Planning for Changes in Climate and Flooding to Benefit Fish and Farms

How will agriculture and salmon coexist? What will happen as our landscape and climate change over the next few decades? These questions and many more were the topic of a discussion held at the November ‘Focus on Farming’ conference in Monroe. Some of the pressing issues included: the projected impacts of climate change on crops, how farmers can plan for flooding risks and changing weather patterns and how they can take advantage of longer growing seasons and higher levels of carbon dioxide. Presenters included: Tristan Klesick, Klesick Family Farm and Co-Chair of the Sustainable Lands Strategy group; Will Stelle, NOAA Fisheries; Chad Kruger, WSU Extension; and Cindy Dittbrenner, Snohomish Conservation District. The ultimate goal is to form an Agriculture Resilience Plan for agriculture and to help farmers plan for risk.

To learn more, visit http://snohomishcd.org/ag-resilience. 

It's Back: Our One-Day Rain Barrel Sale Returns

Pre-orders have closed, but walk-up sales are welcome!

Stop by the Mill Creek Lowe's parking lot from noon to 2 p.m. to purchase yours. Credit card and checks only, no cash. See you there!

Our one-day rain barrel sale is back, for the last time in 2016. Purchase your barrel on Saturday, October 22 at the Mill Creek Lowe's Parking Lot. Snohomish Conservation District is teaming up with Lowe's, King 5, and the Glenn Phillips Law Firm to build 150 rain barrels in the morning before the sale as part of Make a Difference Day. Once installed, the rain barrels will divert approximately 135,000 gallons of polluted storm water from entering our waterways each year.

You will get a pre-assembled 55-gallon barrel with sturdy components (spigot, overflow spout, mesh over inlet).

• WHEN: Saturday, October 22 from noon to 2 p.m
• WHERE: Lowe's Parking Lot, 2002 132nd St SE, Mill Creek
• COST: $50 + tax
• QUESTIONS: Email outreach(at)snohomishcd.org or call 425-335-5634, ext. 0

Focus on Hemlock ~ Dwarf Mistletoe

By Kevin Zobrist, WSU Extension Forester

Summer’s a good time to take a walk in your woods for more than recreation and exercise. You can look for danger trees, areas to thin or harvest, and signs of disease. 

Western Hemlock’s Live-Aboard

Do your Western hemlock trees have structures that look like the ones shown in the photo? These are called “witch’s brooms.” They come in all shapes and sizes but are always characterized by swollen, deformed, and overlapping branching patterns. This is caused by hemlock dwarf mistletoe, a parasitic plant. 

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Dwarf mistletoes are different from true mistletoes, but all mistletoes are parasitic. The plant roots into the branch of the tree, causing swollen, deformed growth. There are a number of dwarf mistletoes out there affecting different tree species (most are host-specific). Hemlock dwarf mistletoe is the only one of significant consequence in Western Washington, and it is specific to hemlock trees, though there is some evidence that it may occasionally inhabit Douglas-fir (rare at most). 

In the summer, mistletoe launches sticky seeds that can travel 20 feet. If the seed lands on a hemlock, it sticks and begins a new infection. This can eventually cause mortality in a heavily-infested tree by deforming the branches, and by robbing the tree of resources. 

What to Do if Your Tree has Mistletoe

What should you do? Not necessarily anything. Dwarf mistletoe is native, and it is a normal, natural agent in the forest. It has ecological benefits of providing some great structures for wildlife. If you are trying to grow hemlock though, it may cause concern as it can spread pretty aggressively from tree to tree. 

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Young hemlocks in the understory are particularly vulnerable because mistletoe seeds rain down from above. If you have only a couple of affected trees, you can remove them to prevent the spread (important if you have other hemlocks not yet infected or young understory hemlocks you want to encourage). 

