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Biodiversity Tips, Articles &
Interviews
 
Biodiversity Tips for Farmers
Summer Musings on Farm Health
and Safe Food (*new*)
Some Suggestions for Bringing
More Life to Your Farm This Spring
A Winter Checklist for Increasing
Biodiversity On and Beyond Your Farm
Regional Wild Farm Stories
Teaching Young People to Care
About Nature in California (*new*)
Farming with the Wild in Southern Oregon’s
Rogue Valley
Field Notes: Back to Grasslands in Minnesota
Farming With Nature: Conservationists and Ranchers
Can Get Along in Arizona
National Wild Farm Articles and Interviews
Farms that Help the Wild Stay Healthy
Farming With The Wild: Enhancing Biodiversityon
Farms and Ranches
Food and Biological Diversity
Connecting Food Systems with Ecosystems
A Food Monolith Gets a Face-Lift
Biodiversity Tips for Farmers
Summer Musings on Farm Health and Safe Food
In the flurry of summer, when the farm seems to have a life of its own
and sieze control of the farmer's destiny, a little biodiversity can go
a long way. Stopping under the cool oak tree where a rodent-eating raptor
just breakfasted, visiting the pollinator garden buzzing with mason and
bumblebees, or resting at the end of the day next to an odd-shaped piece
of land restored with native plants that attract wildlife–can calm
the soul. It's part of what makes farming interesting–at least that
is what we often hear farmers say about biodiversity.
Organic farmers are begining to recognize that biodiversity conservation
is part of the National Organic Program rule – not just part of
its philosophy but part of its legal definition. The operator must maintain
or improve the natural resources of the operation, including soil, water,
wetlands, woodlands and wildlife.
Knowing this detail could come in handy the next time a food safety auditor
recommends a sterile approach to farming, such as destroying that pollinator
garden or the native grasses planted in a ditch to stabilize the banks
and protect water quality. Misguided recommendations like these are targeted
towards reducing wildlife presence, but little has been documented implicating
wildlife. In fact, a recent UC Cooperative Extension bulletin states that
"unless future research findings indicate otherwise, it is hard to
justify extensive trapping, baiting, fencing and vegetation clearing for
the specific purpose of reducing animal vectoring of E. coli o157: H7."
They came to this conclusion based on finding that no voles, mice, ground
squirrels, or other rodents have been associated with pathogenic E. coli
in coastal California farms. By turning a problem audit into an opportunity,
the farmer can help to educate food safety auditors, not only what is
at stake with the legal organic requirement, but how farming with nature
can help with managing the crop.
Often, these auditors are more familiar with processing plants than farms
and could benefit from learning how organic farming requires and relies
on many interrelated natural processes. There's the pollinator garden
containing early spring flowering coyote brush, the stretch of willows
and ceanothus that support native pollinators who in turn visit almond
blossoms, making the farm less dependent on imported pollination services.
Without that native plant thicket full of shrubs and trees, the piece
could be overrun with weeds instead of attracting pest-destroying parasitic
wasps, minute pirate bugs and lacewings. Similarly that oak tree–almost
an ecosystem by itself–supports insect-eating bat species roosting
under loose bark, songbirds nesting in the canopy, and thousands of species
of insects. Plus, it may be growing on a hill or near a creek holding
the soil in place that could otherwise be a costly loss.
The web of biodiversity also offers protection from dust- and water-borne
pathogens. Research has shown that dust can carry E. coli 0157. Native
plant hedgerows and windbreaks reduce wind and serve as a buffer between
crops and manure-laden dust on nearby ranch lands. Moreover, according
to UC researchers, grasses and wetlands filter from 70 to 99% of pathogens
like E. coli in runoff. So by keeping a protective cover of vegetation
on the land, the farmer can ensure a safe food supply. The beauty of a
farm rich in biodiversity provides multiple functions that sustain its
operation, from pollination, pest control, food safety and complying with
the federal organic rule, to sharing a peaceful moment at the end of the
day.
Some Suggestions for Bringing More Life to Your Farm This Spring
Daylight hours are lengthening at last, or maybe spring snuck up on you
this year.
Whatever the case, a season of new growth has arrived, bidding us to shake
off any remnants of a long winter’s nap and return full attention
to the fields. With that sense of renewed energy comes opportunity to
try out fresh ways of increasing biodiversity on and beyond your farm.
Those bursting blossoms and that faint hum in the air are sure signs that
the pollinators have returned for another year on the job.
