have you seen one of these on a neighbor's property? Did you find yourself curious? Well wonder no longer: this post is all about rain barrels, one of which is pictured to the right.

When it rains, we have a number of ways to deal with the water: from gutters and drains, to rain gardens and sewage systems. One popular rainwater storage tool for individuals is a rain barrel. Many Soil and Water Conservation Districts in Indiana, and across the country, sell rain barrels.

Did you know that until June 2009, rain barrels were illegal in Colorado? The state ruled that all water that fell belonged to it. Colorado sells much of its water supply to nearby dry or high-water-use states, primarily California. It's still illegal to catch rainwater in Utah, unless you own water rights on the land upon which it falls. In New Mexico, however, it's mandatory for new buildings to have rainwater harvesting infrastructure. Luckily for Hoosiers, harvesting rainwater is a welcomed conservation practice.

The water caught by rain barrels is used for everything imaginable, even drinking (if it's properly purified). Here are some popular rain barrel uses:

Reduce water mains' water use, for economic or environmental reasons
Aid self-sufficiency
Watering gardens
Agriculture
Flushing toilets
In washing machines
Washing cars
Drinking (assuming the barrel owner purifies the water)
In ground rainwater tanks can also be used for retention of stormwater.
In drier regions, water can be stored for the drought seasons.

If you decide to get a rain barrel, make sure to keep it and the gutters to which it's connected clean, and make sure the barrel itself is in good repair. Check out Rain Barrel Maintenance 101.

Did you know? 1 inch of rain on a 1,000 square-foot roof will yield 623 gallons of water. Here's a tool to see how large of a rain barrel you might need.

Check with your local SWCD to see if they sell rain barrels, or if they could direct you to a nearby vendor. Have fun conserving water!

It All Starts With Soil

2012-02-29T05:39:00.003-08:00

There are so many cool things about soil! Without it, we wouldn't have good food, good water, good land to build on, or. . . well, really we wouldn't have much of anything without soil. In this blog post I'm going to run over some of the more tangible aspects of soil, and how it affects you every day.

Recently I read an entertaining and interesting article on The Atlantic that discusses how just smelling soil can boost serotonin (the feel-good chemical your body naturally produces) in your brain. Isn't that amazing? We're genetically inclined toward enjoying being close to the earth! I suspect this is not surprising for many of you. :-)

You know that earthy smell and taste you get especially from certain vegetables grown under soil, like carrots? The smell, called "geosmin" by scientists, lends the sought-after flavor depth to foods.

Another cool thing I learned is that different soils produce different-tasting foods. A tomato from Paraguay will taste differently than an Indiana tomato, simply because they were grown in different soils; a Cabernet from Chile will taste different from a California Cabernet. Cooks call the flavor variations due to the soil in which foods were grown "terroir." The unique bacteria, microbes, and other inputs into the growing land all affect the final product.

On the flip side, a cantaloupe grown in an area with poor soil health - one that has had nutrients leached out of it by any number of poor soil management techniques - will be inferior to one grown in healthy, rich soil.

What this all comes down to is that Everything Starts With Soil. Our very livelihood: our food security; our city and town development; our culture; our natural resources, be they forests, fields, or waterways; they are all profoundly influenced by the health of an area's soil. Land management is soil management.

Learn more about how you can improve and protect your soil's health with the help of your local Soil and Water Conservation District. Click here for a listing of Indiana's 92 county offices.

The Natural Resources Conservation Service also has a wide range of resources for learning about Indiana's soil health, and our strategy for preserving it. Check it out here.

No-Till, No Problem!

2012-02-20T06:46:00.000-08:00

No-till field after heavy rain
(with cover crops).
Photo credit: Farm Progress

One of the top recommendations of Indiana's Soil and Water Conservation Districts for farmers is to no-till their land. That's right - put down the plow and let your land take care of itself. It is scientifically proven that no-till farming can be more profitable than traditional tilling methods. (source). The trick is doing no-till correctly, and identifying which practices are best for each farmer's unique operation and land needs.