Actually, you don’t have to fully remove the tree--you can kill it and leave it in place as an excellent habitat tree (it will be a snag with diverse structures). You do this by girdling the tree. Killing the tree (the host) kills the parasite, so it won’t spread from the dead tree. If you girdle the tree near the base, that will be the point of failure in the future and eventually the whole tree will fall, so consider if this will pose a hazard. Another option is to hire an arborist to girdle the tree higher up, but you would have to prune off all the live branches below that point. This way it will fail up higher, and when that breaks off you still have the bottom portion available as a good wildlife snag.

And Then Again…

If you have a lot of hemlock trees and widespread infections, it may not be practical to try to eliminate the mistletoe. You can encourage a shift to non-host species by under-planting (or encouraging natural) Western red cedar seedlings, replanting non-host species after a harvest, or favoring the retention of non-host species when thinning. Otherwise, it’s really nothing to lose sleep over.

Girdling

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Girdling, also called ring barking or ring-barking, is the complete removal of a strip of bark (consisting of cork cambium, phloem, cambium and sometimes going into the xylem) from around the entire circumference of either a branch or trunk of a woody plant. No nutrients can then be transferred down through the phloem layer. It's this severing of the phloem layer that kills the tree by starving the roots.

For more in-depth reading on dwarf mistletoe, check out:

• http://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/stelprdb5187427.pdf
• http://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/fsbdev2_025978.pdf
• https://www.for.gov.bc.ca/hfp/publications/00198/Hemlock_dwarf_mistletoe

Commercial Compost Application on Western Washington Farms

by Doug Collins, Hallie Harness and Andy Bary, WSU

Reprinted with permission in BioCycle March/April 2016, Vol. 57, No. 3, p. 63; visit www.biocycle.net for more articles about compost utilization.

Over the past several years, the Snohomish Conservation District has been partnering with Washington State University Snohomish County Extension on the Compost Outreach Project. 

The District has participated in the compost trials by: 

• generating landowner interest 
• participating in trial set-ups 
• helping at harvest
• contributing at stakeholder meetings

Demonstrating the benefits of compost to local producers has the potential to close local waste stream loops while building the tilth of cultivated soils. 

Combining diverse skills on this project has created relationships and opportunities that will allow all institutions and landowners involved to continue to work towards these goals even after the grant has ended. It has also contributed greatly to our knowledge of the effects of compost in commercial agricultural operations

                - Carrie Brausieck, Resource Planner

---

With at least 13 commercial composting facilities, and more than 900,000 tons of food scraps and yard trimmings composted annually at these facilities, Western Washington is at the forefront of organic materials recovery. Although compost is available on a large scale, agricultural markets make up less than five percent of the total compost market in Washington State. The Washington State University (WSU) Compost Outreach Project is working to evaluate the benefits of compost on local crops and address the challenges faced when using compost.

Since 2011, WSU Cooperative Extension in Snohomish County has collaborated with local compost producers, county offices and local conservation districts to promote and evaluate use of commercial food scraps and yard trimmings compost on farms in Snohomish and northern King County (WA) through compost use trials. 

While farmers are consistently seeking sources of organic matter, in 2015, 81 percent of farmer respondents (35 out of 43 WSU Compost Trials Participants) had not used food scraps and yard trimmings compost prior to participating in the trials. Local compost producers, Bailey Compost, Cedar Grove Composting and Lenz Enterprises, have donated over 4,500 tons of compost to the project since 2011, with the goal of expanding its use in agriculture.

The research trials and on-farm demonstrations conducted as part of the Compost Outreach Project are described in this article. Scientific research trials validate use of compost on local crops, while demonstration trials provide the opportunity for farmers to get firsthand experience using commercial compost and test it out in their operations.

Correspondence and focus groups with farmers in Snohomish and King counties have revealed several challenges to using compost. The most significant barriers to using more compost in agriculture are compost price, compost spreading (time and equipment), and lack of information.

