Cover Crop Benefits 2

Digging into Dams Workshop 2

Fall Pasture Management 3

Tree Seedling Order Forms Now Available 3

SWCD Awarded EPA Grant 4

Inside this issue:

Conservation Quarterly

C L A R K C O U N T Y S O I L A N D W A T E R C O N S E R V A T I O N D I S T R I C T Fall 2013

Dates to Note

10/3/13—Monthly Board Meeting, 7:30 p.m.

10/14/13—Columbus Day, SWCD office closed

10/22 & 23—Raingarden Workshops, Crick-et’s Café, Sellersburg

11/6/13—Monthly Board Meeting, 7:30 p.m.

11/11/13—Veterans Day, SWCD office closed

11/28 & 29—Thanksgiving Holiday, SWCD office closed

12/5/13—Monthly Board Meeting, 7:30 p.m.

12/24 & 25—Christmas Holiday, SWCD of-fice closed

Registration is now open for two raingarden workshops that will take place this October! Co-sponsored by the Clark County SWCD, these workshops will give participants an in-depth insight into the workings of rain gardens—from designing, to plant selection, to installation, and finally to maintenance. Featured speaker for the work-shops is Rusty Schmidt, a wildlife biologist and landscape ecologist, operating his business, Waterdrop Design Consulting, from his home in New York City. Rusty specializ-es in managing storm water runoff in environmentally conscious ways. He has designed many habitat restorations, rain gardens, bio-infiltration swales, bio-retention basins and storm water ponds. Rusty is co-author of Blue Thumb Guide to Raingardens. The workshops will be held at Cricket’s Café, Sellersburg, IN. Lunch will be catered by Cricket’s, and is included in the $30 cost of the work-shop. Those employed in landscaping and related businesses, will want to attend the October 22 “Professional Track” workshop session. In this session, Rusty will include a discussion of how to develop a program for promoting the installation of raingardens. Homeowners will be most interested in the October 23 workshop session—our “Homeowner Track”. Participants on this day are encouraged to bring photos of their potential raingarden site so that Rusty can discuss it’s possibilities! Both days will include the topics of raingarden design and construction, planting recommendations, and maintenance. Check-in begins at 8:30 a.m. each day; sessions run from 9 a.m.—3 p.m. with a break for lunch. To register, or for more information, con-tact the Clark County SWCD at (812) 256-2330, ext. 3. To guarantee your spot, please register no later than October 10, 2013.

This is a Clark/Floyd County Green Infrastructure Alliance event. Help us put some Green’ iN southern Indiana!

Raingarden Workshops Scheduled for October

Page 2 CONSERVATION QUARTERLY

“Digging into Dams—for Contractors”

Workshop

This workshop will be presented by Bob Evans who recently re-tired from a long career in con-struction and engineering, per-

forming such duties as a construc-tion superintendent, inspection and

field engineering. His project list ranges from Co-Generation Power

Plants, Bridges, Roadways and Dams.

He will be discussing the im-

portance of planning, experienced engineer selection, site and struc-ture investigations, analysis, engi-

neering design, permitting, and construction of outlet structures and dam embankments, and the maintenance and rehabilitation

needs of both types of structures. Also there will be a discussion on owners/owners’ representatives

working relationship with construc-tion and engineering industry pro-

fessionals, and the teaching/mentoring that needs to occur with the next generation of outlet struc-

ture and dam owners.

October 15th 6:00 PM (doors open at 5:30)

Auditorium of the New Albany Floyd County Public Library

180 West Spring St., New Albany Google Map: http://goo.gl/iN5jza

For more information or to register contact Kevin Feder at the Floyd County SWCD, (812)-945-9936.

While last year was an excellent time to use cover crops primarily to scavenge unused nitrogen by a water stressed crop, produc-ers can garner many other ben-efits by using cover crops on an annual basis. Besides gathering-up unused nitrogen, cover crops recycle that nitrogen through their roots and shoots and as they decom-pose the following year, some of that nitrogen will be released for use by the next grain crop and some will go towards building soil organic matter. Cover crops that follow corn and soybeans will be very useful in trapping nitrogen and in adding organic matter. The nitrogen trapped following a soybean crop is the nitrogen released by decompos-ing soybean residues. Cover crops also benefit the crop producer by building the soil organic matter through car-bon sequestering, improving soil permeability because of their deep roots and loosening com-pacted soils with their taproots. The historic use of cover crops was to cover the soil to protect against both water and wind ero-sion. However, the cover crop’s

Cover Crop Benefits live roots also help hold the soil and further reduce erosion. Cover

crops can also pro-vide ruminant live-stock producers with extra grazing or hay-ing opportunities. Although nitrogen is the usual focus, cov-er crops may also help recycle other plant nutrients by bringing them up from subsoil. Cover crops improve water quality by scavenging

residual soil nitrogen and reducing losses into drainage waters. Cover crops also reduce erosion and thus the losses of phosphorous and pesticides that may be bound to the sediments. Cover crops can also improve fish and wildlife habitats by providing winter food, cover and landscape diversity. Some cover crops are even noted for their ability to sup-press weeds, which may be due to competition, shading, or allelopa-thic reaction. Funds to assist with the establish-ment of cover crops are available to all producers in Clark County. These funds are available through the Clean Water Indiana program and through the Silver Creek Wa-tershed Improvement Project. Contact the Clark County SWCD at 256-2330, ext. 3, to learn more about cost-share assistance and cover crop decisions.

Planting trees this fall?