Here are a few simple things you can do to provide for their needs:
• Leave some areas of soil undisturbed for ground-nesting bees.
• Add flowers in peripheral areas such as field edges and fencerows
to provide foraging resources for bees.
• Consider providing “bee blocks” (constructed nesting
sites) to attract more native pollinators to your farm.
To learn more, see Wild Farm Alliance’s briefing paper “Wild
Pollinators: Agriculture’s Forgotten Partners,” available
on our Briefing Papers page. The
Xerces Society has additional resources available.
Spring is a great time to make headway on ridding your farm of invasive
plant species. While weeds are a ubiquitous problem on farms, the spread
of aggressive non-natives into natural areas is the second greatest threat
to biodiversity. Thus, knowing the enemy is key, and early detection makes
management much easier. Apart from vigilance on the prevention end, the
essential ingredients are persistence and patience.
A few options for controlling exotics:
• Mechanical removal, while time-consuming, can be highly effective
for smaller populations of plants, especially if you catch them before
they go to seed. Remember to dispose of plant material properly, however,
to avoid re-introducing the problem.
• Growth suppression using mulch can be another successful strategy.
Lining mulch with a layer of cardboard can further increase its effectiveness.
• Biological control methods are also available that can range from
having goats graze in an infested area to releasing hairy weevils in places
where yellow starthistle is a problem.
The California
Invasive Plant Council has lots of helpful information on this topic.
Schedule farm activities to accommodate wildlife. Being mindful of their
lifecycles will help you plan accordingly.
• Arrange crop rotations so that at any given time, some fields
will be available to shelter wildlife.
• Be aware of what wildlife (e.g. ground nesting birds) might be
residing in areas of standing vegetation before mowing or weed eating
and avoid nest sites.
A Winter Checklist for Increasing Biodiversity On and Beyond
Your Farm
During these short days and long nights there is ample time to reflect
on the past farm year and to let your creativity fly, making plans not
only to be more solvent financially, but more prosperous ecologically.
There’s many ways to go about increasing biodiversity, but it is
always best to start with the big picture by looking beyond the farm.
What kinds of biodiversity exist in the region and which components would
add to your and the earth’s bottom line, and to the beauty that
feeds us all? Below is a list of plans and actions to consider this winter:
o Cover crop bare soils.   
o Install native grasses, sedges and rushes in ditches. 
o Plant native trees and shrubs along creeks and streams.
o Redesign irrigation system to conserve more water.
o Install sediment basins.
o Monitor water quality and adjust practices as needed.
o Plan crop rotations so refuge for beneficial insects and other wildlife
is present.
o Plant hedgerows.
o Install barn owl boxes, insectivorous bird boxes, and bat houses.
o Learn about rare species in your area.
o Remove invasive species.
o Keep vegetation low in areas where you’ll be working in the spring
so ground nesting birds do not take up residence there.
o Restore or augment wildlife corridors.
(Legend of benefits =
water quality; pest
control; pollinator;
enhance
wild biodiversity)
Regional Wild Farm Stories
Teaching Young People to Care About Nature in California
I recently heard Mas Masumoto, author of Epitaph for a Peach, speak at
the EcoFarm Conference in Pacific Grove. On that stormy January afternoon,
his story about biting into a sun-warmed peach so perfectly ripe that
its juices inevitably made their way down his chin had all our mouths
watering at the memory of summer’s fruit. Driving home his point
that we are shaped by our remembered moments, Mas then asked each of us
to recall a defining experience that brought us into deeper connection
with our food. Some shared stories of harvesting peas from their grandmother’s
garden; others told of sprinting from the field, fists full of corn, to
get it cooking before the sweetness began escaping out the husks. Accounts
varied like the shades of spring, but the theme was common and deceptively
simple: some of the shortest chapters in our life history often have profound
implications on how we view the world.
Many of our nation’s children spend a paltry number of hours interacting
with the natural world. The litany of causes can range from video games
and overexposure to the Internet to urban blight and suburban isolation,
depending on whom you ask. Coined “Nature Deficit Disorder”
by author Richard Louv, this lack of contact and familiarity with biodiversity
could have far-reaching consequences. If there is truth to the adage that
we protect only what we love, we love only what we understand, and we
understand only what we are taught, then thoughts of the next generation’s
conservation ethic quickly turn sober. Without memories grounded in the
sight of the creek, the smell of the garden, or the sound of the woods,
young people are unlikely to conclude that the preservation of a diverse
countryside and intact wild places are really that significant.
