Staff writer
Nearly 20,000 acres of Marion County land are part of a conservation program intended to reduce invasion of woody plants on pasture land, according to supervisory district conservationist Matt Meyerhoff.
“That’s just those that are active,” Meyerhoff said.
Farmland enrolled in the Great Plains Grassland Program supervised by Meyerhoff’s Farm Services Agency often can be identified by piles of trees waiting to be burned.
“This framework looks at opening up grassland areas with trees,” Meyerhoff said.
The program works to clear unwanted trees, prevent trees from reestablishing, and restore the land to a more “native” state.
Examples of trees the program works to eradicate include hedge trees that have spread into pastures, eastern red cedar trees, honey locust tress, and elm trees.
“Those are the main ones in Marion County,” Meyerhoff said.
Other trees include oak, walnut, and cottonwood, and sycamore.
“When we start oaks, walnuts, and sycamores, we have a conversation,” he said.
A landowner might want to eradicate them or leave them to provide shade for cattle or a perch for birds or to produce seeds.
Trees that are historically significant are also left alone. A stand of trees might have been planted on purpose, which creates historical significance. Two groves north of Florence are examples of trees excluded from the program, he said.
A landowner’s goals are used to design a program specific to that portion of land, and the program provides money toward completing the program.
Plans can last as long as seven years.
“Most are between three and five years,” Meyerhoff said.
How much the program costs depends on how woody the pasture is when enrolled. Landowners know when they enroll how much the effort will cost and how much the conservation department will pay. The rate paid is per acre of enrolled land.
In smaller pastures, the cost is less, Meyerhoff said.
Funding sources vary, he said. Conservation in the Doyle Creek Watershed north of Peabody could be funded, for example, through 15 different programs.
Production of deer habitat is factored in to the plan for a specific pasture, he said.
Applications are open now, and participation is strictly voluntary.
The program is part of the Environmental Quality Incentives Program.
EQIP is Natural Resources Conservation Service’s flagship program.
EQIP improves water and air quality, increases soil health, reduces erosion and sedimentation, creates better wildlife habitat, and mitigates drought and weather volatility.
Other NCRS conservation programs include:
- Agricultural Conservation Easement Program.
- Agricultural Land Easements.
- Agricultural Management Assistance.
- Air Quality Initiative.
- Colorado River Basin Salinity Project.
- Conservation Innovation Grants.
- Conservation Reserve Program.
- Emergency Watershed Protection Program Buyouts.
- Environmental Quality Incentives.
- Grazing Lands Conservation Initiative.
- Landscape Conservation Initiatives.
- Lesser Prairie-Chicken Initiative.
- Monarch Butterflies.
- National Water Quality Initiative.
- On-Farm Energy Initiative.
- Water Bank Program.
- Watershed and Flood Prevention Operations Program.
- WaterSMART.
- Working Lands for Wildlife.