One of the people I often think about is Ernie Aust and his unwavering commitment to soil & water conservation. Ernie was one of my favorite Area Conservationists during my 14-year NRCS career. He loved to question conventional wisdom and was always willing to look at different perspectives; indeed a rare trait. I remember a lot of lively conversations with Ernie, but the most memorable was a discussion about grassed waterways and their maintenance.We agreed the conventional wisdom is to mow grassed waterways. In general, mowing …
Celebrate Soil and Water Stewardship Week
When the land does well for its owner, and the owner does well by his land—when both end up better by reason of their partnership—then we have conservation. - Aldo LeopoldIn 1955, the National Association of Conservation Districts began a national program to encourage Americans to focus on stewardship. Stewardship Week is officially celebrated from the last Sunday in April to the first Sunday in May. It is one of the world's largest conservation-related observances. The program relies on locally-led conservation districts sharing and promoting …
Precision Conservation: Why we must engage the private sector
Fifty years! Yes, that’s right. At the current rate it will take 50 years to design and install all the grassed waterways needed in Iowa. And this timetable is being generous. The 50 years doesn’t even account for maintenance, repair, and replacement of these grassed waterways after their normal 10-15 year lifespan.This is not acceptable, especially when you consider all conservation practices like ponds, wetlands, water & sediment control basins, terraces, no-till, and cover crops are on this same timetable. Please note, this is not a …
As simple as one, two, three
Sometimes it is the simple things that can make a big difference. Take contouring, for example. It’s easy; so easy in fact that we often overlook it when we consider it in the context of conservation technology. I staked a lot of contour lines for farmers when I was a NRCS Soil Conservationist in the 1980’s. It was easy; just me, my hand level, and a fist full of flags. But it was also time consuming. It took hours to stake 160 acres of cropland, especially when I tried to minimize point rows. Today, my local conservation district no longer …
Exciting possibilities ahead using 3D Machine Control – Part 2
I asked the question in my last post, “What good is Precision Conservation if it doesn’t help us apply conservation better and faster?” One of the major limiting factors in getting more structural practices on the land is the short construction season. What conservation field office staffer or contractor wouldn’t love to get twice as many structures built in the same amount of time? I do believe that fully automated 3D machine control will be one of the game changers that conservationists have been looking for; that is, if private businesses …
Exciting possibilities ahead using 3D Machine Control
What good is Precision Conservation if it doesn’t help us apply conservation better and faster? We should expect that a part of Precision Conservation should simplify and automate the routine and the mundane, so the professional conservationists can engage in meaningful conservation planning. My new favorite Precision Conservation topic is fully automated 3D machine control. This will be one of the game changers we have been looking for, if private businesses and government entities can work together. Recently, I worked with Ryan Murguia of …