CAFF has helped to reverse this trend with its Farm to School Program
that teaches students a sense of place rooted in an agricultural heritage.
To further integrate the concept that healthy food requires healthy ecosystems,
CAFF is collaborating with Wild Farm Alliance (WFA) on a new direction:
student involvement in the Biological Farming Program. In addition to
learning about the importance of supporting their local farm economy and
why fresher is better, students are being taught how farming practices
and their food choices can affect things like wildlife and water quality.
But what does that look like?
It’s a cool December morning on Tom Broz’s small, mixed-crop
organic farm near the Central California coast. Young lettuces and broccoli
are poking up their heads in some fields while others wear a winter cover
crop. An old van pulls up with Farmer Tom at the wheel. Students from
the Santa Cruz Montessori School pile out, awakening the scene with laughter
and talk of whatever happens to be occupying their middle school minds.
Shovels are distributed and everyone gathers around to give their best
guess at what the word hedgerow really means. Following some talk of beneficial
insects and pests, native pollinators, habitat connectivity, and the filtering
action of roots, the students are given a demonstration of how to free
a plant from its pot and get it into the ground right side up. Then, tools
in hand, they are set loose to install a 500-foot row of native plants
by lunch.
A couple of hours later, the fields are quiet again, and unless you were
looking closely, you might not notice much of a change. But along one
side of the field, on the edge of a drainage ditch, insects are investigating
the newly arrived native shrubs. And below the surface, native grasses
are tentatively putting down roots that will anchor the soil and help
clean up whatever water flows their way. Talk to the kids munching their
sandwiches and there might be lingering confusion about the precise definition
and functions of a native plant hedgerow, but there will also be dirt
under their fingernails, and an excited smile as they tell you about the
frog they saw jump into the ditch.
CAFF and WFA are also partnering with organizations like the Monterey
Bay Aquarium that already have strong educational programs in place. High
school students involved in one of their latest endeavors, WATCH (Watsonville
Area Teens Conserving Habitat), helped install a grassed swale at a local
apple grower’s orchard last summer. And a group of precocious 11
to 14 year-olds from the Aquarium’s Student Oceanography Club, having
recently learned about agriculture’s impact on marine systems, spent
a Saturday planting a riparian corridor and playing in the mud through
the middle of Bob Thorson and Jeanne Harrah’s Deep Roots ranch.
Although these brief experiences won’t single-handedly address the
complex problem of children growing up at a distance from nature, they
are a step in the right direction and taken together, might amount to
a strong base. By getting students outdoors and offering them a tangible
means of interacting with their environment, these activities create a
memory that might just bubble up to the surface when that child-turned-adult
is determining how much value to assign family farms and the preservation
of ecosystems.
Farming with the Wild: With a growing presence in southern Oregon’s
Rogue valley, an emerging national movement works to integrate organic
farming and biodiversity protection.
By Dan Kent and Dan Imhoff
Even as agribusiness is increasingly attracted to an organic farming industry
that has mushroomed into a $25 billion-a-year global business and large-scale
organic growers produce multi-thousand acre monocrops, there is good news.
Life down on some farms and ranches is getting wilder. Around the country,
farmers, government agencies, and consumers are finding that local farms
can not only provide essential sources of nutritious food, but also protect
wild biodiversity.
In the world of sustainable agriculture, we hear a lot about the term
"biodiversity." This can refer positively to the protection
of soil organisms, such as earthworms or mycorrhyzal fungi. Or it could
refer negatively to the devastating loss of traditional crop diversity,
in terms of the dwindling numbers, varieties, and breeds of plant and
animal species grown and collected for human uses.
It is less often, however, that we hear people speaking about "wild
biodiversity" in dialogs about sustainable agriculture. By this,
we mean the healthy habitats needed to support native flora and fauna
in the areas where agriculture takes place. In some ways this is understandable.
After all, agriculture at its very root, involves the domestication of
the wild. Ultimately, agricultural operations reduce complex landscapes
into zones of intensive production for just a handful of plants, or more
often, a single monoculture.
