WINDBREAKER

Vol No. 1 Mountrail Soil Conservation District Newsletter Issue No. 2

Today we are in an agricultural revolution. A precision agriculture revolution. Those of you who farm and figured on retiring within the next few years may find yourself in front of a computer at home handling the data received from your combine while your sons and daughters are out in the field harvesting. In today’s market, you can find systems that provide real time displays of yield rates, area harvested, total and average bushels harvested. Software that imports yield monitor data and computes descriptive statistics and calculates acreage’s at farm and field levels, and systems that can guide an operator through straight, equally spaced parallel swaths. All this should benefit soil conservation by helping reduce excess pesticide use and make farmers rethink cropping certain areas they have been farming for years and turn these areas back to grass or legumes. A combine monitor may do more to reduce soil erosion than all the paper generated in talking about it. I feel Soil Conservation Districts should consider precision agriculture as important as anything else when it comes to reducing soil erosion.

The second of a three-year program has come to a close. With only one-year left to put trees along county or township roads for free landowners should start thinking about where to plant now. Having driven around the county there are many locations suitable for a living snow fence. The main guideline is that the road be a well-traveled road. Once a site is chosen, the guidelines are that a minimum of two rows be planted. One row is to be a shrub and the other a medium to tall tree. Minimum distance from a road is 200 feet. Cost share is 100 percent of cost of putting in trees. This can include weed barrier fabric. One half of the cost share is from the continuous CRP program and the other half is from the ND Forest Service. The CRP cost share is spread out over 10 years, while the half received from the ND Forest Service is received as soon as invoices are sent in showing the cost of the trees planted and any weed control put down. The deadline for the last year to apply for this program is February 19, 2001. Once this program ends it will not be available again. This is a landowners last chance to get 100 percent cost share of planting trees.

"A single spade full of rich garden soil contains more species of organisms than can be found above ground in the entire Amazon forest."

Recently purchased by the Mountrail Soil Conservation District is a book from the NDSU Extension Service. This wire bound booklet is called "Selected North Dakota and Minnesota Range Plants" by Kevin K.Sedivec and William T. Barker. This booklet contains 270 pages with 123 species of range plants. These plants are among the most commonly encountered on our local rangeland. Colored pictures and line drawings are provided for each species. Forage value, wildlife value, species scientific name, common name, family and tribe genetics, description, origin, growing season, habitat, and distribution are given for each of the 123 species of rangeland. In the back of the booklet is a glossary of terms, many of which are used to describe the many parts of each species. Lastly there is an index of scientific species names and common names. This is a "must have" for anyone owning large areas of rangeland who run cattle and is interested in what species give the best forage value and at what time of the year. This booklet is available from the MSCD for $21.00.

The Mountrail SCD has recently ordered a Truax no-till grass drill. This drill will be fifteen feet long and have the capabilities to seed any type of grasses including native grass seeds. It will have three boxes, one for legumes, one for tame grasses, and one for native grass seeds. The Mountrail SCD will provide a tractor and operator to go with the drill. If you are interested in some grass seeding, contact the Mountrail SCD. We are also looking into sharing with other districts the cost of special equipment for the removal of trees in tree rows. This equipment would be able to cut trees up to 12" in diameter. It does so by slowing shearing a tree. If anyone is interested please contact the Mountrail SCD so we can estimate what demand there is for this service.

Here is some information on one of the more popular trees that will be planted this spring. One of the most popular is the Colorado Blue Spruce. Blue Spruce is a broad, dense, pyramidal tree with stiff branches horizontal to the ground. It probably is the most popular ornamental evergreen in the state and is used primarily for shelter belt components and ornamental plantings. It is the most drought tolerant of the spruces, which compensates for its difficulty in establishment. Blue spruce performs best on moist well-drained loam’s that are neutral to very slightly acid. It does not tolerant flooding. Tree can attain a height of 60 feet, and a crown width of 25 feet on good sites. Blue spruce has many pests associated with it, some of which can be severe. Needle cast and canker are especially damaging. In North Dakota, often causing the defoliation and limb death of the entire lower portion of the tree. The most injurious insect is the yellow-headed spruce sawfly, which is capable of complete defoliation. The Blue Spruce provides fair cover for wildlife. It will primarily serve to deflect the wind and provide nesting cover for songbirds.

The Northern Coteau Project (NCP), a partners for Fish and Wildlife Program administered from the Lostwood Wetland Management District, is currently applying for a North American Wetlands Conservation Act grant, to do extension projects with private landowners in Mountrail County. If awarded the grant, funding will help landowners restore and create wetland, build water impoundment’s, for livestock and wildlife, plan rotational grazing systems, seed legumes and grasses, and protect native grasslands. Cost share for wetland projects is generally 100 percent. Cost share for developing grazing systems varies, but can be 100 percent of fencing materials. Grass seeding funds will be available for areas with good wetland densities. Cost share will cover the cost of the seed with the understanding that haying won’t take place until after July 15^th of each year. All projects have a minimum length of ten years. The NCP has had much success over the last ten years working with area landowners to enhance their operation with the dual benefits of providing productive wildlife habitat. If you should have any questions or projects in mind, feel free to call Kenny MacDonald, or J.B.Bright at 701-848-2466.

If there are any individuals, who do custom work, that would like to help sponsor the Mountrail SCD newsletter that have not been contacted please feel free to contact the MSCD at 628-2151. This newsletter goes out to approximately 840 landowner/operators in Mountrail County.

All NRCS and District programs and services are offered on a nondiscriminatory basis, without regard to race, color, national origin, sex, age, marital status, or handicap

Mountrail Soil Conservation District

P.O.Box 715

Stanley ND 58784

701-628-2151