Buffer week

When the first enrollment period for the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) was announced in 1986, I had just transferred from a USDA office in central Kansas (at Newton) to the Fort Scott office of the old Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service (ASCS).

The contracts offered were for 10 years, and I recall wondering what might be happening in my life by the time those contracts ended -- and if I would even survive to see the end of those first contracts.

Well, I did see the end of those first contracts and have been involved with many new contracts through all the years since.

CRP was first announced as a program that would produce multiple benefits including 1) contributing to the reduction and control of soil erosion; 2) providing for a significant increase in favorable wildlife habitat; and 3) helping to stabilize the agricultural economy that was in the midst of its worse financial crisis on record during the 80s.

In hindsight, I would assess that the program has contributed to advancing all of those goals, the progress of which, of course, continues as the program moves beyond its 25th year.

Another additional benefit that has become obvious through the years, too, is the contribution that the Continuous CRP practices (like sod waterways, riparian buffers and filter strips) have made to water quality improvements along with the general program practices.

For example, researchers working with the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture in Ames, Iowa, report promising results from a new type of conservation practice that removes nitrate from water flowing in underground field drainage tiles before it reaches streams, rivers and other waterways.

An estimated 500 pounds of nitrate-nitrogen coming from crop fields along a 1,000-foot stretch of Bear Creek in Story County never reached the waterway this past growing season. Instead, the subsurface drainage water was diverted to an existing riparian buffer along Bear Creek before it reached the stream.

The new practice is called a saturated buffer, in which a shallow lateral line intercepts tile lines before they release water into a stream. The lateral line has control structures that raise the water table and slow outflow, allowing the buffers to naturally remove nutrients such as nitrate and phosphorus.

"One weakness of riparian buffers in protecting water quality is that our extensively tiled farm fields rush the subsurface drainage water right past and through them," said Jeri Neal, who leads the Leopold Center's Ecology Initiative that is funding the study. "As a result, we are not able to take full advantage of the clean water work those buffers are capable of doing."

Dan Jaynes, a soil scientist at the USDA's National Laboratory for Agriculture and the Environment and lead researcher for the project, said the system was able to redistribute about 60 percent of the field tile flow during the first year of data collection at the research site.

"The system removed 100 percent of the nitrate from 60 percent of the field tile flow," he said. "We figure that 250 kilograms, or about 500 pounds, of nitrate nitrogen was kept out of the stream."

"This is a technology many people definitely are interested in and in having more information about how they work," he added.

A new farm bill will be debated and passed this year. Hopefully, all the advantages and gains of the past 25-plus years will be considered in determining the future of the CRP and similar efforts.

Landowners and operators interested in the Continuous Sign-Up CRP practices should contact their local USDA Service Center for more information and to sign up for desired practices. Applications may be filed and approved at any time during the year.

Some added incentives are available for some of the practices. In the Marmaton Watershed, some recently announced Watershed Restor-ation and Preservation Strategies (WRAPS) incentives could also be available. WRAPS program information may be picked up at the Bourbon County Conservation District office.