What has become particularly apparent in North America, however, is modern
agriculture’s role in the "biodiversity crisis." Over
the past two centuries, agriculture production has converted more and
more native habitats to agricultural lands—from river valleys to
grasslands to wetlands to uplands and woodlands. In order to compete in
global markets, to pay for expensive machinery and inputs, or simply to
create "clean" farms void of "weeds," ever larger
amounts of habitats have been erased from already cleared lands. With
the clearing of habitat comes the loss of species. The result is that
wild biodiversity has been pushed further and further into isolated pockets
on the landscape. Agriculture has become the leading cause of species
endangerment on the North American continent. And the situation is not
that different in other regions throughout the world.
Fortunately, an increasing number of farms and ranches are incorporating
the wild (integrating and protecting wildness in and around their operations)
and working to enhance biodiversity. Helping to lead the charge towards
protection of native biodiversity is Wild Farm Alliance (WFA), a California-based
coalition of conservationists and sustainable farming advocates founded
in 2000. WFA works nationally to reconnect ecosystems and food systems
with a vision based on organic farming as the foundation of a new agriculture
that embraces aquatic and terrestrial biodiversity.
Organic farming has made great ecological strides through crop diversification
and biological pest control, but healthy farms within degraded landscapes
can offer only minimal value to biodiversity. Organic farmers can use
a variety of practices to conserve biodiversity within the larger natural
landscape: planting sequentially flowering pollinator and beneficial insect
hedgerows; timing farming activities to avoid disturbance of nesting pollinators,
birds and other wildlife; protecting priority species; preventing the
introduction and spread of invasive species; conserving natural areas
of the farm, in addition to linking to and buffering wildlands. These
activities often improve farm productivity as well.
In the Pacific Northwest, Salmon-Safe, a leading regional eco-label, has
been working for almost a decade to highlight the connection between food
production and wildlife preservation, particularly the protection of wild
Pacific salmon. In 2003, a streamlined Salmon-Safe organic overlay standard
was jointly developed by Oregon Tilth and Salmon-Safe by comparing Salmon-Safe’s
certification program with the national organic standard. The overlay
standard includes additional riparian area management and judicious irrigation
requirements that are either not covered or covered only indirectly under
organic certification.
The joint certification program has been field tested extensively in southern
Oregon, where it directly addresses habitat conservation concerns that
aren’t fully addressed by organic certification. "While organic
farmers tend to be the best farmers in their watersheds, every farmer
is looking for ways to better manage farm resources and every farm presents
opportunities for habitat improvement or conservation," said Tim
Franklin, organic farmer and Salmon-Safe project manager in southern Oregon’s
Applegate Valley where the program is working with over 20 farms.
"The project has proven to be a great complement to the National
Organic Program," Pete Gonzalves executive director of Oregon Tilth,
said. "Working with Salmon-Safe is a way for us to bring additional
value to family-scale organic farmers in the Northwest." For organic
crops to earn the Salmon-Safe logo, they must be produced according to
rigorous conservation guidelines. These guidelines include using cover
crops to minimize erosion into streams, promoting natural methods to control
weeds and pests, planting trees near streams to keep streams cool and
improving irrigation practices. Farms receive Salmon-Safe assessment by
Oregon Tilth inspectors as an optional addition to their routine organic
inspection.
This past March, the National Organic Standards Board unanimously approved
the Wild Farm Alliance’s request to integrate biodiversity criteria
into their model Organic System Plan; final wording is expected later
this summer. Although the criteria do not go into intricate detail in
relation to the needs of fish, they do cover a broader diversity of conservation
issues. Organic farming is evolving, and these biodiversity-oriented programs
from Salmon-Safe and the Wild Farm Alliance are helping farmers take a
leadership position in addressing some of the critical water-related issues
in the northwest.
In southern Oregon, farms have implemented a variety of practices to achieve
or enhance their Salmon-Safe status. Members of the Applegate’s
Siskiyou Sustainable Cooperative have worked to fence and revegetate riparian
corridors, conduct erosion control projects, and restore native woodlands.
Liz Baum, of the Siskiyou Coop’s L & R Family Farm, likes the
message behind the Salmon-Safe label. "The Salmon-Safe Applegate
program helps people distiguish between conventional organic and what
we’re trying to achieve, which is family-scale, sustainable farming
– it’s beyond organic," says Baum. L & R Family Farm
fenced and planted their part of the riparian area along Williams Creek,
home to coho and Chinook salmon, steelhead trout, and diverse wildlife
community.
Find out more about Salmon-Safe’s overlay certification for Oregon
Tilth certified organic farmers at www.salmonsafe.org or by calling Salmon-Safe
at 503.2323750.