"Utilizing no-till farming practices has been consistently identified as a method which is capable of conserving soil moisture, reducing soil erosion, improving water quality, benefiting wildlife, increasing labor use efficiency, limiting machinery investments, sequestering atmospheric carbon dioxide, etc." (source)

Tilled field with standing water
after heavy rain.
Photo credit: UW-Discovery Farms

One of the reasons that traditional farm operations will till their land is to, ostensibly, reduce soil compaction. When soil is compacted, it is difficult for crops' roots to punch through the soil and take up the nutrients they need. However, tilling land is time-consuming and expensive, given the machinery and fuel needed to cover acre after acre. Conservation farmers and scientists have found that no-till fields, especially when paired with cover crops, resist compaction.

This article in No-Till Farmer lists some tips for managing soil compaction. Among them are keeping living roots (cover crops) in the soil year round, not driving on fields (or using low-psi flotation tires) and keeping cattle out of fields.

No-tilled fields perform admirably when paired with other conservation farming methods, like cover crops. For example, as noted in Farm Progress, "No-till builds up soil phosphorus levels in the top couple inches of soil. In a run-off event, soluble P losses can be substantial. That's why the practice still needs to be matched with other conservation practices such as buffer zones and cover crops."

Hoosier farmers are lucky to have a unique resource available: the Conservation Cropping Systems Initiative (CCSI). In conjunction with SWCDs, CCSI "promotes a systematic approach to production agriculture focusing on:

Continuous no-till/strip-till
Cover crops
Precision farming
Nutrient and pest management

CCSI works with private producers as well. If you're interested in learning more about how no-tilling your fields can improve your operation, contact your local SWCD today. You can also visit a cover crop field day. Use CCSI's calendar to search for an event in your area.

Rain Gardens - the Natural Way to Manage Runoff

2012-02-15T10:09:00.000-08:00

It's fairly common knowledge that surface runoff in urban areas can overload sewage and drainage systems; contribute to erosion; contribute to pollution of local water sources; and, of course flooding. Urban areas have lots of impervious surfaces (that don't soak up rainwater) like parking lots and roads, and the natural areas that would normally help manage excess water are diminished.

IU students going to class during the floods of 2008.
Photo credit: IU News Service

When I was living in Bloomington, IN and wading through swamped streets after periods of heavy rain on my way to class and work, I learned first-hand what kinds of problems poor drainage systems can cause! Although it was fun to canoe around Dunn Meadow and kayak down the rapids of the Jordan "River" for a couple days during the floods of 2008, many adjacent communities were declared federal emergency areas and are still dealing with the aftermath. The city was generally bogged down for periods of time after other heavy rains, which leads one to wonder how it could better manage its rain overflow problem.

Urban rain garden.
Photo credit: U. of Rhode Island

One solution can be rain gardens. Rain gardens have been a hot topic in the conservation world for the past few years. The EPA cites rain gardens as a successful way to manage runoff on their stormwater case studies. Essentially, they are a special sort of garden that is designed specifically to absorb water runoff - naturally. The water is stored in the soil. They're also more aesthetically pleasing than a drain, or a flooded sewer!

Rain gardens were first developed in residential areas in 1990 in Maryland. After a few years of studying their effectiveness, they proved to be "highly cost effective."

"Instead of a system of curbs, sidewalks, and gutters, which would have cost nearly $400,000, the planted drainage swales cost $100,000 to install. This was also much more cost effective than building BMP ponds that could handle 2-, 10-, and 100-year storm events.Flow monitoring done in later years showed that the rain gardens have resulted in a 75–80% reduction in stormwater runoff during a regular rainfall event (source)"

If you're interested in learning more about rain gardens, Indiana's Hamilton County SWCD will be hosting a Rain Garden Workshop on Feb. 28. Check out our calendar for details.

EPA Works with Developing Nations to Encourage Smart Water Use

2012-02-13T07:39:00.000-08:00

In her book Water Wars (2002), the renowned physicist, activist, visionary and writer Vandana Shiva stresses:

"Water is limited and exhaustible if used nonsustainably. Nonsustainable use includes extracting more water from ecosystems than nature can recharge (ecological nonsustainability) and consuming more than one's legitimate share, given the rights of others to a fair share (social nonsustainability)."

