Conservation News is the newsletter of Merrimack County Conservation District It is distributed free of charge to Merrimack County residents and landowners. If you would like to receive Conservation News by mail or e-mail, contact Lisa Morin. Or click on the links below to read some articles from the Fall, 2001 issue:

Experts Pool Knowledge at Pond Maintenance Workshop

Do you know how to cure or prevent algae in your backyard pond? Why do your fish die? What can you do about cattails? Where do you go for help when your water lilies cross the line from lovely to overwhelming?

You can find answers to these questions and many more to at a pond maintenance workshop such as the one MCCD hosted July 25 at Great Brook Farm in Canterbury. About 30 participants gathered around Ben and Melanie Ladd's orchard irrigation pond to learn about pond construction and maintenance. Participants received a thick packet that included the District's pond maintenance booklet and other information. They also had the opportunity to pick the brains of Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) Conservationists Bill Hoey and Mike Lynch and biologist Alan Amman.

Amman firmly believes in an ounce of prevention. "I think a lot of people want a pond but don't know what they are getting. There's the pond you want and the pond you get. What you want to do is match the two so the pond you end up with is what you wanted."

The second half of the evening took place atop the small earthen dam that creates a recreational pond on the Ladd farm. DES expert Nancy McGrath talked about dam and Soil Potential Indexllway inspection and maintenance. Fellow DES wetland pro Sandy Crystall reviewed the application process for wetland dredging and filling. Lynch spoke about problems in repairing earthen dams and Amman weighed in with tips on plant life and stocking your pond with fish.

Beavers are high on McGrath's list of things she least likes to see when inspecting an earthen dam. "Beavers are awful on man-made dams," she said. McGrath went on to note that trees growing atop a dam can block the flow of water. Tree roots also provide home for burrowing animals and block the sun required to grow the vegetative cover desired for erosion prevention.

So what about those algae, plants and fish? Amman says an owner has to plan for and maintain a plant-free pond. "Cattails grow in certain water depths," he pointed out. "Keeping them out comes when you're designing a pond." In some cases algae can help control unwanted vegetation by providing shade.

District Manager Lisa Morin plans future workshops on this topic. Call her at (603) 223-6023 to get on a mailing list. Or you can jump start your pond research for only $5.00 by purchasing the pond maintenance book the District publishes.

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An Ounce of Prevention…

Here are some pond maintenance tips the experts at NCRS shared at the District's recent workshop:

Conservation Highlights: MCCD News

District Attends Events--The District had a very busy, very successful summer. Staff and volunteers had a table or booth at four events: the Pittsfield Hot Air Balloon Festival, NH Ag Day, the Little Nature Museum's two-day Celebration of Nature at Gould Hill Orchard and the five-day Hopkinton State Fair. Lots of people stopped by to learn more about conservation at all the events. Kids eagerly played with the composting worms, crawled through the soil tunnel or watched the Enviroscape and water pollution model while their parents learned about backyard conservation and other topics. The soil tunnel and ladybug conservation tattoos were particularly big hits.

AmeriCorps News--The District has a new part-time AmeriCorps member on staff. Sherry Young has been busy since late June creating a new informational flyer, designing a portable display, writing press releases and helping to staff the MCCD booth during the dog days of August and September. She edit Conservation News, beginning with this edition. Her position is funded by the NHACD AmeriCorps project and a grant from the Merrimack County Savings Bank Foundation. Sherry gardens organically in Contoocook with her husband, four dogs, a cat and assorted chickens and ducks. “This is a great opportunity. I’m able to combine my interest in agriculture and conservation with my experience in writing,” says Sherry. “It doesn’t get much better than that.”

Poster Contest Results--The MCCD board judged the District’s Habitat For Life poster contest entries at a recent meeting. The following winners were declared, all from Dunbarton Elementary School:

• Cory Provencher, First Prize
• Stephanie Lebeau, Second Prize
• Nicole Flaherty, Third Prize.

A District staff member will make a conservation presentation to the school; winning posters will be submitted to the New Hampshire Association of Conservation Districts' (NHACD) statewide competition.

Dial “V” for Vermicomposting--The District office has some new inhabitants, a whole village, in fact. Several hundred red wiggler worms have taken up residence under a table and are quietly turning the District staff’s compostable garbage into earthworm castings. AmeriCorps volunteer Meredith Cooper sees to it the new mascots are fed and watered regularly. Earthworm castings are a fertilizer highly prized by gardeners, especially those of the organic persuasion. Drop in any weekday from 9:00 to 4:00 to see this new recycling project.

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District Spotlight: Great Ash Farm

The cows at Webster’s Great Ash Farm don't know it but they're in for a much easier winter this year, thanks to a comprehensive nutrient management project owners Robert and Kay Drown recently collaborated on with the Merrimack County Conservation District.

