Wood River Soil Conservation

Western innovator: Organics improve land, profits

Help the environment, agricultural production are compatible goals, said John Stevenson

By Dave Wilkins

Capital Press

John Stevenson has never bought the argument that the objectives of agriculture and the environment are incompatible.

In 1972, he bought a ranch of 1700 acres near Bellevue, Idaho, leaving behind a career in finance in the region of San Francisco.

He began to grow barley malt for Coors and raise livestock.

"Great," said Stevenson. "I really enjoyed learning something entirely new."

Agronomists at Coors - now MillerCoors - taught him the ropes.

"It was a crash course," said Stevenson. "They were my teachers."

Stevenson learned quickly and barley has been producing high quality hay.

The Nature Conservancy recognizes its operation today as one of the farms of Idaho "showcase" of barley.

Stevenson is not afraid to try new things.

About four years ago he changed his fertility program to include the application of 5 tons of compost per hectare dairy each fall.

It reduces the amount of conventional fertilizers used on some fields by two-thirds - not a small thing when fertilizer prices are conventional "through the roof," farm manager Gary Beck said.

"We're just trying to build the soil in place," Beck said during a recent tour of the farm organized by a regional working group of biodiversity.

"It did not happen overnight," he said. "It took a while."

Stevenson began a farm of small trees in 1998 that includes spruce, aspen, willow and other species. Some of these trees were transplanted along the field margins and corners of pivot.

"We found tons of little birds nests" inside the choke cherry trees, "Beck said.

Association with Stevenson Conservation began in the 1970s when he worked with the organization to clean irrigation drainage. The resulting settling pond was the beginning of a wetlands that now attracts a variety of wildlife. Conservation easements others followed.

Beck had up to 45 antelope on the ranch at some point. Some could be seen in the fields of hay during a recent tour.

Stevenson has also worked with companies in crop protection to reduce environmental impacts.

Bayer CropScience has set up test plots at the farm to help identify pesticides with minimal effects on pollinators and other beneficial insects.

"This is probably one of the most productive farms in the valley," said Kelly Luff, a representative of Bayer CropScience in southern Idaho.

