Close to the Ground
Keeping You Up-to-Date on the
Art and Science of On-Farm Monitoring
Winter 1999 • Vol.1, No.1
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Close to the Ground
Keeping You Up-to-Date on the Winter 1999 • Vol.1, No.1 |
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Send us Your Stories
Welcome to the inaugural issue of Close to the Ground. We want this quarterly newsletter to be your source of practical information on monitoring the biological, social and financial sustainability of your farm.
To do that, we need your help. The editors welcome any stories, anecdotes or tips related to on-farm monitoring.
We are particularly interested in what you’re observing on the land and how that compares to past observations. Are you seeing more or fewer night crawlers than before? Are meadowlarks nesting in your area? What impacts are your farming practices having on erosion rates? What impact on streams did you observe after a new management practice was implemented? Have you found a dandy new way to keep field notes? How do you get your family involved in monitoring?
Drop us a line. We’re looking forward to hearing about your adventures in monitoring. Contact:
Close to the Ground
Land Stewardship Project
2200 4th St.
White Bear Lake, MN 55110
Or call: (651)653-0618; fax: (651)653-0589; email: lspwbl@landstewardshipproject.org
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The Other Farm Journal
By Anita Zelenka
I’m washing dishes in my kitchen. Looking out the window, I see rolling grasslands for about a mile until they meet the tree line that borders the Chippewa River. As my dishwater runs, a male leopard frog begins croaking. He is either excited by the sound of running water or he is complaining that his only companions at this time are three salamanders.
They are sharing an aquarium in my kitchen. It will be a short stay as we have a family understanding that we will not keep wild creatures captive for more than two days. Tomorrow we will release those amphibians near our creek.
My two sons, Nik 12, and Dylan 9, brought the frog and the salamanders into the house with great excitement at their find. What is so special about these amphibians? They have caught many over the years, but never have they found them so early in the year: March 16, 1998. I know this date is correct because we wrote it down in our "family farm journal." If we had not recorded the date, we would not have remembered it so well. In fact, I can recall the whole day better because I wrote down three lines about the frog and salamanders along with the date.
Last August I was telling someone about it and I was saying it was in early April. But then I looked at the farm journal and to my surprise, it was March 16! I would never have believed it if I hadn’t written it down.
On May 20, Nik, Dylan and their father Paul saw a large carp heading upstream to spawn around sunset. We know that northern pike head upstream also because in June we trapped baby northerns that were on their way down the creek. On June 23, most of the chubs caught in our trap were three to four inches long, a few were five to six inches long. Last year most chubs were five to eight inches long. We are also beginning to learn more about observing stream organisms. Our creek is one of the indicators of the health of the environment we live in. By monitoring its changes we are monitoring our environment.
These are just a few examples of how critical documentation is if we are to do effective biological monitoring. We are constantly working at writing down things we observe on our farm. We are recording and observing the flora and fauna of the pastures and sloughs surrounding the creek. In particular, we are interested in how the rotating of our livestock affects the plant life as well as the soil. Our family draws maps of our farm that indicate what is growing where. We record the types of trees planted, and where. It is the biological history of our farm, and the key to its success is monitoring. By keeping track of what is going on we can perhaps make changes that will help correct management errors (like over-grazing). Without monitoring and recording our observations we would have to rely on our memories and, as my experience with the leopard frog sighting proves, it is not wise to base management decisions on memory alone.
Anita Zelenka, along with her husband Paul Lines, farms in the Chippewa River basin in western Minnesota. They are members of the Chippewa River Whole Farm Planning and Monitoring Team. For more information on this group, contact Audrey Arner or Terry Van Der Pol, 103 W. Nichols, Montevideo, MN 56265; phone: 320-269-2105; e-mail: aarner@maxminn.com
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Photo Monitoring
Photo monitoring can be an effective way to document and compare the impacts your farming methods are having on land over time. Brian Freking, a livestock specialist with the Kerr Center for Sustainable Agriculture in Poteau, Okla., has been using photo monitoring for the past couple of years to document the effects of management intensive grazing on the Center’s ranch. This photo recording system has helped the Center adjust its stocking rates in riparian areas.
Freking offers the following tips:
Brian Freking can be contacted at: Kerr Center for Sustainable Agriculture, Inc., P.O. Box 588, Poteau, OK 74953; phone: 918-647-9123; e-mail: mailbox@kerrcenter.com
For more information on using a camera for monitoring, check out the Resources/Tools section.