Field Notes: Back to Grasslands
By Brian DeVore
From , Minnesota Volunteer (a publication of the Minnesota Dept. of
Natural Resources)Jan-Feb 2005
John Bedtke stood on a high spot overlooking his Winona County dairy farm
one day last June and told a handful of visitors to look around.
"What do you see?" he asked the farmers, DNR professionals,
and researchers gathered there. What they saw on the 160-acre farm was
grass-lots of it, an increasingly rare sight in southern Minnesota.
On Bedtke's pastures, the visitors also saw bird species that have become
scarce as grasslands disappear. Bobolinks, savannah sparrows, and meadowlarks
were flitting around grazing Holsteins. These grasslands birds were living
testaments to the farm's success in creating habitat for wildlife.
Farmland as habitat may be even more critical as authorization for the
federal Conservation Reserve Program ends in 2007. Then contracts to set
aside almost 400,000 acres of Minnesota farmland will expire. Contracts
for another 400,000 acres end in 2008. That means hundreds of thousands
of acres of habitat could be plowed up by decade's end. Already farmers
are reverting to row crops as contracts expire. Lincoln County lost more
than 12,000 acres of CRP and Wetlands Reserve Program land between 1997
and 2002.
"Minnesota could lose a significant amount of wildlife habitat that's
been protected under CRP," says Wayne Edgerton, DNR agriculture policy
director. "In addition to preserving as much CRP acreage as possible
under the next federal farm bill, we need to be creative at maintaining
and improving habitat on working land that's in agricultural production."
To make perennial grasses a profitable part of their farm, John Bedtke
and his wife, Donna, use a technique called managed rotational grazing,
which divides a field into grass paddocks using portable fencing. They
move cows to a new paddock every few days to prevent overgrazing and to
distribute manure evenly.
One rotational paddock is on Whitewater Wildlife Management Area, adjacent
to their farm. By agreement with the DNR, the Bedtkes temporarily fence
16 acres of native big bluestem, little bluestem, Indiangrass, and switch-grass.
Because cows graze there every couple of years, the need to do prescribed
burns to maintain the grassland is reduced. "It's another tool we
can use to manage prairie and provide habitat for pheasant, deer, turkey,
and grassland bird species," says DNR area wildlife manager Jon Cole.
Grassland birds are showing up on the Bedtke farm too, according to a
recently completed two-year study by University of Minnesota graduate
student Melissa Driscoll. Many techniques that improve rotational pastures
also improve wildlife habitat. For instance, resting paddocks for 30 days
between grazings significantly increased the nesting success of savannah
sparrows, according to Driscoll.
More rotational grazing operations are springing up in Minnesota. In 1997
the Natural Resources Conservation Service (part of the U.S. Department
of Agriculture) drew up 25 grazing plans for livestock farmers. In 2004
three times as many plans from 4 acres to 2,500 acres were completed,
and 160 farmers were on a waiting list.
Nevertheless, row crops, which cover the land only a few months of the
year, have displaced perennial cover such as pasture. Between 1975 and
2001 in nine southeastern Minnesota counties, the proportion of acreage
planted to corn and soybeans increased from 64 percent to more than 80
percent. Minnesota as a whole lost 30 percent of its pastureland between
1997 and 2002.
That's why conservationists should pay attention to what farmers like
the Bedtkes are doing, says DNR watershed coordinator Larry Gates. "We
will need to rely more on acres like this-land that's being worked."
Additional Links:
Land Stewartship Project - Tips for providing grassland bird habitat on
livestock farms worked."
Brian DeVore is editor of the Land Stewardship Project Letter
Farming With Nature: Conservationists and Ranchers Can Get Along, As
Some Southern Arizona Pastures Show
By Tim Vanderpool
From Tuscon Weekly, March 18, 2004.
Rancher Mac Donaldson has adopted new conservation techniques. Mac Donaldson
rumbles alongside lush Cienega Creek in his beat-up GMC, eight Angus bulls
wobbling grimly in a red trailer behind. At 1,500 pounds per, these pitch-black
lotharios are a daunting, beefy load on their way to winter pasture. But
by spring, they'll be giddily reunited with Donaldson's larger herd of
1,200 cattle, to engage in several weeks of lusty bovine bacchanalia.
"We like to have all the calves born around the same time," he explains.
