As a Nature Conservancy scientist based in a Midwestern state, Steve Chaplin thinks a lot about the impact agriculture has on ecological treasures such as native tallgrass prairie. “Other than plowing, grazing has probably been responsible for the degradation of more prairie than any other source,” says Chaplin, who is in the Conservancy’s Minnesota field… Read more »
Posts Tagged: wetlands
Senate Listens to Public & Makes Crop Insurance More Accountable to the Environment
The U.S. Senate passed its version of the 2012 Farm Bill this week. While it’s far from perfect, specific amendments related to conservation and accountability that were passed during the floor vote give one hope that the voices of average citizens can be heard inside the Beltway. Let’s hope this is a sign of things… Read more »
Restoring Watershed Health: Drop-by-Drop
Another rainy Friday: a good time to contemplate what trying to produce food on an industrial scale has done to our natural plumbing—and how it pays back the favor. Recommend on Facebook Share on google plus Tweet about it
How to ‘Deal’ with NRCS, Drain a Wetland & Erode More Soil
While driving in southern Minnesota this week, I gazed upon acre-after-acre of black fields—a sign that despite a wet fall, a lot of intense tillage took place before the snow flew a few months ago. Such tillage not only gives crop farmers a jump-start on the spring planting season, it also provides a nice cover… Read more »