Welcome to the

Bedford County Conservation District website.

Bedford County Conservation District

702 West Pitt Street, Suites 3 and 4

Bedford, PA 15522

telephone: 814-623-8099

fax: 814-623-0481

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Conservation District Board meetings are regularly held at 7 PM on the first Tuesday of the month, at the Conservation District office.

Next District Board meeting: June 5, 2012

 

 

 

 

Website News

Added link to new PA Erosion and Sediment Pollution Control Program Manual to Erosion and Sedimentation Control page. - CLICK HERE

Tree protectors - Click Here to link to a page with information about ordering tree protectors

WOSA scholarship information added, scroll down to Other News

Added PA One Stop link at left. See article in Other News below .

Added NEW Manure Management Manual to the site. CLICK HERE.

Conservation District News

The Conservation District will sponsor a Household Hazardous Waste collection event on September 29, 2012, at the Bedford Fairgrounds. An event flyer with additional details will be available soon.

Bedford County Conservation District Chesapeake Bay Education Outreach Plan

In response to the Chesapeake Bay Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL), mandated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the Pennsylvania Watershed Implementation Plan (WIP), Bedford County Conservation District will be visiting agricultural producers to educate them on the Pennsylvania regulations relating to both crop and livestock farming activities. 

Conservation District staff intends to meet with every producer in Bedford County over the next 5 years to explain the need for agricultural plans relating to erosion and sediment control and manure management. 

The outreach visit purpose is to communicate the regulatory information and the environmental requirements that apply to farms. The requirements are to help farmer producers reduce their impacts on the environment for the benefit of all residents of Pennsylvania by preventing nutrients and sediment from entering Pennsylvania waterways.

How Does Bedford County Conservation District Plan to Communicate the Regulatory Requirements to All Agricultural Operations?

The District anticipates 150 + on site farm visits July 1, 2011 through June 30, 2012, with intent to visit 75+ additional farms annually over the next five years until all active producers are visited.

2011-2012 Outreach Visits will be prioritized by watersheds:

• Yellow Creek Watershed - (portions impaired due to agriculture and has a TMDL)
• Shawnee Branch Watershed a primary tributary to impaired Shawnee Lake
• Evitts Creek Watershed - (portions impaired due to agriculture)
• Cove Creek - (Execeptional Value designation)
• Sidling Hill - (Execeptional Value designation)
• Bobs Creek - (upper part of creek designated High Quality Coldwater Fishery)

Outreach visits will be coordinated through the efforts of various staff and programs:

• Chesapeake Bay Technicians
• Act 38 Nutrient Management
• Agricultural Conservation Technician
• Watershed Specialist
• Resource Technician
• No-Till Equipment Rental Program
• Agricultural Conservation Easement Program.

The PA Agriculture Outreach Form will be reviewed and completed on site with the producer as per written memo instruction provided June 28, 2011 Chesapeake Bay Agricultural Outreach/Educational Site Visits.

Producers will be informed that Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has guidance available for producers to write their own farm plans; assistance is available at the local Conservation District and Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) offices.

Resource materials available for on site discussion and distribution:

• Agricultural Environmental Regulations, Am I in Compliance? Sediment and Erosion Control Requirements for Agricultural Activities
• The Basics of Agricultural Erosion and Sedimentation Requirements
• Field Application of Manure A supplement to Manure Management for Environmental Protection
• Erosion and Sediment Control for Agricultural, Plowing or Tilling Activities and Animal Heavy Use Areas Fact Sheet
• Source Water Protection Technical Assistance Program Fact sheet
• A Conservation Catalogue for Pennsylvania
• Source Water Protection Practices Bulletin Managing Agricultural Fertilizer Application
• Pennsylvania Water Quality Action Packet for Agriculture
• Animal Waste Management Technical Notes Series
• Chapter 102. Erosion and Sedimentation Control
• Chapter 83 Nutrient Management Rules and Regulations
• Manure Management Manual upon availability

CONSERVATION DISTRICT DIRECTORS AND STAFF TRAINING RESOURCES - The Pennsylvania Association of Conservation District Leadership Development Council website houses resources for director and staff training. CLICK HERE

Other News

Penn State: New Farm Mapping Website To Aid In Nutrient Management

Pennsylvania farmers looking to meet the state's regulatory requirements for erosion and sediment control and nutrient-management planning can find help at PaOneStop, an online service from Penn State Extension that enables farmers to produce required maps of their farms.

Developed in cooperation with the State Conservation Commission, the state departments of Agriculture and Environmental Protection, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, the National Consortium for Rural Innovations in America, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Natural Resource Conservation Service, the service is a suite of online tools being developed for nutrient management and erosion and sedimentation-control planning.

The first module of PaOneStop, currently available for use, enables farmers to create maps required for completion of nutrient balance sheets for imported manure, and nutrient- management plans as required by Pennsylvania's Nutrient Management Act. Additional modules, now under development, will provide conservation tools to help farmers develop or update their own erosion and sedimentation plans.

"Recently, state environmental regulations have been revised, increasing the number of Pennsylvania farmers who need to complete nutrient-management plans, erosion and sedimentation plans, and nutrient balance sheets for manure transfers," said Rick Day, associate professor of soil science and environmental information systems.

"State regulations require completion of nutrient balance sheets for manure transfers to protect water quality," he said. "The state conservation commission estimates that more than 50,000 nutrient balance sheets are completed annually.

"The balance sheets require maps as part of the submission process, and that's difficult for most farmers -- the maps and plans should include field boundaries, acreages, stream and water features, wells, application setbacks and buffers, soils, aerial images and more."

PaOneStop users can access color aerial images of their farm; outline boundaries and calculate acreages of their fields; access Natural Resource Conservation Service soils maps and data for fields; and record such farm features as wells, sinkholes, ponds and streams. They also can access topographic maps, determine manure setbacks and buffers, and produce hardcopy maps needed for regulatory compliance.

There is no charge for use of PaOneStop and no special software required. All farm information entered into the system is kept confidential and consultants or managers of multiple farms can map as many farms as needed under a single log-in.

A PaOneStop module is currently under development to help farmers develop erosion and sedimentation plans, which are meant to minimize soil loss and thereby protect rivers, streams, lakes and ponds. The new module will estimate annual soil loss for each field under its current management system and provide tools to evaluate alternative management practices if soil losses are too high. It will use many of the mapping features in the current system, so fields only need to be mapped once.

An erosion and sedimentation plan, Day explained, is like a "mini" conservation plan and is required in the Department of Environmental Protection's Chapter 102 requirements. He says of Pennsylvania's approximately 59,000 farms, up to 40,000 lack current plans in compliance with DEP's Chapter 102 regulation.

"The current rate of plan development is much too slow, partially because farmers lack tools to develop and modify their own erosion and sedimentation plans," he said. "PaOneStop will increase the rate of plan development and bring more farms into regulatory compliance."

For many farmers, current management systems may be acceptable and no changes will be required. However, current regulations state that an erosion and sedimentation plan must be completed even if current management is acceptable, so this procedure must be done for all farms to be legally compliant with regulations.

Penn State Extension will be conducting training sessions on the use of PaOneStop in the near future. "Currently there are more than 350 users of the system who have mapped more than 1,000 different farms," Day said. "We also will have numerous training events coming up." To get started, visit the PaOneStop website, create a user name and password and start mapping. For online assistance or additional information, call toll-free 1-877-722-4724, or send email to Rick Day at: rday@psu.edu or Bob Neiderer at: rjn11@psu.edu.