Isaac Walker, BCCD, Ag Resource Specialist          
As we enter a stretch of warmer weather, one thing is on a lot of people’s minds. Mowing the lawn. I know that I’ve been thinking about it too, as parts of my yard get taller and taller while others stay relatively short. While it may be tempting to get out there and mow on the first day that the temps reach 70 degrees, I’d like to provide you with some information and hope that you consider waiting before firing up the mower early this year. 

Cathy Yeakel, BCCD, District manager
Spring is Right Around the Corner
Earth Day was first celebrated on April 22, 1970, as an environmental awareness day to educate people about pollution and its effects on the environment. Founded by a U.S. Senator from Wisconsin, Gaylord Nelson, Earth Day became a global movement to protect our environment. Since 1970, celebrations have changed from awareness lectures to outdoor events offering education on our natural resource issues and demonstrations.

​By: Heather McKean; former Penn State Extension educator
 
Have you ever discussed stormwater with your neighbor or wondered how to be a better stormwater neighbor? Neighbor disputes over stormwater are very common. Water does not follow property boundaries and there are often instances where water flows from one property onto another and causes damage. It is important to realize that activities on your own property can adversely affect your neighbor's property.

​I was reading an article from another paper this morning about rain.  It was singing the praises of rain and how we cannot do without it.  It was talking about how we don’t want to be caught out in it.  It can ruin a good day (if you look at it that way).  You don’t want it to rain while you are watching a parade, or having a cookout, or any number of things.  But, it pointed out that rain is a good thing.  I mean, it is the basis of life!  It grows food and shelter and clothing.  It prevents fires from getting out of control.  (I have heard that at the end of last week, the brush fires started.)  Imagine if we had no rain.  The landscape would be a boring as the Sahara Desert.  And wildlife- if you want to see some wildlife, head for your nearest area of surface water (pond, stream, etc.).  There will be wildlife there, I am sure.  Rain is a great thing, and places in the west fight over who is going to get that water when it comes down the stream.  They don’t have enough to do what they want to do (live, wash, grow crops, water lawns, etc.).  We need moisture, but sun always steals the show.  After reading the article I was going to write one of my own, expanding on this topic.  However, as I thought of all the good things, I started to add up all the bad things about it- floods, erosion, drowning, supports mold growth, rots things, changes streams over time (usually to places we don’t want it to go), shrinks things, and the list goes on.  I am sure you can come up with a number of things on your own.  I then contemplated that my article should be about all the bad things associated with rain.  We have all experienced those things in the last 6 years.  Then I thought, how could something so good, also be so bad?  Are there other things that way?  And my mind started to drift.  Is it really all about perspective? 

by Ryan Reed
A reprint from Forest Fridays, a DCNR publication
 
If you’re an avid outdoors person, chances are that you have heard the sound before. Let’s just say the sound can be very unsettling. This hair-raising, goosebumps-inducing noise will certainly get one’s attention, and can be heard during this period of the late winter season when everything else can seem dead silent.

by Ryan Reed An article reprinted from Forest Fridays, a DCNR publication.
 
Roughly 17 million acres of Pennsylvania are covered by forests; approximately one third of which is publicly accessible.  We should all be thankful for these facts for so many reasons, including benefits of clean air and water, wildlife habitat, recreational opportunities, and so many more.
 
One reason to be thankful for forests, which I don’t often encounter in things I read, is much less quantifiable and admittedly abstract, but I would bet that many readers feel the same.  I think I speak for many of us when I say that I’m thankful for our forests for the sense of wonder they inspire. 

By: Andy Yencha; Penn State Extension
 
Stormwater harms local creeks, rivers, and lakes in two major ways. It causes physical damage like flooding, streambank erosion and loss of fish habitat when too much water drains into a creek or river too quickly; and it causes water pollution because stormwater often contains harmful materials picked up when it washed across the land. These pollutants can be grouped into five broad categories.

​By: Kevin Brown, Ag Resource Specialist, BCCD
You haven’t?  Then you just don’t know what kind of soil you are dealing with, do you?  This is really a neat little experiment to see just how good your soil really is.  How healthy is it?  I have written a number of articles about soil health, as you may well know, and this is one way to determine how good your soil is.

Farming really is the good life.  Anyone that has had a hand in it knows this.  It has taught me money management, time management, long days, hard work, respect for both humans and animals alike, and where things really come from; along with realities of life and death as animals are born or animals pass away as time marches on, to learning how to survive off the land if I really had to.  There is no better place to raise a child.  They come out as respectful, hard workers.  Most bosses love to hire people that have come from a farm.​

​An excerpt from a previous article by Amy Kneller, previous Farmland Preservation coordinator, BCCD
Open enrollment for Farmland Preservation in Bradford County is each January (now).  This is the reason for this article to be printed now.  If you are interested, please get ahold of us ASAP.
Farmland Preservation requires municipalities, landowners, and funding.
To be eligible for the county Farmland Preservation program, farms must:
1) be part of an Agricultural Security Area (ASA)
2) contain at least 50% class I through IV soils, as defined by USDA-NRCS.
3) contain at least 50% harvested cropland, pasture or grazing lands
4) contain at least 50 contiguous acres OR over 10 acres and utilized for a crop unique to the area or contiguous to a property that already has a permanent conservation easement.
 
Ag Security Areas (ASAs) are created by local municipalities to preserve the viability of local farms.  Participating farms are protected from some “nuisance” challenges and local ordinances that would unreasonably restrict farm structures or farm practices.  The ASA designation does not restrict the use of the property by the landowner.  They may develop, sell, or subdivide the property in any manner authorized by local regulations.