But there's far more to this rustic scene than meets the eye: Under a
innovative arrangement with his landlords--the Arizona Land Department
and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management--Donaldson is helping the Las Cienegas
National Conservation Area return to its roots as an abundant, wildlife-rich
grassland. In the process, he's also helping to protect several threatened
species, from the Southwestern willow flycatcher and Gila topminnow to
the lesser long-nosed bat.
A cattleman by trade, with a black hat, sun-beaten cheeks and manure-splattered
boots, Donaldson seems an unlikely conservationist. But he's in constant
touch with a team of 25 biologists, botanists and even a few enviros.
Together, they schedule cattle rotations to keep these sweeping grasslands
vibrant. Riparian areas get equal attention: Creek crossings are spare
and tightly orchestrated, to avoid damaging banks and disrupting wildlife.
Simply put, Donaldson considers progressive range management the last,
best chance of survival for his gasping profession.
"By having this team onboard, I'm able to adjust the management of the
ranch, and adjust the bottom line," he says.
"I see it as the natural evolution of cattle ranching."
So does Daniel Imhoff, author of the recently published Farming With the
Wild: Enhancing Biodiversity on Farms and Ranches (Watershed Media; $29.95).
In his beautifully produced book, Imhoff details efforts to integrate
nature with farming, rather than obliterate it.
"I think wilderness people really weren't seeing the farmers and ranchers
as necessary collaborators," he says, "but they're an increasingly necessary
link in the chain of species survival. After all, two-thirds of the land
in the lower 48 states is being used for agriculture."
According to the United States Department of Agriculture, agriculture
is also the leading contributor to species endangerment in this country.
To turn that around, a growing number of farmers and ranchers are blurring
the lines between nature and cultivation. Among them is Tubac-area farmer
Mark Larkin. Stretching alongside the Santa Cruz River 40 miles south
of Tucson, Larkin's organic farm is banked by a canopy of mesquite, cottonwood
and willow trees. It's also in the heart of what Imhoff calls the "Pollinator
Trail," where researchers have listed up to 1,200 bee species and 25 nectar-feeding
birds and bats. To help these animals flourish, Larkin's fields are thickly
planted with wildflowers and wild squash--a delicacy for certain bees--winding
along the furrows.
Now he's turning to pasture-grazed cattle, which he calls "even more in
light with wild farming techniques. Organic vegetable farming really beats
up the soil--it involves a lot of plowing to keep down the weeds. As a
result, the soil is always getting torn up."
In contrast, properly maintained cattle pastures "are like raising an
orchard," Larkin says. "The growth in the fields can remain more permanent.
With livestock on pastures, you're also required to pay a lot more attention
to natural cycles. The cattle will be rotated, and pasture lands will
be great for pollinators."
Larkin's approach marks a convergence of two potent trends, says Imhoff.
"My book started with people arguing for wildlands connectivity. They're
saying, 'Look, our core wilderness areas are more and more isolated, and
if we are going to maintain species populations and natural migration
patterns, we need connectivity between wildlands.' At the same time, you
have the organic movement, probably the most dynamic part of the food
sector, growing at 10 percent a year."
But that very success is making the industry more globalized--and thus
less responsive to local ecosystems.
"You find these huge organic farms that don't conform to surrounding landscapes
at a biotic level," Larkin says. "To me, it seemed that these two things
really had to come together, if we're talking about sustainability."
That approach is being pushed by several environmental groups, including
Defenders of Wildlife.
"Farming with the wild captures the spirit of a new agro-ecology movement
that's growing internationally," says Scotty Johnson, a Tucson-based rural
outreach coordinator for the group.
Defenders is assisting several projects in the United States and in Mexico;
all of them seek to make wildlife protection an incentive to stimulate
more wild farming, Johnson says.
"In North Carolina, we work with commodity producers; in Wisconsin, it's
potato farmers. In Arizona, Montana and Idaho, we combine our wolf compensation
program with rural development to encourage wolf acceptance. We have similar
programs for wolves on the Mountain Apache Reservation, and in Mexico,
we are working with ranchers to protect the beautiful and elusive jaguar
population."
Forty of those ranchers, farmers and groups are the focus of Farming With
the Wild.
"My whole approach was to highlight on-the-ground examples of farmers,
land trusts, agencies, people starting eco-labels--people who are trying
to merge conservation biology with a profitable farm, and see if that
inspires others," Imhoff explains.