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Macroinvertebrate sampling
Keeping track of macroinvertebrate populations is an excellent way to obtain a complete picture of how healthy a stream is. Because these organisms may take up to a year to mature and develop, their status provides a long-term view of how the stream itself is responding to various land uses such as livestock grazing.
Unfortunately, taking samples that consist of hundreds of these tiny organisms has the potential for being tedious, time consuming and expensive. Citizen-based monitoring projects have used the "Rapid Bioassessment Protocol III" (RBP III) system of reducing the number of organisms identified as a shortcut to sampling macroinvertebrate populations. It relies on taking subsamples that consist of 100 organisms only, and so is much less expensive and time consuming.
But some scientists have raised concerns that this savings in time and money is coming at the expense of accuracy.
However, a new study conducted by Bruce Vondracek and Laurie Sovell shows RBP III can provide a good indicator of the health of a stream’s macroinvertebrate populations. This research was done as part of their work with the Monitoring Project Team (see story, page 4). During September 1995, they collected 22 macroinvertebrate samples from nine riffle habitats across four streams in southeast Minnesota. They compared the accuracy of larger subsamples consisting of hundreds of organisms with samples that consisted of only 100 invertebrates and found both gave a similar picture of how the stream was doing.
"What we found was that collecting 100 organisms is sufficient to tell us about the stream’s health," says Vondracek, who is with the U.S. Geological Survey’s Minnesota Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit at the University of Minnesota. Sovell, a former graduate student who worked with Vondracek, now works for the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency.
This study also has good news for farmers and others hoping to do their own stream monitoring but not wanting to spend the time identifying macroinvertebrates down to the "genus" or "species level" (the grouping hierarchy, from general to specific, goes like this: order-family-genus-species). Training and time increases as one identifies invertebrates from order to species. But Vondracek and Sovell found that identifying these organisms down to their "family" levels was adequate when assessing stream health—at least in the streams they examined.
For more information on this type of monitoring, contact: Bruce Vondracek, Minnesota Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, University of Minnesota, 1980 Folwell Ave., St. Paul, MN 55108-6124; phone: 612-624-8748; e-mail: bcv@fw.umn.edu See the Resources/Tools section for information on how to contact Sovell and get involved with citizen stream monitoring.
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Values-Added Observations
by Terry Van Der Pol
I’m a member of a group called the Values Added Graziers, which is based in the Upper Minnesota River Basin. The group rents 34 acres of pasture land belonging to members Paul and Ginger Homme of Granite Falls. The pasture lies between a steep hillside and the Minnesota River.
With a number of different individuals sharing the day-to-day responsibilities of animal care (checking and moving the cattle in the pasture, etc.) we developed a log book to be filled out by whoever performs those chores on a particular day. This log book has become an important part of our ongoing communications within the group, as well as our monitoring record. It includes recording temperatures and rainfall, as well as observations about forage and the cattle.
The quality of life we desire includes discovering and enjoying the rich diversity present on the land and experiencing the joy of seeing wildlife. So, we decided to record these observations as well. Graziers were encouraged to "log in" sightings of wildlife, including location and observations about behavior. Some group members also entered observations in the attached "journal."
Following is a sampling of some journal entries and a list of sightings for the 1998 grazing season:
Early Summer: "On my way along the path to check the fencer I heard a low growl and then a hissing sound. I looked up the path and three feet in front of me was a baby woodchuck, about the size of a softball, puffed up, teeth bared, making it perfectly clear who had the right of way here. I cut her a wide berth."
Midsummer: "As I felt along the side of the tank to find the plug to drain it I was surprised by some unexpected livestock. I guess it’s a great comfort to a garter snake to stretch its body along a cool metal water tank on a hot day."
Birds: marsh wrens, meadowlarks, cowbirds, orioles, red-headed woodpeckers, yellow winged blackbirds, pheasants, red tailed hawk, swallows, vireo
Mammals: deer, woodchucks, rabbits, squirrels, coyotes, raccoons
Amphibians & Reptiles: frogs, five-lined skinks, bull snakes, toads, garter snakes
For more information on the Values Added Graziers, contact Terry Van Der Pol at: 103 W. Nichols, Montevideo, MN 56265; phone: 320-269-2105; e-mail: tlvdp@aol.com
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Some of you receiving Close to the Ground are learning about the Monitoring Project for the first time. This project led to the development of The Monitoring Tool Box, as well as this newsletter. Here is some background on the origins and history of this innovative initiative.
by Jodi Dansingburg
Measuring the success of a farm seems easy when maximum productivity is used as the main gauge.
