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Re: onward and upward

I am an environmental activist first (central hardwoods forest issues) and a
prairie enthusiast second. It has been my experience that when people who
enjoy the forest learn about the political issues regarding its' management,
they become politically active. Remember, government is run by the folks
that show up. I am happy to see this merger of listserves.

We live in southern IL where we have a collision of five phisiographic
areas. It was/is an incredibly diverse landscape. We have some land in CRP
and our agent is very flexible. We planted some acreage in native hardwoods
and some in warm season grasses and forbs ( we were able to choose the
species mix ourselves). We don't have to do annual mowing because we have a
burn regimen on the grass land. Across the road from us there are several
hundred acres of highly erodable rolling land in CRP. The mowing regimen
(once a year after ground nesting birds have fledged) favors tall fescue and
orchard grass. Because there are no restrictions or guidelines about
cleaning mowing equipment before traveling from farm to farm, this acreage
is now seriously infested with johnson grass, sweet clover, and some kind of
annual vetch that blankets everything (like kudzu in southern forests).
Ed Cook
Southern IL

-----Original Message-----
From: Lee Stone <leeprairie@austin.rr.com>
To: prairie list serve <prairie@mallorn.com>
Date: Saturday, August 19, 2000 3:04 AM
Subject: onward and upward


>I was glad to read in a recent e-mail from Tina Lorentzen, Chairwoman
>for the new North American Prairie Coalition, that the consensus was to
>cancel the new listserve and instead to use this older, more established
>one.  Yea!
>
>Welcome, to those of you who have recently signed up for
>prairie@mallorn.com.
>
>Iowa's Cindy Hildebrand stated in a recent email that it's been apparent
>for
>several years, to her and many other prairie enthusiasts, that some
>United
>States Department of Agriculture conservation programs are causing
>unintended but serious problems for prairie remnants.  She provided some
>background information which was forwarded to this listserve for
>discussion.
>
>To recount the problem as she laid it out:
>1.  In some  cases, landowners are reportedly putting cropland into CRP,
>and then plowing native prairie to put into row crops.     Bastards.
>
>2.  There is a federal requirement that woody species be planted on
>marginal
>riparian pastures enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program.   This
>requirement is causing the destruction of native prairie remnants and is
>
>creating unnecessary costs for landowners and agencies.
>
>3.  On some CRP land, invasive exotic plant species are being planted,
>including
>exotics that invade native prairie areas.   Some agency staff are
>recommending exotics.
>
>4.  There is concern that the planting of commercial prairie cultivars
>near  native prairie remnants, and near source-identified prairie
>nursery  plantings, may cause the genetic contamination of those
>remnants and  plantings.
>
>5.  Some program requirements make local-origin plantings difficult,
>including high grass/forb seed ratios, all-at-once planting
>requirements, and lack of incentives and program flexibility.
>
>6.  In some cases, fertilizer was required for native plantings on sites
>where the fertilizer helped only weeds
>
>7.  In some cases, new plantings were required on already-vegetated
>areas where  soil conservation, water quality, and wildlife habitat
>already existed.
>
>So, my question to you folks is, do any of you have examples you can
>share about of prairies being harmed by Farm Bill rules?  And, what do
>you think of all this?
>
>lee stone
>Austin, TX
>
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