It's Your Turn

​By Kevin Brown- BCCD, Ag team Leader
If you are a regular reader of the column, or you have read something that sparked your interest, or you just disagree with something you have read, here is your chance to talk about it.  We have received a grant to hold two meetings to talk about a lot of the conservation practices that we continually talk about and promote.  I am going to structure the meetings to be more informal where we can listen to each other and find out what experiences other locals have had.  There are a lot of people out there that are a lot smarter than I am and they have maybe done things a certain way for a long period of time and have been very successful at it.  Why wouldn’t we want to hear from them?  If you would like to be one of “them”, or if you want to hear from “them”, make plans to be there.  I think we have plenty of great topics to talk about.

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​Meeting one will be more of an Ag related meeting.  It will be geared more toward production ag and the practices that they are implementing to become more profitable, have better soil health, and prevent nutrients from getting into areas we don’t want them in.  We will talk about cover crops and what seems to work in our corner of the world.  We have interseeded for a number of years now and the results have been more than interesting.  We have a local beef producer coming in to talk about grazing.  He is doing things completely different than what your normal grazier is and being rewarded with great beef and really high forage yields.  We will talk about no tilling and what some of the advantages of no tilling are that maybe don’t get talked about a lot.  We will talk about a number of funding opportunities that are out there to help you with these practices, and more.  Lastly, we have an in-house forester now and he will be there to talk about good forest management.
The second meeting will be geared more toward the general public.  Although you can attend either one, or both, this is the way that I went about setting them up.  For the second meeting we will talk about no till gardens- doing it the easy way.  We will also cover pollinator mixes.  The who, what, where, when, and why.  I received more feedback from that article than any other, and this is very important to our local insect population.  Another big item is looking at, and using, really wet areas differently.  We will discuss rain barrels to capture the rain, rain gardens, and just plain wetlands (areas).  Why are these areas so important to us and how can we use them better, for ourselves and nature?  A lot of the things we will talk about are going to make LESS work for us, have better habitat for everything else in nature, and make them look beautiful.  What more could you ask for?  Well, you could ask for a Master Gardner being there to help out.  Well, we have that too.  And she will talk about gardening “stuff”.  Lastly, we will talk about food plots and how to establish them maybe a little easier than what you are used to.  It really doesn’t take a lot of tillage to plant a seed that is the width of a dime.  Let’s do less work AND work with nature, not against it. 
Details?  Both meetings will be held at the Wysox Fire Hall.  Meeting one will be Friday, April 1st, 9:00-3:00.  Meeting two will be held on Saturday, May 14th, from 9:00-12:30.  Please RSVP to 570-485-3144 or visit our website so that we have an idea how many people we will have for lunch.  Meeting two will have a grab-and-go quick lunch that you can grab as you are leaving.  Please come with questions and experiences.  I hope that this will be a learning experience for all of us.
 
The Bradford County Conservation District is committed to helping people manage resources wisely.  You can visit the Bradford County Conservation District at 200 Lake Rd in Wysox across from the Wysox Fire Hall. Contact us at (570) 485-3144 or visit our web page at www.bccdpa.com.