But for his part, Mac Donaldson doesn't need convincing. Now he's leaning
against his truck, as the bulky bulls lumber off across lush rangeland.
"Las Cienegas contains one of the most intact sacaton deltas and riparian
areas in the west," he says. "That's good for wildlife, and it's good
for ranching."
Pictured Rancher Mac Donaldson has adopted new conservation techniques.
Photo by Tim Vanderpool
National Wild Farm Articles and Interviews
Farms that Help the Wild Stay Healthy. An Interview with WFA's
Jo Ann Baumgartner and Oregon Rancher Tim Franklin, and Andrew Geller,
Host/Producer of KBOO radio's People Rise Up program.
KBOO – We are talking about how organic farmers and ranchers can
move into the un-stereotypical role as advocates for the conservation,
restoration and preservation of biodiversity. There’s a booklet,
about 30 pages long, called Biodiversity Conservation; An Organic Farmers
Guide. Jo Ann, tell us what the Guide is and why it was created.
JO ANN – The Guide was created because the National Organic Program
(NOP) rule requires biodiversity conservation. The Guide goes through
about 50 different practices that farmers can do to comply with the rule.
A few years ago the Independent Organic Inspector’s Association,
a major group that trains organic inspectors, came to us and said. “Did
you realize that the organic rule actually requires biodiversity conservation,
and could we help them train inspectors?” So we put together a committee
of organic farmers, certifiers and conservationists and came up with this
guide that you can download from our web site; wildfarmalliance.org. That
committee of experts helped us develop a set of biodiversity inspection
questions that we took to the national guiding body, the National Organic
Standards Board and they amended their model organic inspection forms,
to include biodiversity into the inspection process.
KBOO – And that was the change this past August.
JO ANN – Yes, and so the Guide is a supporting document for organic
farmers to comply with the rule. But it can be used by any farmer, it’s
just that it does focus in on areas where the organic rule has been applied
and enforced.
KBOO – What are some of the key concepts or practices that a farmer
or rancher would apply if they wanted to comply with aspects of the NOP
related to this? It sounds like what you are talking about is a step beyond
what is mandated.
JO ANN – Biodiversity conservation is mandated in the rule. There
always have been some farmers that have been doing a really good job and
some that just didn’t know what they were doing wrong and what they
could do better. This guide will help bring the whole level of knowledge
up in the organic industry. As far as practices; there is everything from
farmers who have put up bird boxes to attract rodent eating birds, to
providing habitat in farms in the form of hedgerows. Farmers supporting
predatory insects and pollinators, to restoring riverine habitat that
keeps our waters clean. The riverine habitats also serve as wildlife movement
corridors.
Some farmers are even taking out marginal land, such as low, wet areas
that were wetland and restoring it back to its natural state. This helps
with flood protection and ground water recharge. These are just a few
of the many practices.
...click here to download the
complete interview
Farming With The Wild: Enhancing Biodiversity
on Farms and Ranches. An Interview with Author Dan Imhoff
With Scott Vlaun, editor of Seeds of Change eNewsletters
After reading Farming with the Wild, I had the great fortune to meet Daniel
Imhoff at the 2005 Ecological Farming Conference where he led an all-day
workshop and tour promoting the synthesis of sustainable farming practices
and conservation of biodiversity. As these goals are essential to the
mission of Seeds of Change, I asked Dan if he would talk to us about his
vision for the future and what it means for us as gardeners, farmers,
and citizens. I caught up with Dan a few months later in Taos, New Mexico
for this interview.
http://www.seedsofchange.com/enewsletter/issue_47/Imhoff_interview.asp
Food and Biological Diversity
By Dana Jackson
From Orion Afield.
After decades of monocultures, pesticides, and habitat destruction, biodiversity
is becoming a hot topic in agriculture. Plant diseases, herbicide-resistant
weeds, and peaks and crashes in yields have farmers worried. Some agronomists
and ecologists have concluded that lack of crop diversity is a real problem.
This concern represents a significant departure form the past, and it
bodes well for the protection of natural biodiversity within agriculture.
A special report called "Benefits of Biodiversity" was published this
spring by the Council for Agricultural Science and Technology (CAST).