Developing nations often struggle with using sustainable means of production, agriculture, development, etc. Developing an economy with finite resources is immensely difficult. Just think: if currently developed nations had worried about the health of the environment and people during the Industrial Revolution, we might not have developed so fast and so far. We might not also have the resulting ecological problems rising from the reliance on fossil fuels during the I.R., polluting of waterways, etc.

Evo Morales, Presidente de Bolivia

Although wise in the long run, sustainable practices can be slower and more costly than rapid-development practices; the promise of "fast money" and rapid development in lieu of resource conservation is a strong incentive. Poor countries will drill their minerals and fossil fuels, will fell their great forests, and will clear-cut delicate ecosystems to make room for plantations. It makes sense: a country can sell these resources for a couple generations and in return can experience what is perceived to be a higher standard of living.

However, we now know that wise use of resources now will be beneficial in the long run. Convincing developing nations of this idea has proved to be difficult, although some, such as Bolivia, have taken a wonderfully progressive view of resource conservation. This year, Bolivia passed the Ley de Derechos de la Madre Tierra, or the Law of Rights of Mother Earth, which grants nature equal rights to humans. Read more here. It is interesting to note that Presidente Morales comes from an indigenous background, as do the majority of Bolivians; moreover, about two-thirds of its people are subsistence farmers (source).

High-quality soybeans growing in the residue of a wheat crop.
Photo credit to the Rodale Institute

In the interest of sustainability and development, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is working with China to "help [the country] develop a long-term plan to maximize the country’s water resources in the face of a growing population and the potential impacts of climate change." Included in the delegation were representatives from 20 U.S. companies looking to do business with China. The delegates "consulted with Chinese government officials on a host of issues like water and energy efficiency, wastewater treatment and water reuse technologies. The impressive turnout by these companies shows a genuine interest in the growing Chinese marketplace. ...The Chinese government, which has set aside about $5.5 billion over the next eight years to develop a series of ground water-related strategies, has shown [a] strong interest in a growing sector of the U.S. economy." Read more about the delegation at the EPA blog Greenversations.

Financial investment is a strong, sustainable, and responsible means of encouraging the responsible use of water and other resources for nations that desire to grow their economies. Closer to home, Soil and Water Conservation Districts work to encourage producers such as farmers, foresters, and ranchers to manage their production systems in an environmentally conservative way (such as no-till farming) that improves their soil and their profits. Watch a short video about some of the great conservation projects here in Indiana below!

Goose Pond's Annual Marsh Madness

2012-02-07T09:12:00.000-08:00

Goose Pond is a young, celebrity Wildlife Area in Greene County, IN. I referenced it in my post Wetlands Are Awesome as one of the most successful resource conservation projects in recent history here in Indiana. It's an invaluable resource for wildlife, hunters, birdwatchers, educators, scientists, and area landowners.

The Indiana Association of Soil and Water Conservation Districts (IASWCD) was excited to feature a presentation about Goose Pond at our 2012 Annual Conference. IASWCD is part of the unique Indiana Conservation Partnership which aligns the interests of a variety of federal and state agencies, including the 92 Indiana Soil and Water Conservation Districts. Members of the Partnership, especially NRCS and the DNR, worked together over a number of years to make the Goose Pond Fish and Wildlife Area a reality. Goose Pond is an invaluable resource for Hoosiers! Read my post about wetlands to learn more.

Those interested in celebrating and learning more about Goose Pond are invited to its annual Marsh Madness bird festival, March 2-4. The celebration takes place at multiple locations around Greene County and takes place at during the height of the annual Sandhill Crane and waterfowl migration through the area.

Schedule

Sanhill crane adult and chick

The Friday kickoff event takes place from 6:30 - 10pm on March 2. Support the Visitor Center while enjoying a wine tasting from Oliver Winery at the Linton Elks Lodge. Also look for the silent auction! Tickets are $30/person.

