Excessive cropland erosion is not a new story, but gains made over a 30-year period to reduce soil loss have been lost in the last five years.
This is according to Rod Webb (Pierce County Land Conservation Director), Mark Biel (United States Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Services District Conservationist) and Greg Andrews (UW-Extension Agriculture Agent), who say the issue needs to be brought into the public eye. Town officials need to get involved.
The Pierce County Land Conservation Committee, which includes Dale Auckland, Jerry Kosin, Leroy Peterson and Lee Skog, as well as county staff members, is studying the issue and looking for ways to solve it.
“We’re not tip-toeing around the issue,” Webb said. “We’re calling a spade a spade. There are farmers out there who are not interested in protecting a resource. They want to maximize profits.”
Local citizens have recently begun to take notice of erosion issues around Pierce County, said Andrews. This spring after heavy rainstorms, town boards in Hartland and Trenton were approached by residents questioning the costs to the townships of road infrastructure damage in those towns caused by erosion.
Over the last five years, county-wide, road crews’ work loads have increased cleaning out ditches, unplugging culverts, altering waterways and repairing bridges, all negatively impacted by cropland erosion, Andrews said. These added costs are paid for by the taxpayer and shouldn’t happen, since it’s a preventable problem.
He also said townships may consider adopting ordinances that would charge landowners the cost of infrastructure repairs, if it were proven the problem was caused by their negligence.
“It quantifies the seriousness of what we’re talking about,” Andrews said.
Erosion can cause unintended consequences. According to Andrews, a bus driver from Hager City reported skidding June 4 on 730th Street in the Town of Trenton on a large amount of soil that had washed into the road.
From 1982-1997 there was a significant drop in average soil loss from erosion nationwide, Biel said. But since 1997 erosion has been increasing thanks to some farmers going back to their old ways. No till practices have been falling by the wayside, Andrews said.
The 30-year-old Conservation Reserve Program once boasted 36-38 million acres enrolled nationally, but has significantly gone down thanks to increasing commodity prices a few years ago. Those prices prompted some farmers to till more land to plant more crops, in order to increase profits.
The April 2015 Pierce County Successful Conservationist newsletter lauded farmers and landowners in the county for improving soil conservation in the past year, but said there is much more to do.
“In the eyes of most, soil erosion greatly increased from 2011 to 2013, erasing the progress of the previous 30 years. Small grass waterways were lost, gully erosion increased, excessive tillage, land clearing and contour strips were removed,” the newsletter stated.
Webb said the vast majority of Pierce County farmers practice good soil conservation, but the few who don’t (and have large acreages to boot) ruin it for all.
“Getting a few more involved could have a huge impact,” Webb said. “But voluntary participation can only go so far.”