But what if a farm family is striving for a holistic goal that includes good quality of life, profitability, and long-term ecological health of the land? How and what can family members observe or measure to find out if they are achieving their goals?
To help answer these and other questions, the Minnesota-based Land Stewardship Project (LSP), in partnership with the Minnesota Institute for Sustainable Agriculture (MISA), convened a team of 25 people. The diverse group included six farm families making the transition to management intensive grazing (MIG), as well as university researchers, private consultants, LSP staff and federal, state and local agency officials.
The initiative, which began in 1993, is called the "Biological, Financial, and Social Monitoring Project," but is referred to most often as "The Monitoring Project." Monitoring Team members have expertise in soil science, plant pathology, wildlife ecology, hydro-geology, farm management, water quality, rural sociology, animal production, agricultural economics, stream ecology, vegetation management, on-farm research and participatory education, as well as various approaches to whole farm management.
The Team’s goal is to encourage movement toward sustainable farming systems and to develop and test a process of on-farm observation and interaction that brings together farmers and other professionals to monitor ecosystem health as well as economic and social well-being of the farm family.
The Team is also working to implement a new dynamic process for designing agricultural research that is participatory and farmer-driven. Emphasis is on a whole-systems approach which depends on a dialog among all team members.The process values and develops on-farm knowledge and experience, and fosters changes in current research approaches.
The Monitoring Project hopes to engage farmers, researchers, the public, agency officials, private business and others in feedback and application of on-farm monitoring and whole-systems participatory research. It is also raising questions and hypotheses for ongoing research in other settings.
This type of inquiry requires long-term data collection to observe impacts on the ecosystem and family well-being. In the shorter term, the team is also developing useful indicators for farmers and information for policy makers. Although the Monitoring Team’s work is ongoing, some preliminary findings are:
Data analysis and interpretation for the first three-year phase of the project is being completed and several articles are being prepared for scientific publication. The Land Stewardship Project has published a report based on Monitoring Project work by agricultural economist Dick Levins, entitled Monitoring Sustainable Agriculture with Conventional Financial Data.
The Monitoring Team has also developed The Monitoring Tool Box, a user-friendly guide for monitoring the social, economic and environmental effects of farming practices on the land and the people who live on it.
Jodi Dansingburg is a southeast Minnesota farmer and Land Stewardship Project staff member who has worked closely with the Monitoring Team.
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Photography: A Basic Monitoring Technique for Riparian Ecosystem Projects can be downloaded from the Internet, http:www.wsu.edu/pmc_nrcs/technotes/plant_materials/tntpm33.htm You can also get a free copy by calling the Plant Materials Center in Pullman, Wash., at 509-335-7376; e-mail: pmc_nrcs@wsunix.wsu.edu Ask for Technical Note #32 when ordering.
The Good Guys! Natural Enemies of Insects is a set of 31 laminated photo-cards of beneficial insects and bug-killing diseases that are likely to be found in the Midwest. To order, send an $8 check or money order payable to the Illinois Natural History Survey to: 607 E. Peabody Drive, Champaign, IL 61820.
The Citizen Stream Monitoring Program is looking for Minnesota volunteers willing to devote some time and energy to conducting simple stream checks on a regular basis. This program is combining the technical expertise of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) and the knowledge of local citizens to develop a more comprehensive and effective statewide network for monitoring streams.
For more information, contact: Laurie Sovell, Water Quality Division, Monitoring and Assessment Section, MPCA, 1230 S. Victory Drive, Mankato, MN 56001; phone: 1-800-657-3864 or 507-389-1925.
Whole Farm Planning: Combining Family, Profit, and Environment is a new publication developed by the Minnesota Institute for Sustainable Agriculture and the University of Minnesota Extension Service. For a copy of the 30-page publication, send $2.50 (add $2 for shipping; Minn. residents add 7% for tax; make checks payable to the University of Minnesota) to: Extension Service Distribution Center, University of Minnesota, 1420 Eckles Ave., St. Paul, MN 55108-6069. Call 1-800-876-8636 for credit card orders and information on bulk orders.