Saturday's events run from 7am - 7pm. There is truly something for everyone! Families are welcome and there will be children's activities. Self-guided tours allow participants to witness the annual bird migration; guided tours by bus will be running hourly. Visitors can view live birds of prey, listen to speakers, attend workshops, and shop for arts and crafts. Tickets are only $5/person.

A fair featuring crafts and vendors as well as children's activities will take place on March 4 from noon to 5pm. It is free to attend.

For more information, and to buy tickets, visit marshmadness.info or call (812) 659-9901.

Improving the Mississippi Basin Through Improving Indiana's Soil Health

2012-02-03T07:59:00.001-08:00

A watershed, or drainage basin, is an extent or an area of land where surface water from rain and melting snow or ice converges to a single point...where the waters join another waterbody, such as a river, lake, reservoir, estuary, wetland, sea, or ocean. The drainage basin includes both the streams and rivers that convey the water as well as the land surfaces from which water drains into those channels.

The world is connected by water like our bodies are by blood. If our bodies were a watershed, our flesh would be the drainage basin; our veins would be tributaries; and our hearts would be the final body of water.

We all live in a watershed. In Indiana, there are six different watersheds that drain into five different large bodies of water.

There is a lot of agriculture in Indiana. This is great growing land! However, food production can put quite a strain on our water system. For example, poorly-managed manure can drain into streams; chemical and nutrient run-off added to croplands can as well. Eventually, our water systems drain into the Mississippi River Basin, which drains into the Gulf of Mexico.

The Mississippi River Basin. Map courtesy of NPS.

The Gulf of Mexico is a rich and delicate body of water that is currently recognized as a "hypoxic dead zone." (It's actually the most notorious dead zone in the world.) This means that due to contamination, not enough oxygen is available for life to exist. Dead zones can be caused and exasperated by nitrogen and phosphorus, which are two chemicals commonly, even extensively, used in agriculture.

Agriculture in Indiana can thus contribute to the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico.

NRCS Chief Dave White stated, “The Mississippi River Basin provides drinking water and recreation for millions of people and hosts a globally significant migratory flyway. The basin also houses some of our nation’s most productive agricultural land." The health of the Basin affects our health. The Mississippi River Basin Initiative (MRBI) "works with farmers using a conservation systems approach to manage and optimize nitrogen and phosphorus within fields to minimize runoff and reduce downstream nutrient loading" in order to improve the health of the land and of the Gulf.

Fact: Dead zones are reversible. In fact, the Black Sea, a dead zone when it was under Soviet Union management, has been revived. After the Soviet collapse, fertilizers became too expensive and thus fewer nutrients made it into the Sea. Fishing has once again become a major economic activity in the region.

Soil and Water Conservation Districts in Indiana encourage landowners to optimize the use of phosphorus and nitrogen on their lands to reduce runoff. If you work in agriculture, learn more about MRBI to see how you can improve your land's health and the health of the Gulf.

If you fertilize your lawn, go to the Clear Choices, Clean Water Campaign's Facebook page to learn more about how you can help reverse hypoxia in the Gulf.

Wetlands Are Awesome

2012-01-26T06:49:00.000-08:00

For most of the United States' history, wetlands were primarily seen as soggy farmland. In that spirit, wetlands were systematically drained and converted to farmland or subjected to other developments. As the country expanded, it lost about half of its wetlands (source).

Photo: Tamarack Bog Nature Preserve, Pigeon River FWA.
Rich Fields, IDNR Division of Public Information and Education

Over the past couple of decades, we have become aware of the vast array of benefits wetlands provide to the ecosystem(s) that support us. As stated on the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM)'s website, wetlands protect our homes, our crops, and our wildlife. Wetland restoration projects have been underway nationwide since the mid-twentieth century. Most people have heard of the Everglades, one of the most wide-reaching and successful (and expensive) wetland restoration project to date.

They protect our homes from floods, and stream or river banks from erosion, by acting as a sponge for excess water. They "naturally store and filter nutrients and sediments," which makes our drinking water cleaner. Lastly, "more than one-third of America's threatened and endangered species live only in wetlands." People use wetlands for hunting, fishing, photography, education, and more. The economic value of wetlands as stated by IDEM comes to $59.5 billion.