It was written by a task force chaired by Dr. Donald Duvick, former Pioneer
Seed Company vice-president now at Iowa State University, and Dr. G. David
Tilman, well-known ecologist at the University of Minnesota. One of its
messages is predictable: genetically modified organisms will increase
crop diversity and be the answer to feeding the world (they must keep
Minnesota happy). But another message is new for CAST, and I find it very
encouraging: we must "establish more biodiversity reserves worldwide"
and manage rural landscapes "to have a mixture of agriculture and natural
ecosystems that can preserve much of local biodiversity and provide ecosystem
services essential to agriculture."
I say amen to more biodiversity reserves, but it is the other recommendation
that excites me, because it has been typically ignored, and it relates
directly to the work of the Land Stewardship Project (LSP), a grassroots
membership organization founded in 1982 to foster an ethic and practice
of stewardship for farmland. A few years ago, we formed a team of farmers,
university researchers, and agency professionals to study indicators of
sustainability on farms where animals were moved through a series of pasture
enclosures, grazing each section intensively. They monitored populations
of birds, frogs and toads, insects and fish, as well as soil quality.
The farmers gained a new appreciation of plant diversity in their pastures,
including prairie species, and developed grazing patterns to encourage
nesting of bobolinks and savannah sparrows, grassland birds that have
been on the decline since corn and soybeans engulfed the countryside.
This project has broadened LSP's focus; we are learning to foster stewardship
of the wild.
Many major environmental and conservation organizations have worked hard
to protect the natural world from agriculture-and for good reason. Consider
the millions of acres in corn and soybeans that have replaced prairies
and wetlands. Nitrogen and phosphorus from fields and feedlots find their
way into streams, and each year the Midwest Corn Belt dumps a nutrient
load into the Mississippi that contributes mightily to the zero-diversity,
hypoxia zone in the Gulf of Mexico.
How do we prevent agriculture from preying on the natural world? Neither
private organizations nor government agencies can afford to buy enough
agricultural land to protect streams or establish reserves for biodiversity.
Instead, we must devise incentives for farmers to be conservationists,
as Aldo Leopold advocated, and protect or restore natural habitats on
their farms.
Farmers who strive for biodiversity in their crop and livestock enterprises
have the potential to increase natural diversity. Many have begun replacing
corn and soybean fields with soil-holding perennial grass and legume pastures
to supply most of their animals' feed. In their whole farm plans, they
set goals for protecting aesthetic features of the land, which often enhance
natural habitat, as well as quality of life. Because these management
practices lower the need for costly machinery, fuel, and chemicals, these
farms can profit as long as they have fair access to livestock markets
and receive fair prices. However, today's giant meat packers and dairy
processing companies discriminate against them.
There are two ways to help diversified, family-sized farms both make a
living and practice better stewardship of the wild. First, we need to
build regional food systems that enable farmers to quit selling commodities
on the global market for low prices and instead sell food to people who
appreciate it for its quality and the way it was grown. Sustainable beef,
pork, lamb, and chicken producers, like community-supported vegetable
farmers, are beginning to sell directly to customers for fair prices.
Second, we should develop public policies that provide incentives and
rewards for farmers who produce multiple benefits for society. Let commodity
prices respond to the market, and link federal subsidies for farming to
improved water quality through grass or forest buffers along streams,
maintenance of wetlands for floodwater retention, and the restoration
of habitat for native plants and animals.
As consumers and citizens, we must take advantage of agriculture's awakening
to the merits of diversity and support the farmers who provide food and
biodiversity at the same time.
Dana Jackson is associate director of the Land Stewardship Project
in White Bear Lake, MN.
Connecting Food Systems with Ecosystems
A Food Monolith Gets a Face-Lift
By Dana Jackson
I will bet that everyone who reads this article knows what the food pyramid
is. You may not know the details, but you will know the symbol, know that
it depicts foods that are good for people. Within three years of the release
of the 1992 pyramid, nearly half of American adults had heard of it, and
that increased to 67 percent, according to surveys in 1997. Most children
learned to recognize the pyramid with the horizontal bands picturing food
groups, not only from posters in their classes but from advertisements
and cereal boxes.
The familiar icon was originally called the Eating Right Pyramid, but
when introduced in 1991, protests from meat and dairy commodity groups
and processors sent it back to the drawing board. The industries were
unhappy because the pyramid presented a hierarchy of foods good for people.
Grain products (six to 11 daily servings recommended) were shown on the
broad base, with meat, poultry and milk products (two to three daily servings)
on a narrower band above. After lots of money spent on additional research,
the pyramid was re-issued in 1992 with only slight changes and a new name,
the Food Guide Pyramid.
...click here to download the complete
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