n THE CARILLON STEINBACH, MAN. C4
n www.thecarillon.com THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2024
An aerial view of this field in the Aubigny area shows five rows of new trees extending existing shelterbelt around the farmyard as part of the SRRWD’s shelterbelt program. Watershed projects good for organic crop producer
by WES KEATING I t has been years since the Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administra- tion discontinued the popular shelterbelt program in western Can- ada, but today the planting of shel- terbelts is very much a part of the Seine Rat Roseau River Watershed District’s strategy aimed at the long term sustainable use and manage- ment of land and water resources. The SRRWD shelterbelt program provides landowners funds to es- tablish, or re-establish, shelterbelts to protect soil from wind erosion and to capture moisture. Funding is provided for trees and shrubs to be planted along creeks, around farm- steads, and in wide open spaces. Dani Gosselin, during a tour of a project along a creek near Sarto, ex- plains the benefits of shelterbelts for the land owner and the conservation district. Shelterbelts not only protect soil from wind erosion, but also increase snow cover and provide wildlife hab- itat, she said. This is the third year for the deliv- ery of the shelterbelt program by the SRRWD. Shelterbelt projects eligible for funding must be on agricultur- al land or adjacent to the owner’s farmstead. Small projects and urban yards that just need a few trees, don’t fit into the program. Most projects are in the range of three to five acres and Royden Loew- en’s shelterbelt south of Sarto is one of the earlier ones, planted in 2022. Gosselin talked about seven proj- ects that are on the go this year. Three shelterbelts were planted this sum- mer and three other sites are being prepped this fall with the planting trees to take place in spring. Spring plantings are slated for Friedensfeld, Aubigny, St Malo and Randolph. Right now, Gosselin is lining up projects for next year. Approvals in- volve staff and board member visits to the site and their recommenda- tions before a partnership advisory council and the main board of SRR- WD makes the final decision. Once approved, the landown- er is responsible for the planting of the trees, or in the case of Loewen, hiring someone to do the plant- ing. For Loewen’s project, involving both sides of a creek, running in a northerly direction, different species were selected. On the eastern side, Okanese poplars are interspersed with white spruce, alternating every 10 feet. The west side has a row of willows, which will grow faster and provide thicker cover for the winds from the west. This year was ideal growing weath- er, with mostly even rains for most areas, so it does not take long for the trees to find the moisture needed to root well. For Loewen, the growing of a shel-
CARILLON ARCHIVES Royden Loewen, who has been an organic crop producer for eight years, has tapped into a SRRWD program to plant a shelterbelt on both sides of a creek that dissects a field on his 700-acre farm in the Sarto area.
Dana Gosselin with a well-established poplar in a shelterbelt planted along the east side of a creek, which runs through a field in the Sarto area.
soil and beautifies the land at the same time. “Nothing is more attractive to a farmer than a green field.” Loewen also admits he enjoys rais- ing the eyebrows of the local farmers. He tells the story of being stopped by a farmer while he was seeding barley after the harvest one fall. Being so late in the growing season, the man wondered when Loewen planned to harvest his crop. The man was dumbfounded when Loewen told him he planned to plow it under in the spring. But Loewen says barley is an ef- fective cover crop for him and it is so much less expensive than the cover-crop “cocktail” he tried a few years ago. Loewen says they also use a lot of manure as fertilizer and pay its dis- tribution on their 700-acre farm. Al- though that is expensive, it still is a lot cheaper than synthetic fertilizer, which of course is not an option, for this organic crop producer. Planting cover crops and the es- tablishment of shelterbelts are just two of the many programs eligible for funding in the 3,700 square kilo- metres that is the SRRWD. The Seine Rat Roseau Watershed District, was established in partner- ship with local municipalities and the Province of Manitoba in 2001 to provide an avenue for local people to work together on issues related to sustainable land and water manage- ment. The district includes an area of approximately 3,700 square kilome- tres in southeastern Manitoba and
terbelt and buffer strips along the creek, which runs through his 700- acre farm, is just another way to im- prove the soil and help the environ- ment. The reduction of soil erosion and the creation of wildlife habitat are equally important to Loewen. “On the organic side, strips beside the shelterbelt, planted to some- thing other than grass is great for a well-balanced ecology.” At the farm south of Sarto, the strips on either side of the creek are 20 feet wide, which makes this shel- terbelt a five acre project. Loewen says a Saskatchewan com- pany owned by a veterinarian enthu- siastic about trees recommended the varieties he should plant. He hired a Morden company to do the planting, and it took them just three hours to create the mile-long shelterbelt, in- volving about 1,000 poplar, spruce and willows. For years, Loewen has been plant- ing cover crops on this field, which produces organic hemp and alfalfa. The field has 320 acres of organic hemp and 120 acres of certified or- ganic alfalfa seed. The alfalfa seed is produced for a contract with an American company, while hemp goes to the hemp oil plant on High- way 75. Loewen, who has been in organic crop production for eight years, is no stranger to the benefits of cover crops, which is another program the SRRWD promotes and funds. Loewen says he has any number of reasons for growing cover crops. In addition to reducing soil erosion, growing anything also improves the
Plastic mulch was spread along the row to stop the encroachment of weeds between the trees of a shelterbelt in the Ridgeville area.
area management, water conserva- tion, soil conservation, and surface water management. The SRRWD also provides oppor- tunities for watershed management education through school presen- tations and at their Tourond Creek Discovery Centre.
partners with a dozen rural munic- ipalities, the Towns of Ste. Anne and Niverville, the Village of St. Pierre-Jol- ys and the City of Steinbach. The SRRWD focuses its efforts on addressing locally identified land and water management issues. The District offers program funding in groundwater protection, riparian
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