As wetlands affect and protect so many parts of our lives, it comes as no surprise that efforts to restore and conserve them are undertaken by a variety of agencies, organizations, and individuals.

So what's being done to restore and conserve wetlands in Indiana? Federal programs such as the WRP, or Wetland Reserve Program, and its sister WREP, Wetland Reserve Enhancement Program, have a presence here in Indiana. One of the most successful projects as of late was the creation of 7,200-acre Goose Pond, located in Linton, IN. Formerly a permanent easement under the management of NRCS, it is now owned and managed by the Indiana DNR. It is an invaluable resource for wildlife, hunters, birdwatchers, and area landowners.

Click here for a flyover video of Goose Pond.

Wetlands take centuries to form, and much less than that to drain. While the past few decades' successes are notable, and a step in the right direction, it will take centuries for wetlands to recover.

"...On average, restored wetlands regained only about three-quarters of their original biological performance....[Wetlands also] hold at least a quarter of the world's land-based carbon, according to the World Resources Institute’s Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. But restored wetlands hold less carbon—on average, 23 percent less than untouched wetlands" (GOOD Magazine).

Would you like to learn more about WRP opportunities?

How about wetlands in Indiana?

Urban Soil Testing

2012-01-19T06:30:00.000-08:00

In Indianapolis' local weekly newspaper NUVO, editors shared information about a project that tests the soil of urban neighborhoods. Free soil testing is offered to residents of two neighborhoods lying shortly northeast and west of Indy's city center. The communities are experiencing high levels of unemployment and below-average graduation rates. Additionally, high levels of lead in the communities' soil are negatively impacting local children. According to NUVO, the soil contaminants "threaten to exacerbate a host of social ills by undermining local children's ability to concentrate and learn."

An EPA grant is funding the project, which is administered by Improving Kids Environment (IKE) and IUPUI.

IKE founder Tom Nelter founded the organization to bridge what he views as a "gap that existed between the Indiana Department of Environmental Management, a regulatory agency not focused on health, and the Indiana Department of Health, which wasn’t addressing environmental issues" (NUVO).

Soil and water conservation is traditionally thought of as having a rural focus. However, the quality of our natural resources, whether they're located in a city center, in agriculture, or protected lands, affect each person individually. Environmental health is human health.

What non-ag soil and water conservation projects have you seen in your community?

Rainforest Vs. Oil

2012-01-03T07:50:00.000-08:00

In 2007 Rafael Correa, the president of Ecuador, had a difficult choice to make. One of the most biodiverse areas of the planet was currently protected as an Ecuadorian national park (Yasuni), but the country was feeling economic pressure to destroy it in order to get at the 846 million barrels of oil that lay below. The oil there was valued at $7.2 billion USD. Sr. Correa proposed a compromise:

Pristine Yasuni National Forest

If the rest of the world donated half the value of the oil, then the rainforest would remain protected.

The United Nations Development Programme helped Ecuador to establish and administer a trust fund to manage the funds it received. Celebrities (Al Gore, Leonardo DiCaprio) and a host of businesses and national governments stepped up to the challenge. According to The Guardian, $116 million was donated by the December 30 cut-off date. For now, the park's most valuable sectors will remain free from oil exploitation.

Drilling for Oil in the Rainforest

GOOD Magazine writes:

"The notion that everyone has a personal and financial interest in saving the rainforest (and other ecosystems) is a relatively novel one, so it’s not surprising that the world hasn’t poured even more money into Ecuador’s coffers. This experiment has made clear, though, that the decision not to drill for oil does have financial value—over the longer term, that value could outstrip the profits of exploiting resources.

[As] Reuters’ Felix Salmon...puts it, “Oilfields, eventually, run out of oil. But untapped oilfields never do.” As long as the world depends on oil, fears climate change, and values biodiversity, Ecuador can essentially charge the world rent on benefits derived from the rainforest."

Eat Invasive Species

2011-12-19T07:00:00.000-08:00

Honeysuckle

Invasive species are non-native species, especially plants, insects, and animals whose presence negatively affects and can even destroy a native habitat. Invasive species can be deliberately or mistakenly introduced into an area by humans, or they can come to it of their own accord.