Pre-2015 Research Trials

Research trials conducted through the program prior to 2015 compared two treatments: A growers’ Business As Usual (BAU) chemical fertilizer application vs. BAU + Compost. Trials took place on several farms in Snohomish County. At Carleton Farm, trials evaluated the effect of cumulative multiyear compost applications. In 2012, two years of compost application (approximately 20 dry ton/acre) increased pumpkin yield by 28 percent. In 2013, with three years of compost application (2013 application rate was approximately 15 dry tons/acre), sweet corn ear weight increased by 24 percent. In 2014 at Carleton Farm, no additional compost was applied and the three previous years of compost application resulted in a 35 percent increase in cucumber yield. 

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In 2014 at Darrell Hagerty Farms, a light application rate (6.5 dry tons/acre) of registered organic compost increased organic green bean yield by 19 percent. Beet seed at Williams Farm showed a 21 percent increase in yield with a 20 dry ton/acre application. Each of these results was statistically significant and used commercial food scraps and yard trimmings compost. 

On-Farm Demonstrations in 2015

There were 49 demonstration trials in 2015, which involved qualitative observation of crop growth with compost applied next to a no-compost treatment. 

Crops included sweet corn, hay, mixed vegetables, berries, tomatoes, pumpkins, Christmas trees, salad greens, cut flowers, hazelnuts, brassicas, and more. 

Farmer feedback was collected through the Compost Outreach Project’s annual survey (conducted since 2012). Farmer collection of yield and/or soil testing data is optional in the demonstration program. While the drought in 2015 posed significant challenges, farmers reported that compost improved crop production in 68 percent of the trials (out of 47 trial crops). Fifty-five percent of farmers found compost increased soil water retention.

Christmas tree farmers have observed improved tree growth and health, and hope to sell the trees mulched with compost earlier than anticipated. This translates to potential increased profit for these growers. A farmer using compost on sweet peppers reported larger and more productive plants. Blueberry plants have thrived in rows mulched with compost, and compost consistently has shown positive crop yield and health results on pumpkins. Several participants reported the compost did nothing. There was no obvious observable effect of the compost on their crops.

2015 Research Trials

Experimental Design

Research trials in 2015 were designed to evaluate the nitrogen contribution from compost as well as changes to soil physical properties on two separate farms with sweet corn as a crop. The design was a replicated strip-plot experiment where compost was either applied or not applied in strips and nitrogen fertilizer (urea) was broadcast preplanting at four different rates within the strip, including a zero-N application. The authors hypothesized that compost would compensate for some nitrogen deficiency through mineralization of the organic nitrogen in compost to plant-available nitrogen. 

A different high rate of nitrogen fertilizer was chosen at each farm based on preseason soil testing and estimated nitrogen contribution from organic matter. In addition to the high rate, three other rates were applied for a total of four, where “X” is the full rate: 1.0X, 0.75X, 0.5X, and 0.0X. Corn ear weight, plant biomass, soil nitrate concentration, and bulk density were evaluated. Soil nitrate concentrations are an indication of nitrogen availability for plant uptake.

The two collaborating farms (A and B) have been involved in the Compost Outreach Project since 2011. At Farm A, compost (from Cedar Grove) was applied at a rate of 7.8 dry tons/acre and at Farm B, compost (from Bailey) was applied at a rate of 8.6 dry tons/acre. The difference in application rates was due to differences between manure spreaders used at each farm. At Farm A, the 1X rate of nitrogen was 196 lbs/acre and at Farm B the 1X rate was 100 lbs/acre. Other pre-experiment soil properties are shown in Table 1.

Results

Neither corn ear weight or plant biomass were significantly affected by fertilizer or compost. Mid-season soil nitrate concentrations were not affected by compost, but were significantly affected by fertilizer nitrogen application (Figure 1). 

The mid-season soil nitrate test was meant to be taken around the same time farmers would test their soil to decide if a sidedress application of nitrogen is necessary. This test, also known as the pre-sidedress nitrate test (PSNT), can be used to guide mid-season nitrogen applications. 

Fertilizer rates should be made based on soil nitrate levels when sweet corn is at the five or six leaf stage. If soil nitrate levels are less than 10 ppm, then as much as 145 lbs N/acre are recommended. If mid-season nitrate levels are greater than 40 ppm, then perhaps no fertilizer nitrate is necessary (Hart, 2010). 

