Soil Health for Water Quality Protection

The primary goal of this project is to protect public water supplies from contamination from nonpoint-sourced pollution by providing farmers with resources to implement soil health Best Management Practices (BMPs) within a set radius of municipal Drinking Water Supply Management Areas (DWSMAs) for cities within Traverse County. The secondary goal of the project is protection of public surface waters and measurable progress towards reduction of nutrient and sediment pollution to impaired watercourses. We will accomplish these goals by the implementation of 1200 new acres of cover crops, 700 new acres of residue and tillage management and 200 new acres of conservation crop rotation annually for three years. We will utilize a targeted approach for contract enrollment by ranking fields within the radius of the Browns Valley DWSMA as highest priority, fields near remaining municipal DWSMAs as second highest priority and fields harvested for silage as lowest priority for interventions. The outcomes of this project will be measurable. The number of landowners contacted, acres of land with BMPs implemented, and the calculated amount of pollution reduction will be quantified and reported. We believe the project will ultimately result in a cultural acceptance and long-term local adoption of soil health practices. We will provide cooperating agricultural producers with the tools and resources they need to sustain implementation of soil health practices beyond the life of contracts. In addition, the project will provide new adopters of soil health BMPs an opportunity to implement practices while reducing risk to family farm operations. Results of the project are estimated to be a total reduction of 367 tons of sediment, 366 pounds of phosphorus, and 5548 pounds of nitrogen from entering surface waters every year.