An example of deliberate introduction is that of ornamental plants such as honeysuckle (common in Indiana, originally from Asia), or livestock such as donkeys and cattle, which were brought to North America during colonial days. Lionfish, which started out as a pet for Floridians now kills up to 74% of native species in the Caribbean.

There are even invasive species that land managers have introduced as a means of combating other, pre-existing invasive species. The tamarisk, or salt cedar, tree is one. It sucks up immense amounts of water in the already-dry Southwest USA, and it is now of the most noxious invasives in the US.

Lionfish

Mistakenly introduced species can hitch a ride over on ships, for example. You can see a great map of zebra mussel spread here. Asian carp are another barge-hopping species that was declared invasive in 2007.

A current trend in the environmentally-conscious food world is eating invasive species. From the popularity of dandelion greens on fancy salads, to sushi restaurants that highlight invasive fish and seafood, to hunting down feral pigs in Texas, it's making quite a splash!

Zebra mussels

Lionfish is apparently great-tasting. And who doesn't like ham and bacon? Plus, the feral pigs are free-range and grass-fed!

“Humans are the most ubiquitous predators on earth,” said Philip Kramer, director of the Caribbean program for the Nature Conservancy. “Instead of eating something like shark fin soup, why not eat a species that is causing harm, and with your meal make a positive contribution?” (NYT)

While not a cure-all, eating invasive species can be one means of combating and removing habitat-destroying plants and animals. What do you think?

Controversy Over GMOs

2011-12-11T07:33:00.001-08:00

Have you heard of "GMOs," genetically modified organisms? A famous example is the "tomato fish" - a tomato whose DNA has been cross-bred with coldwater fish so as to make it more cold-resistant. Plants can be bred to be more disease-resistant, to use less water, or simply to taste better to humans. GMO crops are controversial; strict legislation governs their use and the extent of the "modification" of plants that can take place.

GMO crops are controversial for a number of reasons. Some groups express concerns that humans do not know enough to fully comprehend the potentially negative consequences of interfering in natural processes & naturally-produced organisms. Others cite a number of recent studies that have confirmed that GMOs may actually cause problems for those that eat them; one study linked GM soy to sterility.

Proponents of GMO crops cite their pivotal role in the mid- to late-20th century "Green Revolution," which theoretically saved over a billion people from starvation. Crops bred for high yields, hardiness and resistance to insects, as well as a variety of pesticides, herbicides, etc. produced more food than was thought possible before.

Since the Green Revolution, a number of case studies and country-wide experiences have questioned & criticized the Revolution's long-term value. For example, consider the environmental degradation caused by monocropping and high pesticide use. As far as human health is concerned, those who benefited from increased food yields also saw increased rates of cancer due to pesticides.

What do you think? Do the benefits of GMO crops outweigh the negative effects?

Wild Broccoli? It Doesn't Exist!

2011-12-11T07:04:00.001-08:00

We humans, being the clever creatures we are, like to change our environment in order to influence what it produces. Farming is a classic example of this: we encourage the land to grow what we want it to grow, so that we can eat what we want to eat.

Another great example of this is not just working with what the Earth gives us, but actually inventing new foods, or changing the "natural," original product. This can be both good and bad - breeding animals for food, for example, causes a great deal of controversy. Consider mass-produced chickens that are bred with huge upper bodies (for the meat), but have legs that can't support their weight.

Less controversial is breeding plants. By selecting some traits that we like about a given plant, and then selectively breeding it with plants with similar traits, it's possible to create a whole new plant. Take a minute and think - have you ever seen truly wild broccoli? How about cauliflower? Brussels sprouts? I bet you haven't, and my odds are great! Those vegetables don't actually exist in the wild! They were all bred from kale, a form of cabbage. By selecting different traits about the kale plant, we have been able to create entire new vegetables. See this short article on Indianapolis Public Media's "A Moment of Science" program for a more detailed explanation.

Have you heard of "GMOs," genetically modified organisms? (The link leads you to an article on GM plants.) A famous example is the tomato fish - a tomato whose DNA has been cross-bred with coldwater fish so as to make it more cold-resistant. Read the next blog post to learn more about the controversy!

