The Citizen, 1996-03-20, Page 38Agriculture 1996
-41
PAGE A-14. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 20, 1996.
Trees, essential part of agricultural productivity
Surface
runoff
Groundwater
PRECIPITATION
By Bonnie Gropp
Air, water, and soil — three small
words that guarantee the existence
of agriculture.
Yet, while these things are key to
the successful production of any
agricultural product, there is
another ingrediint that is essential
for their future, trees.
One of the biggest issues
regardiing reforestation or
windbreaks and buffers, is erosion
control.
Wind erosion occurs when the
wind blows across an unprotected
soil surface. While this can be
aggravated by factors such as
excessive tillage, the removal of
natural tree and shrub fencelines,
has been a major contributing factor
to wind erosion increase.
Marvin Smith, area forester with
the Ministry of Natural Resources
(MNR), says this concern arises
every time people see a developing
catastrophe. Smith says, the move
to reforest has happened twice in
Ontario in the last 100 years. The
first time was in the regions with
sandy soils. Cut and burn was an
early practice and farmers learned
that if they burned off trees, the
combination of the built-up organic
matter and the ash from the burning
left a very fertile soil. However,
the sandy soil was blowing like
snowdrifts and to address
this concern,
reforestation started
around 1910.
"Things
improved after
that and people
started once
again to take INFILTRATION things for
granted," says
Smith.
During the
1950s to 1970s
woodlots were
cut back to enlarge SUBSURFACE
fields that would FLOW
better accommodate the
newer, bigger machinery.
"The protection was gone
again and a new cycle of erosion
begun."
While it was believed that wind
erosion would only occur on sandy
fields and some organic soils it
soon became evident such was not
the case. During the past few years
the erosion of valuable top soil
from silt and clay fields, probably
due to the deteriorating structure of
many soils, has become cause for
alarm.
Erosion has been attributed as
well to a noticeable loss of crop
quality and yield on knoll
areas where erosion is a
continuing problem.
Frequent drifting
can eventually
cause a textural
EVAPORATION change in the
topsoil layer. The
loss of fine soil
particles will
lower the soil's
waterholding
capacity, which
in turn makes the
land even more
'susceptible to
erosion.
People are realizing
that when the soil starts to
move it's taking nutrients.
"There is now a
renewed
interest in
tying down
that soil for
farming, as well as a renewed
appreciation for the economic value
of woodlots," says Smith. "The
price of wood has skyrocketed in
recent years."
Also, a wooded property has
appeal that may influence a
potential buyer.
Deciding what type of trees to
plant takes some planning. "If I was
a farmer the first thing I would do
is retire land that was fragile or
highly erodable and take them out
of row crop production."
"Next if your farm is on rolling
land, the knolls in the early part of
the spring will look yellow. If the
depressions are darker it is because
of subsoils moving into those
knolls. If I could take this out of
crop products that's where I would
start looking at planting a woodlot."
Woodlots reduce wind velocity
and filter debris. The most
important consideration when
planting is that the windbreak tree
is the maximum height in relation
to the ground area cover..
Smith recommends beginning
with white pine as it is the most
valuable softwood in eastern
Canada, grows well in many soil
conditions and is well-suited to an
open field. "While hardwoods tend
to respond to light and will grow in
an umbrella shape in open spaces
rather than straight up, conifers,
like the white pine, grow in a
negative response to gravity.
Looking at them practically you
Continued on A-15
UPTAKE _~
TRANSPIRATION
rr
Evaporation
STREAMFLOW
The damage associated with wind
erosion can vary. It is a selective
process, whereby deposited soil is
always higher in fertility when
compared to its place of origin.
This is especially true of organic
matter, nitrogen and phosphorus.
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