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The Rural Voice, 2001-10, Page 26PERFECT TIMING A new CURB -type program comes at just the right time for Huron farmers' environmental projects. ry and photo by Keith Roulston fit ane ����;"' ° '►Fr T�, ,, G#ra1d,V,an-Wj k staigfs an• b* Wehe's cappei Jr. , % 1v/ r•spo-Co t' !. pt,ftii/a «5 When Gerald and Karen Van Wyk bought the farm across the road from their Holmesville-area egg -laying operation last year. they had immediate concerns. Back behind the old. empty barn, just on the edge of the field in which they planted soybeans this year, was an abandoned well. "We planned to spread manure on that field and the land sloped toward the well," Gerald explains as he tours the area where the well has now been covered in and sealed. Luckily for the Van Wyk's, their interest in doing the work coincided with a new program in Huron County. The county had applied for a $2.9 million grant through the province's Healthy Futures program with the idea of providing a program somewhat similar to the old Clean Up Rural Beaches (CURB) program. The application sat on government desks for months before finally being approved in July, though at the reduced amount of $2.5 million. Yet by early September some 80 applications for projects that include everything from fencing Livestock out of waterways to capping abandoned wells to new, safer liquid manure application equipment had been given technical approval by the 22 THE RURAL VOICE review committee. Ben Van Diepenbeek. councillor from Ashfield-Colborne-Wawanosh, and chair of the county's Agriculture, Public Works and Seniors committee told county council in September. Final approval will await county council passage at its October session. The program will provide a grant for up to half the cost of environmental projects. "There was a large group of people who had projects in mind," says Kate Monk in explaining the tremendous interest in the program. Monk works with the Ausable Bayfield Conservation Authority, which jointly administers the program with the county and the Maitland Valley Conservation Authority. Part of the reason there were so many applicants on board so quickly may have been because it took so long for the program to be approved, Monk says. "The word got out very quickly." Some of the projects have been sitting on farmers' shelves since the CURB program was cancelled, she says. There are also many new environmental concerns on farms such as abandoned wells. So for many farmers, Monk says, "The timing was just right." It was for the Van Wyks. Gerald read about the new program in the local newspaper and applied. Monk came to the farm and helped the Van Wyks fill in their application. This follows the normal pattern in which a representative of the local conservation authority will visit the farm to assess the site. "It's not a complicated process but we have to take a picture of the site for the review committee," Monk explains. While reviewing the site, the conservation officers can also help the landowner fill in the application. Funding is available under the program for nutrient management plans. This is the one project for which no site visit is needed. Grants are also available for retirement of fragile land by reforesting it. To receive a grant a landowner must sign an agreement with one of the conservation authorities guaranteeing the land will stay in trees and agree to have the conservation officials follow up to ..make sure the trees are being properly cared for. Gerald Van Wyk says the application process wasn't onerous. As well as the well -capping, he also applied for funding to construct berms on a troublesome hillside where erosion has been a problem.