Please record the trees you plant at the Plant A Tree For You And Me website:

www.clarkswcd.org/PAT/openpage.htm.

Help green Southern Indiana!

VOLUME 11 , ISSUE 1 Page 3

Although it’s still summer, live-stock producers wanting to pro-vide for healthier pastures next spring might want to take steps now to prevent pasture over-grazing this fall. Producers should start planning for the end of the season now in an effort to help forage plants pre-

pare for fall and winter. In order to prepare for fall and winter, forage plants are starting to build up nutrients in the form of root reserves. So, it is important that grazing practices at this time match and enhance these plant efforts. In comparison to the 2012 graz-ing season, pasture growth has been good and has left most producers in a better position this year. But, hopefully the drought of 2012 and the im-portance of this fall period will still be remembered and pro-ducers will work to protect pas-tures from overgrazing. During the fall (especially Sep-tember thru October), pastures must be managed by producers and not by the cows, so that grass and legume plants are able to build up and store car-bohydrate reserves for the win-

Fall Pasture Management

Tree seedlings will once more be available to Indiana landowners this year through the IDNR Division of Forestry nursery in Vallonia, IN. These trees may be used for refor-estation, erosion control, wildlife habi-tat development, watershed improve-ment, wetlands enhancement, wind-break, or other conservation purpos-es. Plant materials cannot be redis-tributed or resold for profit.

Order forms are now available in the Clark County SWCD office for the 2013-2014 season. Orders will be accepted October 1, 2013-May 1, 2014 (depending on inventory) for standard spring pickup. There is a $10 non-refundable processing fee for each order.

Forms and more information on the sale may also be obtained on the in-ternet by visiting www.in.gov/dnr/forestry/3606.htm.

For assistance in deciding which spe-cies to plant, contact Clark County’s District Forester, Allie Cline. She may be reached at the Clark State Forest office, (812) 294-4306, or by email at ACline1@dnr.IN.gov.

Tree Seedling Order Forms Now Available

ter period, which will keep a root system living over the winter months. While leaf tissue dies dur-ing the winter, the buds and roots of pasture plants remain as living tissue over the winter and contin-ue to respire and burn energy. But, if the root reserves are insuffi-cient, the plant may die over the

winter. If the plant sur-vives with these low root reserves, spring re-growth and plant vigor will be negatively impacted. In order to build up carbo-hydrate root reserves, there must be adequate leaf area so that the plant can maximize the photo-synthetic process. To ac-complish this, producers should ensure they don’t

overgraze pastures. For or-chardgrass, producers should graze pastures to no lower than 4 to 5 inches. Tall fescue and blue-grass pastures should be man-aged to leave a 3 to 4 inch residu-al. Typically, the growth rate of pas-ture plants tend to slow down in the fall. Overgrazing in late sum-mer and early fall sets up a poten-tial problem that makes it ex-tremely hard for plants to recover. Besides helping to build root re-serves, another benefit to main-tain a higher fall grazing residual includes conserving soil moisture so plants continue to grow. Overall, good fall pasture grazing management is really all about keeping enough leaf area on the plants so we get quicker spring “green-up” and better, more vigor-ous plant growth early next sea-son.

SWCD Annual Meeting

The 70th Annual Meeting of the Clark County Soil & Water Conser-vation District will be held at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, January 30,

2014, in the Community Building on the Clark County 4-H Fair-

grounds.

Following a catered meal there will be a brief presentation and an election of one member on the

Board of Supervisors. Candidates for this year's election include Car-

olyn Clark.

Contact the SWCD office to pur-chase tickets or for more infor-

mation.

Bulk Rate U.S. Postage PAID Charlestown, IN Permit No. 6

SWCD Supporters….we thank you!

Clark County Farm Bureau Jim O’Neal Ford Dan Cristiani Excavating Memphis Meat Processing Farm Credit Services New Washington State Bank Huber Orchard & Winery Ottis Wright—dba Wright Brothers Koetter Woodworking Sanders Farm Service—Pioneer Seed Kruer Grading-Seeding, Inc.

District activities and programs will be made available to all citizens, regardless of race, color, religion, gender, national origin, marital status or disability.

9608 Highway 62 Charlestown, IN 47111 812-256-2330, ext. 3 Fax: 812-256-0362

C L A R K C O U N T Y S O I L A N D W A T E R

C O N S E R V A T I O N DISTRICT

The Clark County SWCD was recently awarded an EPA Section 319 grant to develop a watershed management plan for Fourteen Mile Creek, and the Indiana portion of Goose Creek-OH River. Both watersheds contain water-bodies that are currently listed on the EPA’s 303(d) list of impaired waters for E.coli, dissolved oxygen, and impaired biotic communities.

Projected start date for the planning process is November of this year. At that point, we will be seeking residents who are concerned about the condi-tion of these watersheds to play an active part in the development of the plan. Volunteers will be needed to serve on the Steering Committee, or help with activities of the project, such as water sampling.

Once the management plan is completed and approved, the SWCD will then be able to apply for funds to implement the plan. These funds will provide cost-share dollars to landowners to install Best Management Practices (BMPs) on their land similar to those currently being installed through the Silver Creek Watershed Improvement Project.

If you would like to volunteer or would like more specific information on this project, please contact our office at 256-2330, ext. 3, or email mela-nie.davis@in.nacdnet.net.

Please note: the watershed management plan will address water quality issues, not water flow issues such as building structures to contain water.

SWCD Awarded EPA Grant