News
EAST LANSING, March 5, 2018 — Agricultural producers wanting to enhance current conservation efforts are encouraged to renew their Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) contract.
Through CSP, USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) helps private landowners build their business while implementing conservation practices that help ensure the sustainability of their entire operation.
Participants with existing CSP contracts expiring on Dec. 31, 2018 can access the benefits of the recent program changes through an option to renew their contracts for an additional five years if they agree to adopt additional activities to achieve higher levels of conservation on their lands.
NRCS will mail contract renewal notification letters to all participants whose contracts expire in 2018, which will contain instructions on how to apply for renewal.
Applications to renew expiring contracts are due by April 13.
Through CSP, agricultural producers and forest landowners earn payments for actively managing, maintaining, and expanding conservation activities like cover crops, ecologically-based pest management, tree and shrub planting for wildlife, and pollinator and beneficial insect habitat – all while maintaining active agriculture production on their land. CSP also encourages the adoption of cutting-edge technologies and new management techniques such as precision agriculture applications and new soil amendments to improve water quality.
Some of these benefits of CSP include:
Improved cattle gains per acre;
Increased crop yields;
Decreased inputs;
Wildlife population improvements; and
Better resilience to weather extremes.
NRCS recently made several updates to the program to help producers better evaluate their conservation options and the benefits to their operations and natural resources. New methods and software for evaluating applications help producers see up front why they are or are not meeting stewardship thresholds, and allow them to pick practices and enhancements that work for their conservation objectives. These tools also enable producers to see potential payment scenarios for conservation early in the process.
Producers interested in CSP are recommended to contact their local USDA service center or visit www.nrcs.usda.gov/GetStarted.
The Arboriculture Society of Michigan and the Michigan Chapter of the International Society of Arboriculture has awarded the 2018 ISA Gold Leaf Award for Landscape Beautification to the Village of Kalkaska and the Kalkaska Conservation District for the passionate dedication of Staff and Volunteers in planting 50 trees in the Village to replace mature trees lost due to storm damage in August 2015. The award recognizes the well-executed planting of 50 trees by volunteers on Saturday, October 21, 2017.
t’s not too early to start listening for owls calling to each other in the early evening hours. Many owls are setting up territories, breeding, and getting their nests ready in the early spring and late winter. Since owls often respond to tape-recorded calls of other owls, or even to humans imitating owl calls, we thought it might be fun to go on an owl prowl!
“That’s a crow. No, wait. It’s a raven. Nope…a crow. Wait….a raven?…A crow?”
Do you secretly have this argument with yourself? No need to fret, we do to sometimes. The large and pesky black bird on the side of the road seems to always give us trouble. They are intelligent creatures that lurk in nearby trees, just waiting for the perfect opportunity to grab a snack.
The NMSFC promotes and builds a local vibrant agriculture community, equips the small farm community with the tools to be successful, and provides a forum for the open exchange of ideas within the small farm community. NMSFC Goals are to 1) To provide an outstanding educational event that meets the needs of the attendees of the conference, 2) To provide a forum for the open exchange of ideas within the small farm community, and 3) to help to build a local network of small farms, community businesses, and local government for the expressed purpose of building the local food economy.
Kalkaska Conservation District received a $3,000 Great Lakes Energy People Fund grant to fund a tree planting project in Kalkaska. The grant will be used to purchase trees to be planted along the Kalkaska Area Recreation Trail (KART). Currently, the 2-mile KART trail is very open with little tree canopy to shade the paved pathway. The District will plant trees to create areas of shade along the trail. I
Another hunting season is upon us. It’s the busiest time of the year in my corner of Kalkaska County. Hunting cabins have two or three trucks parked out front. The increase in human population is evident as you walk the streets in Fife Lake. Local shop keepers are happy to see their restaurants, gas stations and grocery stores busy.