Mid-season nitrate levels were nearly 100 and 175 ppm at the zero nitrate fertilizer rate, much greater than what would suggest that crops would likely be deficient in nitrogen. There was likely no compost or fertilizer effect on crop yield because of naturally high levels of available nitrogen from previous management. Fields with a history of application of manure or other organic amendments are not likely to result in a yield increase from compost. In previous experiments on different fields, compost resulted in a 20 percent or larger increase in yield on several specialty crops. 

Bulk density was decreased by compost applications at both farms, though the effect was only significant at Farm B where there was a 6 percent decrease (Figure 2). Bulk density (weight/volume) is a measure of soil compaction. Practices that improve soil structure (cover cropping, reduced tillage, or organic matter application) can reduce soil bulk density. The 2015 research study designed to evaluate the effects of fertilizer and compost use will be repeated again in 2016.

Additional Project Activities

Farmers have continually pinpointed compost price, spreading (equipment and time), compost delivery, plastic contamination of compost, and lack of information as challenges to using compost. Educational workshops and presentations have increased farmer knowledge of when and how to use compost. An ongoing dialog with composters and farmers is shaping a mutually beneficial relationship. 

Conservation districts continue to enhance their focus on compost education, targeting farmers and landowners. Snohomish and King County Solid Waste Divisions, with support from Waste Management, continue to develop and expand the agricultural end use market to ensure the success of the local composting industry and the continued availability of compost for use on local farms.

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Nitrogen fertilizer was applied at different rates in the 2015 trials based on preseason soil testing and estimated nitrogen contribution from compost. 

The Compost Outreach Project has achieved notable success, working with 73 farmers since 2011. In 2015, 62 percent (23 out of 37 participating farmers) reported they are motivated to continue using compost and nine farmers purchased loads of compost outside of the program in 2014 and 2015. 

The Compost Outreach Project continues to leverage diverse funding sources and partners to break down barriers to increased farmer use of compost. Financial support comes from Snohomish County, a Washington State Department of Agriculture Specialty Crop Block Grant, and King County. Additional partners include Snohomish and King conservation districts, compost producers, and Waste Management.           

Doug Collins is Extension Specialist at Washington State University. Until recently, Hallie Harness was the Program Coordinator of the Compost Outreach Project at WSU Snohomish County Extension. Andy Bary is Soil Scientist at Washington State University Puyallup. Photos courtesy WSU Extension

References

Hart, J.M., D.M. Sullivan, J.R. Myers, and R.E. Peachey. 2010. Sweet Corn, Western Oregon. Oregon State University Extension, EM 9010-E.

Weeds: If You Can’t Beat them - Eat Them!

By Alan Shank, Former Resource Planner

That is to say, let goats eat them. Goats, those little ruminants with the funny expression on their faces, are browsers. They actually prefer the taste of shrubs, trees and broadleaf plants like weeds instead of your luscious grass. According to Craig Madsen at Healing Hooves LLC, “This is especially true later in the summer as the brush and broadleaf weeds tend to hold their nutritional value longer than grasses. Timing is a critical component of targeted grazing. If you want to favor grasses, wait until they are more mature and the goats will focus on the broadleaf weeds and shrubs, allowing the grasses to go to seed.”

Thorns, you ask? No problem, blackberries are delicious. Weeds hard to reach? Not a problem. Goats are nimble and light on the soil. Goat droppings also quickly decompose into and improve soil. However, too many goats can erode a sensitive bank and should not be allowed in or near fish-bearing streams. 

Poisonous Plants

Some weeds and many landscape plants actually are harmful to goats. Madsen says “there are some plants that are poisonous to other livestock, and not to goats, such as yellowstar thistle. Other plants such as tansy ragwort, nightshade and peavine can be browsed by goats in limited quantities and it shouldn’t be a problem. Goats should not be turned into a solid field of tansy ragwort as they can’t balance their own diet and may eat too much, which could cause problems. Some plants should be totally avoided such as poison hemlock and rhododendrons. In my experience goats do not know which plants to avoid.” So, whether your challenge is knapweed, oxeye daisy, common tansy, Canadian or scotch thistle (to name a few), goats are thinking “dinner!” Just give them variety and make sure they’re not starving, and keep an eye on them if possible.

