Quiet Science of Buffer Strips Part 1 of 3

Managed pockets of Marshland have long history; troubles yet to face.

The long gravel road travels upward through open fields striped with corn stalk stubble left from last year’s harvest – a land management practice that prevents erosion. Near the ridge-top, a farm house is nestled within frosty flower beds.   

A pair of smiles leads the way past tidy rows of muddy boots and hanging dusty jackets.  Savory smells linger as the procession wanders through the marigold kitchen, to the dining room table.  A roll-top desk and computer on the far wall indicates this is also the farm’s office. After a bit of neighborly joking and gossip, it’s time to get down to the business of buffers strips.

Buffer strips are an important and often overlooked conservation measure.  Their purpose is to protect water quality, but they also shelter wildlife.  Trout anglers throughout the driftless area (a stream-filled landscape prevalent in Southwest Wisconsin, Southeast Minnesota , Northeastern Iowa and Northwestern Illinois) also use these areas to access trout streams. According to recent publications distributed by Trout Unlimited, trout angling alone fuels local driftless economies with over $1 million annually.  It is easy to take the practice for granted, but buffer strips didn’t appear onto the landscape overnight.

“We used to ‘cozy up’ to the ditches and other waterways,” recalls Steve O’Connor.  Steve and his wife Sherry, operate the 70-cow dairy – with daily chore assistance from extended family.  The O’Connor family has been farming here since 1885.

Keeping the farm successful for generations requires a wide range of management skills; including protection of the soil.  Buffer strips are one simple conservation practice employed to protect both soil and water.

O’Connor explains that a buffer strip is just a band of natural vegetation that runs along a body of open water, or a conveyance to open water such as a man-made ditch or a natural land formation. The quick explanation of the buffer strip idea is that vegetation slows field runoff as it travels downhill toward waterways and other low areas. If the runoff slows enough, it drops soil particles in the vegetation, before reaching the stream. 

O’Connor continues that in the past he and his father plowed as close to the edge of waterways as possible, in order to utilize every foot of soil for crop production. They needed to do this to keep the herd fed. Prior to the late 1960’s, corn yields in this area were lucky to reach 80 - 100 bushel to the acre compared to 170 bushel to the acre (or more) now.

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) began approaching Southern Wisconsin farmer’s in the 1960’s and 1970’s, with an idea for a land practice called buffer strips.  One of those farms was the O’Connor Family Farm, in Southwest Dane County.  Mount Vernon Creek runs through some of their fields and it once suffered greatly from sediment-laden runoff.  Currently, the trout stream is listed as an exceptional resource water by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. 

Soil erosion control has been heavy on the minds of farmers since the 1930’s. Images swirl in their hearts and minds, like the soil itself did on the winds of the dust bowl. These images carry a picture of drought-ridden land swept away by wind. 

But, water can also carry soil; stripping it from fields and depositing it into rivers and streams. Sometimes, fertilizers or pesticides are caught up in the soil particles, too.  The result is land depleted, and water polluted.  Fish, other wildlife and even people can suffer health effects from such circumstances.

Sometime in the early 1970’s, the O’Connor’s (including Steve’s parents, Frank & Lucille) were approached by the CCC to try something new: buffer strips. The CCC purchased narrow 20-foot bands of land on both sides of Mount Vernon Creek.

When the buffers were “installed” the O’Connor’s didn’t receive much information about how the buffers might benefit water quality. According to O’Connor, it felt a bit experimental, but not too different from more familiar soil conservation measures.  In some areas, grasses were encouraged, while in other areas, small wood lots were found to be more appropriate. 

Together, the CCC and the O’Connor’s evaluated the adjacent fields to the creek. The soil on the edge is rich and productive, but it is also flood-prone.  Natural fluctuations in wildlife were taken into account, too. Seemingly benign creatures, such as muskrat, occasionally decimate several rows of crops  - especially corn – in a week on fields parallel to the stream. Other years, there is no wildlife damage.

According to the O’Connor’s the first 15 years of the program went smoothly from their perspective. Teams of workers came out every few years to maintain the vegetation & trim trees inside the buffer area. If wind or flood did knock a tree into one of the adjacent farm fields, a phone call to the CCC office precipitated quick assistance with clean up. 

However, more recently there has been confusion related to the management of these particular buffer strips. Because the O’Connor’s no longer own the land alongside the creek (the CCC purchased the land, not just an easement), they are not allowed to cut trees rooted there. 

When one of those trees fell into the creek, it changed the course of the stream. The rushing water began to eat away the bank; so much so that it reached the field’s fence line.  Recognizing that both the stream and his field were in danger, O’Connor began making phone calls.

“Basically, I was sent in a great big circle,” recounts O’Connor.  He understood that if he used a tractor to pull the tree out himself, he would be required to go through a permit process because this would be considered both an alteration to the shoreline and work on public land.

The CCC is no longer active. Ownership of the land was transferred to a partnership between Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WI DNR) and the Dane County Land & Water Resource Conservation Division.  Unfortunately neither of these government agencies have funding or staff equipped to manage these lands, acquired due to the absence of the CCC.

Finally, O’Connor called a local watershed association with volunteer teams that regularly worked on public shorelines.  Even though the tree was three times the diameter normally tackled, the dedicated volunteers trimmed away the branches bit by bit and halted the erosion.  The volunteers did not want to be identified. 

“The bank is pretty stable now,” confirms O’Connor.

To be continued...but what do you think about buffer strips so far? How about farmers who implement them?
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