Deforestation and the Greenhouse Effect | Conservation of Forests

The main reason for deforestation is the demand for fuel wood and paper, farming, construction, agricultural, mining and road. Half of all trees felled in the world are used for fuel. Burning wood is common in developing countries where there is often no alternative readily available. This in itself is not a huge problem, only that most of these trees are not replaced, which is a problem. The use of wood and paper, mainly in developed countries, is a huge factor in deforestation in the world. Hardwoods like mahogany are sought after for furniture and are therefore very valuable.In each square kilometer of tropical forest, there are probably a half dozen mahogany trees, yet the whole area is often cut to those few trees with other trees left to rot, even if they are useful for something. Tropical forest areas, usually in developing countries, are offset by cutting all vegetation and then burning it. Pastures of grass are then grown and used for livestock. Once the cattle are a certain age, they are slaughtered. Although some of the meat goes to the local population, much goes industries providing cheap meat products such as corned beef and burgers.Vast areas of rainforest have to be allowed to support several hundred cattle. After a few years, all the nutrients were removed from the already poor soil and the land is useless, so another area of ​​rainforest to be cleared. Rejuvenation of the soil is possible, but it takes time and energy. Vast areas of rainforest are being cleared for agricultural land worldwide. In developing countries, there are two main types of agriculture: "Slash and Burn" and "subsistence farming".In forming burned forest areas are allowed to grow plants for a couple of years, then left for a few years for the rainforest to recover, then the process begins again. It is the most sustainable agricultural methods, but only if the population of the region is low, because as soon as you get more people in a region, there is less available land for each person and areas of land have not enough time to recover, so that the soil is quickly exhausted. Burn also increases air pollution. Subsistence agriculture, small areas of land have been cleared are farmed.The product is used to feed the family and provide a small surplus to buy other goods. The problem with this method is that the soil is quickly exhausted of its few nutrients and they are not replaced. This means that farmers have to rely increasingly on fertilizers before eventually being forced to move. Rare minerals such as gold ore, bauxite and iron are often found in areas of rainforest. For mining huge portions of rainforest are cleared, not just the area where the mine is, but also routes for roads and storage areas, equipment and housing for men.Examples include gold mines in the Amazon basin and tin mines in Indonesia. In places where there are large rivers that cross the forest, deforestation often takes place in order to build hydroelectric plants. The resulting dams cause enormous amounts of flooding behind the walls and large areas of drought downstream. The world's population increases. With this increase in the amount of land needed for humans to live on also increases. Areas increasingly being allowed to provide a living space. This is known as urbanization.In developing countries people move into areas previously undisturbed tropical forest to log, mine or farm. For example, on the Indonesian island of Java, the population grew so rapidly that people are encouraged to switch to other less populated islands where they cut the forest for agriculture and homes. The immediate effects of deforestation are outweighing the ground in the monsoon season. This is because trees are no longer anchoring and binding the soil and so mud slides take place. The earth is leached of minerals by the large amounts of water.The lack of vegetation also means that there will be very few animals in the region. The lack of decaying vegetation and animals means that nutrients are not replaced and the area quickly becomes infertile. Rivers often silt up as soil is moved downstream and the deposit is made. Fish and plants die based on a clear water river becomes increasingly clogged. This has a ripple effect throughout the food chain. If large areas of rainforest are cleared, the pattern of precipitation may change. This is because less evapotranspiration occurs in the absence of trees.Water is also not delayed before making his way through the soil due to the lack of trees, shrubs and dead leaves. Another very worrying effect of deforestation is global warming. The Earth is made habitable by a process called the greenhouse effect. Gases, mainly carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O) and water vapor (H2O), are found in the atmosphere. When the sun's rays come in the Earth's atmosphere, they are absorbed by the Earth and emitted as infrared radiation, greenhouse gas emissions capture one of them in the atmosphere, warming of the earth.The greenhouse effect is essential for life to be able to live on earth, because without it, it would be too cold. Current scientific theory suggests that when the level of greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere increases, the heat rays are trapped in the atmosphere, gradually warming the Earth. This temperature rise might seem nice enough, but it is not good. The effects of global warming are already showing themselves, and the polar ice caps are melting and if this continues we are set for a significant increase in sea levels, flooding many places.The places that are now full of life could become deserts if rainfall change with increasing temperature. Deforestation may partly explain the increase in greenhouse gases because trees have a large store of carbon in them, they take CO2 from the atmosphere by photosynthesis, and although much of what they absorb by breathing out, some of them still in the tree in the form of carbon. When trees are cut, especially when they are burned, this carbon reacts with oxygen in the atmosphere and becomes CO2.Fewer trees means more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and a greenhouse have increased, which in turn means more global warming. Levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere are also rising due to the burning of fossil fuels increases. Fossil fuels come from dead organisms, which have gradually been compressed over millions of years, so they are high in carbon. This means that when they are burned carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere. This increased use of fossil fuels that contribute to global warming led 160 countries to meet in 1997 in Kyoto, Japan, in an attempt to reduce emissions.In 2001, the newly elected President of the United States, George W. Bush said the U.S. would not sign the Kyoto Protocol because it would be economically damaging for the USA. Without the support of those nations that have the highest levels of emissions in the world, however much all other nations may try, chances are remote reduce global warming, which, if not reduced, will disastrous effects for all the many countries forest management of the Commission, a government department which is established to protect and increase the size of forested areas. For example, the Forestry Commission UKand the National Forest Service of the United States. Sustainable forestry is the act of managing a forest so that it continues to grow and the ecosystem is not disturbed. For every tree felled, two other younger are planted. Sustainable forestry is a good idea because even if the trees are cut, if they are replaced, the amount of CO2 that can be absorbed and stored in trees will remain essentially the same, which does not contribute to the greenhouse effect . The land is set aside for trees with the consent of the owner and the local community that the region of the earth should be a wooded area.Grants are awarded to help with the costs of planting pine trees etc. are often planted as opposed to oak and other hardwoods, as they are growing and there is a high demand for pine furniture and products.

Soil conservation, official organ of the Soil Conservation Service, United States Department of Agriculture ...

Congressional Record, V. 149, Pt. 3, February 12, 2003 to February 24, 2003

Report of the Chief of the Soil Conservation Service

Making Further Continuing Appropriations for the Fiscal Year 2003, and for Other Purposes: Conference Report to Accompany H.J. Res. 2, February 13 (Legislative Day February 12), 2003

Congressional Record, V. 147, Pt. 16, November 8, 2001 to November 28, 2001