What Do We Do?

Kevin Brown, Ag Resource Specialist, BCCD
As an employee of the Conservation District, what do we do?  We wrote an article a long time ago to explain our mission and our goals.  I think in the end, it was kind of a 30,000-foot view of our work, and maybe a little vague.  Let me try to really bring it home.  In the day-to-day world, this is what you would see from us.
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Agriculture- most issues in the ag world, in this county anyway, stem from cattle being on too small of an area for too long a time.  This results in 2 really big issues.  1- excess nutrients accumulate there because the nutrients are not being spread out on enough land; and there is nothing growing in the area to use the nutrients.  Result- potential pollution, depending on how far from surface water it is.  2- because nothing is growing, and the animals are tearing it up. The soil is loose.  Because the soil is loose, when rain events happen and water runs out of that area, guess what goes with it?  Soil and nutrients.  And guess where it is going?  Yep, the streams and river.  Just holding it together would cure most of the issue.

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How do we fix that?  Well, we can go several different ways.  Let’s be honest, management is the issue, right?  I mean, if we rotate animals through pastures enough, that loose dirt area does not exist.  Or, if we take that problem area and move it from along the stream to the top of God’s Knob (as we used to call it), then even if nutrients come out of that area, it doesn’t matter.  They can’t go far enough to make any difference.  Management fixed it for free. 

The next level up would be to simply stabilize a small area when animals can eat, drink, and/or relax.  That is what makes these areas most of the time.  They are trying to do one of these things.  Stabilizing can be with concrete or some kind of DSA base or something else really solid.  Again, 90% of the problem fixed for not much money at all (and we help pay for the majority of it). 

Next, if it can’t be easily fixed that way, we can help build a full-fledged (what we call) Heavy Use Area Protection (HUAP).  The common name for that would be a barn.  It really isn’t a barn, and there are several reasons why we would argue that it isn’t, but if the common person looked at it, that is what they would call it.  This is the Taj Mahal of fixes.  It would be a concreted area with a roof over it.  This does several things- stabilizes the area so there is no loose dirt, keeps rainwater off of it so nutrients can’t go anywhere that they shouldn’t, and we can now collect the manure (nutrients) and apply them where they need to be applied, NOT just where the cow is standing (and nothing is growing to use it).  This option requires spending major dollars to fix the problem, and yes, we are there to help fund that also.  

There will be more articles to come to explain what other people do here, but that is what the Ag Team is doing.  If you have these areas that need to be fixed, please contact us.  We can help.  We do NOT pay for all of it, and we won’t pay for bells and whistles, but we can offset a lot of it.  I tell people that, “we pour concrete, and we put a roof over it.  Period”.  We want cattle and manure and nutrients and water where they are supposed to be and not intermingling.  We also do a lot with writing plans for all the farms in the county.  If you have animals, you are REQUIRED to have a plan!  If you don’t, call us.  We will get one written for you.   It is a simple and painless process, I promise.
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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.