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Total conservation farm in Nutting Creek Trees and grasses key to soil conservation and water quality |
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Dan and Mary Burkhart’s 66-acre farm near Ossian in Fayette County is packed with conservation. The couple filled a smaller acreage with trees, then needed more room. Their retirement acreage in the Nutting Creek Watershed has conservation buffers, a filter strip, 4.4 acres of native shortgrass prairie seedings, 5 acres of walnut and oak hardwood tree plantings, bluebird houses, and timber stand improvement work. While only 15 acres of the farm is row crop, their lease requires the tenant use soil-saving no-till farming methods. “We’ve seen for more than 25 years that no-till works, and there are still some people saying it won’t work,” Dan says. “How much time do you need to convince people it works?” Burkhart has helped to promote the practices being used in the Nutting Creek Watershed to help improve water quality in Nutting Creek for years as county Extension Director, and now concentrates on using those practices on his new farm. The Nutting Creek Watershed is designed to eliminate manure runoff issues on 40% of priority livestock sites and reduce sediment delivery to Nutting Creek by 30% over the life of the project. The creek has biological impairment of the water quality from elevated levels of fecal coliform and sedimentation. The project, which received its first funding in 2008, also has an information and education component. In addition to Fayette County landowners, Winneshiek County landowners are also involved. |
Water in Nutting Creek (top) is being improved by landowners like Dan Burkhart (below, in shortgrass prairie planting). Burkhart also shows new hardwood trees (above) to Fayette Soil and Water Conservation District Commissioner William Bennett and Nutting Creek Coordinator Carrie Davis.
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One in a series of summaries of watershed projects in Iowa carried out by local conservation districts, the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship, Division of Soil Conservation, and other partners. |
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