Dundas farmer shares conservation experience

By: 
Jarrod Schoenecker

Paul Jackson graphic
The Rice Creek Watershed showing the trout stream designation area and sampling locations for the Farmers Protecting Bridgewater Streams project, one of them falling participating farmer Michael Daly’s property.

One farmer that is involved in the Farmers Protecting Bridgewater Streams (FPBSP) Project took initiative to help promote a better landscape, waterway, and ecosystem many years ahead of it.

In 1990, Michael Daly put 77 acres out of his 145 acre farm into programs that the government offered. Two 33 acre sections were put into the Reinvest in Minnesota (RIM) Reserve program and another 11 acres into the Farm Service Agency’s (FSA) Crop Reserve Program (CRP). Of the remaining land not under programs, he says only 40 of that is farmed The farmer he rents the 40 acres to also practices under the FPBSP guidance. The renter plants cover crops and has since 2012 on his property.

The RIM Reserve program started in 1986 to restore environmentally sensitive agricultural land to protect soil and water quality and support fish and wildlife habitat. The Minnesota Board of Water and Soil Resources acquires conservation easements, on behalf of the state, to permanently protect, restore, and manage critical natural resources without owning the land outright.

The CRP program was started in 1985. Farmers in the CRP program agree to remove environmentally sensitive land from agricultural production and plant species that will improve environmental health and quality. Farmers receive a yearly rental payment in exchange for opting into this program. Contracts for the CRP program are not permanent and vary in length from 10 to 15 years.

Some of Daly’s siblings have been upset with him over the years for putting a large part of the land, a family farm that he purchased from his parents, into such a program. They wanted it put back into cropland and call what it is now a “wasteland,” according to Daly. Those thoughts from some of his siblings were especially emphasized when the second round of the 15-year CRP contract on the 11 acres wasn’t renewed by him.

“After the first fifteen years, they (FSA) wanted us to mow and burn down that area before putting it back into CRP,” Daly said, “So that is what we had to do to re-enter the program.” When it came time to renew the CRP program again after the second 15 years... To continue reading, pick up a March 16 edition of the Montgomery Messenger. Subscribe online at MontgomeryMNNews.com. Digital subscription included. 

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