Occasionally I discover what a small world (mind set) I live in, --- thinking that everyone is on the same wave length about soil erosion. Recently I have experienced two statements differing from my attitude on conservation. 1)- In a discussion about two farmers doing direct seeding, I made a statement that, " They obviously had a conservation ethic for doing this"! The other person I was conversing with rebutted my statement by saying, "No, I don't think they do it for conservation! They do it to keep the Department of Ecology away from their door"! That was a stunning statement to me. 2)- The Department of Ecology had a news release talking about soil erosion in the Palouse and extolling the virtue of direct seeding. After I and a friend read the release, he commented to me that his interpretation was that Ecology thought that every cultivated field eroded. My response was that, "That was mostly true"! His response was, "I disagree"! Two revelations like this in a week is hard on my synapses.
Another conversation related to conservation that I experience this week showed my deficiency in instant recall. The discussion was around filter strips associated with a stream and the vegetation height necessary to maintain filtering action. My friend stated that the vegetation needed to be short, or it just laid down and everything would roll over it and enter the creek. This is not in line with NRCS research, or DOE's thinking. I answered poorly. I should have stated something along the line of: -- fast moving water indicates a problem upland of the stream, and that filter strips are not effective in this type of scenario. Filter strips are effective with slow moving water flowing in a sheet across the landscape dropping the sediment load (with associated contaminates) as it moves through the filter strip toward the stream. NRCS likes grass filters to be maintained at about half their mature height, roughly 12-18 inches. This has to do as much about plant health as it does for the filter aspect. Plants munched to and maintained near the crown (that neat clean groomed look) leaves the plant in poor health, unable to recover rapidly for a long lasting (sustainable) stand. This scenario also encourages weed species to take root, giving the desired plants more competition for survival.
