Trees ripped out | Farmers want to put the maximum acres to work
INTERNATIONAL PEACE GARDEN, Manitoba-North Dakota border — Trees are often the first to suffer in large-scale agriculture.
Shelter belts that have stood for 100 years are ripped out to accommodate large equipment and allow farmers to earn more per acre.
This is particularly true in areas where potatoes are the crop of choice.
Ralph Oliver of the Rural Municipality of North Cypress in Manitoba said a large increase in land values and the desire to capture every dollar from every acre has led many to rip out the trees. In some cases, windbreaks that are only two or three years old have been torn out by new owners.
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Growers and processors have certain quality expectations that shelter belts can affect, he said at the Great Plains Windbreak conference.
Shelter belts can create dead areas in the field, where less ventilation results in the perfect environment for disease. Potatoes are grown under irrigation, and trees can interfere with the pivots.
Oliver said shelter belts are safe only when the land is rented and the owner requests the trees not be removed.
The RM is working with the Whitemud Watershed Conservation District to try to change that.
The 1.8 million acre district has a long history of planting shelter belts. Crews have planted 2,700 kilometres of trees since 1975.
The peak year saw 188 km planted, and the best years always followed drought.
“This year we put in five miles (eight km),” said district manager Chris Reynolds. “We did not plant a single field to shelter belt last year.”
Only trees to protect yard sites seem to be desirable.
Oliver said the days of drought are not over. Last year, topsoil from potato fields blew over a neighbouring hay field and road and had to be scraped off.
He said the soil in the area is sandy, and potatoes leave virtually no trash cover. On a three-year rotation, only once in three years will a farmer plant a crop that leaves good cover and prevents the soil from blowing away. But farmers continue to re-move the trees.
“We realize farmers are removing shelter belts for good reason.”
However, he said there has to be a happy medium.
A pilot program in the conservation district next year will offer an incentive to re-establish shelter belts. Landowners will receive $500 per mile, up to $1,000 per landowner, to plant trees spaced a quarter mile apart.
“It’s not ideal but it’s probably the only thing that will work.”
The district will plant the trees in consultation with the co-operating landowners.
Reynolds said he hopes 16 km will go in next year and that will set the stage for more to follow.
“There is a place for shelter belts,” he said. “On the large scale farm today there is a mentality that we don’t need it — yet.”
