Landowner Conservation Handbook

Yolo County Resource Conservation District221 West Court Street, Suite 1

Woodland, CA 95695

tel: 530.662.2037 x5fax: 530.662.4876www.yolorcd.ca.gov

Bring FarmEdges Back

to Life!

Bring FarmEdges Back

to Life!

Bring Farm Edges Back to Life!Designed and edited by Paul Robins, Rebecca Bresnick Holmes, and Katherine Laddish

5th Edition, July 2001reprinted May 2002

Copyright Yolo County Resource Conservation District

to purchase a copy:

Please send your request by e-mail to pratt@yolorcd.orgor telephone us at 530.662.2037, extension 117.

Please also visit our website at: www.yolorcd.org. This site reflects a cooperative effortwith our partner agency, the USDA: Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS).

Bring Farm Edges Back to Life!Table of Contents

Introduction 1

Making Wildlife and Clean Farming Compatible 3John Anderson, Hedgerow Farms

Conservation Practices

Direct Seeding of California Native Grasses in the 5Sacramento Valley and Foothills

John Anderson, Hedgerow Farms

Establishing Hedgerows for Pest Control and Wildlife 11Mary Kimball & Celia Lamb, Yolo County RCD

Roadside Establishment of Native Perennial Grasses 19Jeanette Wrysinski, Yolo County RCD

Tailwater Ponds for Water Quality, Habitat and 25Farmland Benefits

John Anderson, Hedgerow Farms &Jeanette Wrysinski, Yolo County RCD

Hill Ponds for Landowner and Wildlife Benefits 33Jeanette Wrysinski, Yolo County RCD

Riparian Enhancement on Sloughs 37Paul Robins, Yolo County RCD

Selected Irrigation Canal Vegetation for Seasonal Summer Systems 45John Anderson, Hedgerow Farms

Levee Revegetation with Native Grasses 49John Anderson, Hedgerow Farms &Rick Rominger, Rominger Brothers Farming

Wildlife & Insects

Attracting Barn Owls to Farms 53Chuck Ingels, UC Cooperative Extension, Sacramento, CA

Potential Bird Box Nesting Species in the Sacramento Valley 57

Beneficial Insects and Their Association with Trees, Shrubs, 59Cover Crops, and Weeds

from Farming with Insectary Plants, Robert L. Bugg, SustainableAgriculture Research and Education Program

Use of Bats to Enhance Insect Pest Control in the Central Valley 63Rachael F. Long, Farm Advisor, Pest Management, UCCE Yolo County& Claudia Funari, Research Assistant, UCCE Yolo County

Who Might I Find in My Bat House? 67from Bat House Builders Handbook, Merlin Tuttle & Donna L. Hensley

Planting Techniques & Weed Control

Using Transplants to Establish Native Grasses, Sedges, 69and Rushes (Pug Planting)

John Anderson, Hedgerow Farms

Propagation of Tress & Shrubs by Stem Cutting 71Tom Griggs, Restoration Ecologist, The Nature Conservancy

How to Grow California Oaks 73Douglas D. McCreary, Natural Resource Specialist,UC Cooperative Extension

Effective Herbicides for Conservation Projects 77Bryan Young, Sacramento County Bufferlands Program

Common Herbicides and Their Effectiveness on Common Weeds 81

Yolo County RCD Weed Hit List 83

Project Support

Cost-Share Programs for Resource Conservation and 85Wildlife Habitat Development

Paul Robins, Yolo County RCD

Index of Assistance Opportunities for Conservation Projects 88Jeanne Wirka & Judy Boshoven, Audubon, CA

Cost-Sharing Options for Conservation Plans (Three Farms) 95Paul Robins, Yolo County RCD

Vendors and Contractors for Conservation Work 99

Bring Farm Edges Back to Life! page 1

cost time and money. This book contains sections thatdetail the typical costs of these practices and ways toget private and public cost-share support to implementthem. If you have any questions about the informationincluded, please feel free to call us. We’re happy toprovide planning assistance to help you in your effortsto bring your farm edges back to life!

About the Yolo County ResourceConservation District

Our name sounds official, but our activities aren’t.We don’t regulate or mandate. Bridging agriculturalissues with science, education, and government, theRCD is an information network between landownerresource problems and the best solutions.

The Yolo RCD recognizes farmers and ranchersas key players in all real-world solutions. Because ourdirectors are local producers who know farming,business, and resources, we work to assure communitycontext and relevance, acting as a filter and networkfor ideas, training, outreach, and partnerships betweenland and resource users, specialists, regulators, andfunders.

The RCD is committed to local control, believingthe more we learn about our resources, the more wecontrol our own backyard. The more we work withour neighbors, the less we face outside regulatorysolutions that don’t work. To this end, we are workingto integrate resource management solutions that will:

• Reduce losses of habitat and diversity, both inwildlife and plant species.

• Bring together parties with common goals andinterests.

• Create integrated management models toencourage best “multiple” resource use.

• Prevent pollution of waterways and groundwaterfrom pesticide run-off, sediment, and nutrient buildup.

Every farmer has them: odd corners, strips of field,or ditch banks that are too awkward to farmeconomically. But you can’t just let them sit or theybecome noxious weed patches that compromise youroperation. They typically have to be mowed, scraped,sprayed and/or disked several times every year. That’scostly maintenance for a weed patch.

The Yolo County Resource Conservation District(RCD) recommends an alternative protocol for thesespaces that not only suppresses weeds with less annualmaintenance, but stabilizes the soil and brings wildlifeand beneficial insects back to your farm. Using nativeperennial grasses, flowers, shrubs, and trees, you canturn your farm edge liabilities into assets. In this bookletyou will find proven techniques for establishinghedgerows, tailwater and wildlife ponds, and permanentnon-weedy vegetation on roadsides, canal banks, fieldedges and creeks.

