PROGRAMS & INITIATIVES Precision Feeding | Trees for Streams | Water Quality Monitoring
Listening Sessions with Farmers | Antietam Farm Stewardship Program Precision Feeding  Dairy farmers will improve their impact on water quality, while maintaining or increasing profitability, through an innovative project called Precision Feeding. It’s a partnership between CBF, the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine, Penn State University, and the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture.
The project partners are helping Pennsylvania dairy producers to adjust feed rations so that cows are fed nitrogen and phosphorus levels closer to their needs, which can fluctuate over time due to age, size, pregnancy, and milk production. Hay, silage, and other feeds also have inconsistent nitrogen and phosphorus levels, due to diversity in soil type, weather, time of harvest and many other factors. The project will analyze the nitrogen and phosphorus levels in feeds on the farm, as well as the milk and manure, to work with the farms’ nutritionists to adjust the diets to more precisely meet the cows’ needs. This will lead to nitrogen reductions of 3050 percent and phosphorus reductions of 4060 percent in the farms’ manure, greatly reducing the manure management challenges and nitrogen and phosphorus contributions to local streams and ultimately the Chesapeake Bay. The Chesapeake Bay Commission named Precision Feeding as one of the most efficient strategies for reducing nutrient loads in its report, "Cost-Effective Strategies for the Bay: 6 Smart Investments for Nutrient and Sediment Reduction." Precision feeding currently is widespread in swine and poultry production, where an operation has a large number of animals at the same stage of their life cycle, and feed inputs are provided by an integrator using scientific analysis. CBF foresees this initiative leading to adoption among about 4,000 Pennsylvania dairy farms, and reductions of approximately 24 million pounds nitrogen pollution and 9.5 million pounds of phosphorus pollution to the Bay. Download the fact sheet Trees for Streams - NOT CURRENTLY AVAILABLE  The Chesapeake Bay Foundation's (CBF)program offers high quality, native trees and shrubs to individuals and community groups in Pennsylvania interested in planting streamside buffers along their personal or community properties. The program is offered twice a year, in early spring and fall, and is subject to funding availability and only available to Pennsylvania residents. Check back in the Fall 2008 for potential program availability.
Streamside buffer planting projects improve water quality, stabilize banks, reduce soil erosion, and provide healthy habitat for fish and other wildlife. They also provide a unique opportunity for people to work together to improve their communities, and ultimately, the water quality of their watershed.
More than 100 groups and individuals have participated in the program over the past four years, planting thousands of native trees and shrubs along streamside properties. Russell Ryan of Fairfield takes advantage of a plant giveaway whenever he can. Ryan has planted thousands of trees and shrubs on his 18-acre property in Adams County, and he plans to put in 200 more plants this spring through the program. His projects include a stream buffer along Muddy Run and a restored wetland. An avid wildlife watcher, Ryan's goal is to create diverse habitat that can support a variety of animals. Because of Ryan's efforts, 150 species of birds, 19 species of reptiles and amphibians, and 17 species of mammals (and counting) have the habitat they need right in his backyard.
In addition to offering free trees and plants in Pennsylvania, CBF also helps pay for protective tree tubes to improve plant survival. Tree tubes help guard seedlings from damage by deer and small rodents.
Water Quality MonitoringCBF and the Stroud Water Research Center are partnering in long-term buffer monitoring to document the benefits of stream buffers. Now in its fourth year, four Lancaster and Chester county streams are currently being monitored. Stroud has outlined the protocols and methods for the monitoring, which includes: - Intensive macroinvertebrate sampling — Thirty-two randomized samples are collected yearly at each of four sites on each of the four study streams using Surber samplers. Stroud performs the identification and analysis.
- Substrate analysis — Ten samples are pulled from ten randomly selected cross-sections on each of four study sites on each of four streams. CBF records median particle sizes, and Stroud performs the data analysis.
- Water chemistry — Lancaster Labs, an EPA-certifiedfacility, provides the protocol and equipment for specimen collection following industry standards for each analysis. CBF collects the samples and delivers them to Lancaster Labs for analysis.
- Stream channel morphology — CBF collects topographic data on ten stream cross sections at each of four study sites on each of the four streams. Data is collected using a total station apparatus.
- Photographic documentation — Both still (35mm) and video footage is used to record conditions on each study site every year.
The intent of this work is to document changes in streams that have had livestock excluded (via stream bank fencing) and buffers restored. The final product is expected be one or more publications by Stroud Center’s principle researcher, Dr. John Jackson, suitable for peer-reviewed professional journals. Listening Sessions with Farmers During the fall of 2005, The Brubaker Corporation, Inc. and a host of other sponsors joined together in holding a series of public meetings to hear farmers’ views on the 2007 farm bill and on agricultural funding programs within Pennsylvania. Hundreds of participants attended the sessions and over one thousand more participated by recording comments on a dedicated telephone message line.
The result of these sessions is the publication of Voices of Agriculture, which describes the major themes that emerged from these sessions and provides recommendations based on areas of consensus.
Antietam Farm Stewardship Program Seventy-nine percent of the streams in the Antietam Watershed lack forested stream buffers and as a result have some of the highest nutrient loading rates from pasture and manure of any region in the Bay watershed.
This Farm Stewardship Program provides plant material and stream bank fencing to help restore streams in this highly erodible watershed. The goal is to restore wildlife habitat and water quality through the establishment, protection and stewardship of riparian forests and wetlands. CBF pays the full cost of 2 strand electric fencing and plantings adjacent to streams and wetlands. The landowner is responsible for costs of stabilized crossings and/or watering access points. Landowners may pay this portion or earn cost-share credits to cover it by creating buffers wider than 15’ and/or fencing wetlands.
The approach is to allow landowners to earn cost-share credits by creating wider than minimum buffers (>15’) and/or fencing wetlands that are currently being grazed. Landowners can use these credits to pay for their portion of costs (stabilized stream crossings) and/or other best management practices (BMPs).
Partners consist of federal, state and local agencies as well as several watershed/conservation organizations and private companies. They are:
Antietam Watershed Association
Chesapeake Bay Trust
Franklin County Conservation District
Beaver Creek Watershed Association
Antietam Fly Fishers
Mid-Atlantic Federation of Fly Fishers
PA Dept. of Environmental Protection
Upper Potomac Tributary Strategy Team
Penn State Mont Alto Forestry School
DNR Forest Service & Monitoring Division
Dickinson College ALLARM
Washington County Dept. of Planning
CBF’s Pennsylvania Office
Trout Unlimited Seneca Valley Chapter
US Fish and Wildlife Service Trout Unlimited National Capital Chapter
Waynesboro Lions Club
L.L. Bean Factory Outlet Store
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