Browsing goats can be ideal weed controllers in situations where they’re rotated through the same pasture as cattle, horses and other grazing animals as well. By putting grazing pressure on the weed population, goats give grasses the advantage, allowing them to thrive. But don’t expect instant results. It may take several years to see substantial improvement in a weed-infested pasture. Plus, on-going weed management is necessary for a number of years due to residual weed seeds. Other considerations for pastures are soil fertility, pH, grass species, stocking rates, and grazing by other livestock.

People own goats for a variety of reasons, including as pets and for meat, milk, milk by-products and breeding. That means raising goats to control your weeds may also produce a marketable product while providing you a valuable service. Goats do need a mud-free clean and dry shelter, hay in winter, regular worming and shots, some company, regular hoof trimming, plenty of clean water, and goat-proof durable fencing.

If you don’t want to raise goats, but still like the idea of using them to control weeds, you can hire a goat herding service two to four times a year. Consider that goats eliminate the use of fuel, heavy equipment, herbicides and pesticides–while also conditioning and fertilizing your soil. So, hiring a herder may be a cost competitive option worth trying.

What Do Grazers Prefer?

Cattle and horses prefer grasses, which promotes the growth of broadleaf plants and shrubs. Sheep prefer broadleaf plants and grasses, which promotes shrub growth. Goats on the other hand, as browsers, prefer broadleaf and woody plants, which allows grass growth by eliminating competition from shrubs and woody plants.

Flash Grazing

Madsen uses 250 goats on an acre to acre and a half, but says it depends on the weeds you’re trying to eradicate and your site.

If a weed seed-bank is present, it may take persistent grazing. His goats tackle mostly blackberries and English ivy but have also been used on Japanese knotweed. With knotweed, it may take a couple of treatments with goats annually and it likely won’t completely eradicate the knotweed.      

Grazing by Type of Goat

Pygmy goats are not a good choice for clearing land and are better suited as pets and 4-H projects. Fiber, fainting, dairy and meat goats are good for browsing but need supplemental feed during winter. All goats need good fencing. Five-foot chain link or New Zealand-type is excellent. Field fencing tends to bend when they climb on it, which they will. If you’re thinking of raising goats, check out this online guide: How to Raise Goats by Carol Amundson (you can google the online version at ‘google books’). For more information on raising livestock, including goats, contact Joan de Vries at the WSU Extension Skagit County at 360-428-4270 ext. 240.

Sources for this article

Photos/content-Craig Madsen, Healing Hooves LLC http://healinghooves.com/

WSU Extension Livestock Advisor Nikki Fee

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Why Use Goats?

Goats Can Handle Tough Sites

• Agile goats can easily handle:
• Steep slopes
• Rocky or uneven terrain
• Soft soils + light animal = low impact
• ·Goats are not deterred by dense thickets of thorns
• (blackberries, Russian olive)
• Goats like eating plants that irritate humans:
• poison ivy, poison oak, English ivy
• Goats love to eat brush and weeds more than grass

 An Alternative Tool

Goats can...

• Be less costly than other options in the right situations
•  Reduce or eliminate the use of herbicides
• Prevent seed production - plants may go to seed below the cutting level of a mower, but can’t evade an agile goat
• Be selective depending on timing of grazing and how well the goats like their choices
• Reduce risk to hand crews and machinery by opening up a site, making it easier to avoid dangers

Goats are Fun

•  Relaxing to watch - proven employee morale booster
• Entertaining - young goats love to play king of the mountain
• Good publicity and public relations
• Green choice - less fuel use, noise and soil disturbance
• Peaceful to listen to - satisfied eating noises and mothers communicating with their kids

Blackberries after goats

Blackberries before goats