Cover Crops to Combat Weeds

2011-12-07T08:57:00.001-08:00

Weeds are the bane (well, one of them) of every farmer and gardener. Products such as Round-Up are used to control weeds chemically, but as weeds evolve and develop resistance to these chemicals, it becomes increasingly difficult to control them.

Cover crops can be a non-chemical, natural way to help control weeds. In this article, author Mike Plumber describes how using a cereal rye cover crop can combat marestail (aka horseweed). He writes that cereal rye provides "excellent control" over the weed.

Do you have any success stories of how cover crops prevent or diminish weeds?

For more information on what cover crops are and how they are used in agriculture, watch this quick video primer:

Preserve the Land, or Build On It?

2011-12-05T07:09:00.001-08:00

The Central Indiana Land Trust received a grant of 40 acres from the Eller family. The land is located in fast-growing Fishers, IN, just north of Indianapolis. According to an article in the Indy Star, Van Eller turned down offers to sell to residential developers. (Between 2000 and 2007, Fishers' growth was more than double that of Indianapolis. Undeveloped farmland is very valuable to developers in high-growth areas.) Eller didn't want to see the land that had been in his family since the 1830s fall into the hands of suburb developers. Instead, he gave the land to the Central Indiana Land Trust. The 40 acres will become a nature preserve.

"Such land donations have become more popular since the downturn in the economy as property values have dropped and landowners seek to take advantage of federal tax breaks.

In Indiana over the past five years, there has been an increase of 64 percent in the acreage set aside for preservation, according to the first census of land trusts conducted on a national level by the Land Trust Alliance, which released its findings last month." (Indy Star).

In an area like Fishers, which has experienced explosive growth and development (click here for a satellite view of the suburbs), preserving land is an important part of planning for a sustainable future. Fishers typifies many aspects of urban sprawl, defined thus by Wikipedia:

Urban sprawl, also known as suburban sprawl, is a multifaceted concept, which includes the spreading outwards of a city and its suburbs to its outskirts to low-density and auto-dependent development on rural land, high segregation of uses (e.g. stores and residential), and various design features that encourage car dependency.[1] ... The term urban sprawl generally has negative connotations due to the health, environmental and cultural issues associated with the phrase.

While building suburbs and roads as fast as possible may be immediately profitable, preserving areas of undeveloped land are important to the overall health of our communities and of our environment.

What do you think?

40 Years of the Clean Water Act

2011-12-01T05:27:00.001-08:00

A couple days ago, the New York Times published an op-ed piece entitled "Keep the Clean Water Act Strong". The Act will celebrate its 40th anniversary next year. The article notes the successes of the Clean Water Act, but focuses on continuing challenges to its success, including ambiguously-worded laws, the prevailing belief that polluting business practices are better than clean business practices, and others. Moreover, in July 2011, Congress "strip[ped] the E.P.A. of some of its authority to enforce the Clean Water Act."

Oftentimes, environmental health and economic health are seen as being incompatible - one must be compromised in order to let the other flourish. However, a number of examples (here's one, from PRI's The World) prove that this is not always the case - protecting the environment can go hand in hand with protecting the economy, especially when it comes to farming.

Using conservation agriculture techniques has been proven to improve the health of the land (for example, planting a cover crop keeps nitrogen in the soil and drastically reduces erosion), and therefore the quality and yield of the crop.

Interested in learning more about the impact of erosion on farmland? Watch this short video for a primer:

Are you interested in learning more? Check out IASWCD's website!

Conservation Agriculture

2011-11-28T09:57:00.001-08:00

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations defines "Conservation Agriculture" as

“a concept for resource-saving agricultural crop production that strives to achieve acceptable profits together with high and sustained production levels while concurrently conserving the environment.”

Wikipedia is a widely-used source for background information on an untold number of topics, from personal histories of public figures, to detailed descriptions of Anime characters, to the history of bread.

For those who would like to learn more about conservation agriculture, check out Wikipedia's article on the subject.