Nor do the cows realize, as they relax and enjoy their hay in the shelter of their newly roofed feedlot, that residents of Concord will benefit from improved water quality afforded by the project. The Drowns’ farm abuts an unnamed stream that flows into the Blackwater River. The Blackwater, in turn, is part of the Contoocook River watershed, which provides part of the public water supply for the City of Concord.

The History: Prior to implementation of this project, the Great Ash cows spent much of their time in an inadequately sized feedlot, the bovine equivalent of the office water cooler. As the herd size grew—and the feedlot didn’t—the cows annexed an adjoining swale that empties into the nearby stream. The ceaseless traffic destroyed most of the vegetation, causing severe erosion. The cows made many a “direct deposit” of manure onto the swale. An outdated rain gutter outlet deposited clean water into the path of manure-contaminated discharge from the barnyard.

The Problems: The tasks facing the Drowns and the District were threefold:

The solutions: The Drowns and their son Bob, Jr., roofed over an existing concrete heavy use area to help achieve the first objective. Construction materials were purchased using Natural Resource Conservation Service (NCRS) Environmental Quality Improvement Program (EQIP) funds and 319 Nonpoint Source Pollution funds through the NH Department of Environmental Services. NCRS provided technical expertise and design services; the Drown family provided matching funds and the extensive labor the project required. MCCD District Manager Heather Ryan and NCRS conservationist Bill Hoey coordinated the various components of the project and wrote the grant applications.

Protecting the water: The farm's 200 head of dairy cattle now walk sedately from barn to feedlot via a lane between two fields created by fencing in and grading the existing, badly eroded swale. The fields, thickly planted in vegetation, act as a living filtration system for water diverted from the barnyard by a network of ditches and culverts. Existing rain gutters were beefed up and the old gutter outlet was repositioned to ensure clean storm water and spring-melt runoffs stay clean before entering the stream. A new feed mixing system and construction of a large freestall barn lessen nutrient runoff. The clean, airy barn provides a higher level of comfort, cleanliness and efficiency for the Drowns’ 89 active milking cows and the humans who tend them.

Great Ash Farm: These improvements continue the story of intergenerational change and growth that is a way of life on the Drown family farm. Robert, Sr. made the move from his father's favored Guernseys to Holsteins. Bob, Jr. provided much of the impetus and labor for this latest move forward. Bob’s son and niece continue the saga, showing Ayrshires and Jerseys in the 4H program. The family diversifies their dairy activities with snowplowing, cordwood production and holiday turkeys.

Sharing the project: The District monitors the quality of the stream water to measure the project’s success. Ryan is planning a workshop in the spring to share the results of the project. The workshop will educate dairy farmers about using Agricultural Best Management Practices to reduce erosion, eutrophication and contamination of surface water.

The Drowns look forward to sharing their experience with others. "I'm very thankful for the funding we've received," said Drown, Sr. as his cows chewed thoughtfully in their dry, roofed feedlot. "We were able to pay our part in cash." "And the best part of it is, we didn't have to borrow," added Mrs. Drown.

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Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) Report

Winter is almost here, well almost, and we’re all looking forward to the Holidays. I think I can say that the construction season is finally drawing to a close on this year’s conservation projects. It has been another busy year in Belknap and Merrimack Counties where we have assisted with several manure management systems, waterways, ponds, hayland plantings, roads, and many acres of upland wildlife habitat management.

Much of the work has been completed with financial assistance from the Environmental Quality Incentive Program (EQIP), Stewardship Incentive Program (SIP), Farmland Protection Program (FPP) and the Wildlife Habitat Incentive Program (WHIP).

We are grateful to our sister agencies, the Farm Service Agency and UNH Cooperative Extension for their continuing efforts (financial and technical) in providing the citizens of Belknap and Merrimack County with the assistance they need. We are also grateful to New Hampshire’s Department of Environmental Services for their support through the 319 grants program for critical water quality projects.

Well, that’s enough time spent basking in the glory of a job well done. Now it's time to begin planning for 2002. We already have projects scheduled for 2002 so if you are planning a conservation project, or would like to explore the possibility, it's time to give the District (Merrimack 603-223-6023 or Belknap 603-527-5880) a call to schedule a meeting with soil conservationist Bill Hoey or me.

I’d also like your input concerning the state of our resources in the Upper Merrimack River Valley area. We are beginning the sixth year of an annual resource assessment that allows you a say in how we allocate money on federal conservation programs. So when you receive the meeting announcement don’t throw it away, come out and tell us what you think.

—Mike Lynch, District Conservationist

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