Over the years, local farmers and landowners haveexperimented with different conservation practices ontheir farms that would enable them to meet the multipleobjectives of conserving soil and water and improvingwildlife habitat while maintaining intensive agriculturalproduction. The practices detailed in this booklet areproducts of the trials and successes of their efforts tointegrate on-farm resource management. All of thesepractices are possible and easy to implement with basicfarming or landscaping equipment. Of course, they do

Introduction

Western Yolo County

Bring Farm Edges Back to Life! page 3

Farmers, land managers, and agricultural advisorshave begun to realize the long-term impacts of thetraditional approach of “clean farming.” The practiceof keeping all land that isn’t planted to a crop eitherscraped or sprayed clean has resulted in cumulativesoil losses and sediment buildup in unwanted areas. Inmost cases, attempts to keep ground “clean and bare”are unsuccessful, and they instead turn into reservoirsof unwanted weeds and thus seeds that then spreadinto the cropland. The results include a great monetarycost to the farmer, a cost to the land in the proliferationof weeds and other problems, and an overall loss ofvaluable habitat.

We all hear increasing complaints from manyquarters about the negative impact of modernagricultural practices on the environment, especiallyon surface and ground water quality. Are therefarm-friendly solutions to these challenges that donot threaten productivity and that help reduceerosion, improve water quality, and save labor orchemical costs in the long run? Have we forgottenthat the goal of “clean” farming means weed-free,not vegetation-free?

Current clean farming practices in most of YoloCounty’s intensively farmed areas are dramaticallyreducing or eliminating wildlife habitat within theagricultural systems. The impulse to maintain borders,berms, and roadsides without vegetation, as well asuse all available farmland for production, results in abrown, barren, landscape that lasts from plowdown inthe fall until spring planting. One impact of successfulfarming is the unfortunate, lifeless state of vast acresonce so important to the myriad of species that inhabitedthe Sacramento Valley. More and more, “productivity”is judged by measuring only intensely cultivatedmonocultures.

In our view there is no inevitable, long-termconflict between good farming and biodiversity. Quail,raptors, and pest-eating bats are less apparent in manysites. How often does one see a snake or toad on theroad anymore? Threats to biodiversity come not somuch from increased traffic, but from a lack of naturalhabitat. When farmers believe that only one version

of “clean farming” is economically viable, one result isa lack of habitat.

The number one reason for bare dirt clean farmingis to control the invasion of noxious weeds. This iscertainly a valid concern since any area of bare anddisturbed soil will be rapidly colonized by a host ofnasty and unsightly vegetation. Star thistle, puncturevine, Johnson grass, bindweed, and mustard are but afew of the undesirables that we continually spray, disk,and scrape to eliminate. The number two reason forbare dirt clean farming is that it has become theaccepted, automatic practice. Border vegetationimplies sloppy farming—what will the landlords,neighbors or bankers think?

What can be done to reverse the current scenariowithout impacting the agricultural livelihood of thevalley? Certainly most farmers appreciate wildlife andevidence suggests that a biodiverse border of plantspecies provides habitat for many beneficial insectsand predators (such as raptors, bats and reptiles).Instead of a high maintenance, bare dirt system, wepropose a balanced, self-sustaining perennial grasslandthat outcompetes any weedy invasion. Corridors ofmixed native perennial grasses along roadsides, berms,ditch banks, canals, field borders, and any non-croppedarea, provide excellent year-round habitat for wildlifewithout a negative impact on overall farming practices.Incorporating patches of native shrubs and/or treesinto these corridors greatly increases the biodiversityand habitat value.

Making Wildlife Habitat and Clean Farming CompatibleJohn Anderson, Hedgerow Farms

Hedgerow Farms, Yolo County

page 4 Bring Farm Edges Back to Life!

These concepts are widely practiced in Midwesternfarming areas but have not yet been accepted by theCalifornia Valley farmers. Can it be done? HedgerowFarms, located between Winters and Madison, has beenincorporating and testing habitat corridor systems since 1978.Without question, native grasslands provide weed anderosion control, reduce maintenance, and greatlyenhance the biodiversity and aesthetics of the farm.Over 100 species of birds use the farm throughout theyear and dozens of rooster pheasants and dove areharvested during the hunting season. We now have awell-established quail population and have documenteda myriad of songbird and beneficial insect species.

Neighbors Bruce and Charlie Rominger, who farmground adjacent to the corridors, have not seen anysignificant negative impact on their crop production.In fact, the most difficult aspect of farming withcorridors is training tractor drivers to recognize theborders and avoid disking over newly-establishedvegetation. We have also found that overall herbicideapplication decreases. The steps toward shifting awayfrom a clean-farming approach are easy, especiallyfor a farmer. It is simply a matter of farming the corridorto get it established.

A wide variety of native and non-native perennialgrass seed is now available. Establishing a stand issimilar to growing wheat or barley. Because perennialgrasses grow much slower, weed management in thefirst year is very important. Timing of planting, selectiveherbicide application, and mowing are all importanttools for success. The slow-growing establishmentperiod explains why these grasses are not invasiveweeds, and perhaps why they disappeared from mucho alifornia’s agriculturally-impacted areas.

In short, mixed plant field corridors are certainly areasonable, workable compromise that could becomenormal, cost-effective practices for good farmlandstewardship. The visual image of clean farming forthe future should be borders of perennial grasslands,not lifeless borders of bare dirt. Weed-free does notmean vegetation-free. With the use of mixed plant fieldcorridors, environmental quality and quality of lifewould be significantly enhanced, especially for thoseof us that live and work in the agricultural landscape.

MAKING WILDLIFE HABITAT AND CLEAN FARMING COMPATIBLE