It lists key principles of Ag Conservation, including "practicing minimum mechanical soil disturbance" (i.e. no-till farming) and "practice of crop rotation with more than two crop species" (i.e. cover cropping).

This photo of a beautiful cover crop is from PlantCoverCrops.com

Conservation agriculture is a worldwide movement, and has been for quite some time. Here in Indiana we have a strong Conservation Partnership that works to encourage landowners to engage in conservation practices. If you want to get involved, feel free to contact me via commenting on this blog post, or contact your local Soil and Water Conservation District! (PDF)

EPA's "Apps for the Environment"

2011-11-28T09:33:00.001-08:00

The EPA held a contest this summer to challenge "app" developers to come up with a tool that uses EPA data. The apps can be used on smartphones. The top five apps are:

Winner, Best Overall App: Light Bulb Finder by Adam Borut and Andrea Nylund of Eco Hatchery
Runner Up, Best Overall App: Hootroot by Matthew Kling of Brighter Planet
Winner, Best Student App: EarthFriend by Will Fry and Ali Hasan of Fry Development Company and Differential Apps
Runner Up, Best Student App: Environmental Justice Participatory Mapping by Robert Sabie, Jr. of Western Washington University
Popular Choice Award: CG Search by Rajasekaran Bala of Cognizant Technology Solutions

I think my favorite for everyday use is HootRoot, which helps users map out the greenest way to get where they're going, but the Environmental Justice Participatory Mapping app can be an important tool in recognizing environmental discrimination. According to the website, it "give[s] citizens access to basic information on unregulated water sources and abandoned urnanium mine features. The map also provides citizens with the basic tools to visulize the spatial elements of potential environmental hazards"

Check them out! A full list of contest submissions can be found here. What's your favorite?

Agriculture - Based Scholarships

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A variety of scholarships are available to students of Agriculture. A great list is featured on Brownfield Ag News' website. Some are available to a limited audience - Boone County residents or Ball State students, for example - and some are available to a wider audience, like one offered by the Indiana Beef Association.

See all the scholarship listings here.

For a large listing of ag-related scholarship programs, check out this link on Scholarships.com.

Attention young writers!

An essay contest co-sponsored by Indiana's Family of Farmers and Indiana Humanities is available to students in grades 4-12. The Contest is entitled, "Our Food, Our Farmers: Feeding the World." For details, go to this website. Sponsored by Indiana's Family of Farmers and Indiana Humanities, the essay contest encourages students to recognize and share all the ways Indiana agriculture plays a positive role in their own lives -as well as in the lives of those around them. The essay competition includes three grade levels: 4-6; 7-9 and 10-12. Entries must be received by Feb. 1, 2012. Details about how to enter the contest, guidelines for different grade levels, and prizes can be found here.

Conference: Special Opportunities

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Welcome back after a long holiday weekend! The season has just begun and the IASWCD office is busy preparing for the 2012 Annual Conference of SWCDs. The theme is The Power of Conservation: Local Action with Global Impacts! This will be the 69th time this educational and informative conference has been offered to the conservationists of Indiana, and we are looking forward to it! It will take place January 9-12 in downtown Indianapolis. For more information and to register, check out our website here.

There are still exhibitor booths available for any organization or company that would like to seize this excellent opportunity to reach out to the over 400 conservationists that will be in attendance at the conference. For more information, please contact Liz Rice, our project assistant.

This year, IASWCD was pleased to be able to offer up to 10 full conference scholarships to local Soil and Water Conservation District supervisors. (Supervisors serve as board members to their local SWCD. In Indiana, there are 92 SWCDs - one for each county. Learn more about supervisors, their role in promoting conservation, and how you can be one here!) The application deadline for this year has past (we awarded 7 full scholarships), but be ready to apply again in 2013!

IASWCD is also offering two grants of $750 apiece to the two SWCDs that recruit the most supervisors, staff, or associate supervisors to go to Conference this year. Those recruited must meet these criteria: 1) they have never been to Conference before, or 2) they must not have been to Conference since 2008. Recruiters may recruit individuals from outside of their own District. More information and the application can be found here. It is due January 4.