How are Christmas Tree farms holding their own against soil erosion?
Recently, we interviewed Don Sturm of Sturm’s Berry Farm and Bob Schaefer of Noble Mountain Tree Farm about what they do to preserve precious topsoil.
Sturm’s Berry Farm (Part 1 of 2)
Jeremy Baker is your host for this interesting interview with berry farmer and Christmas Tree grower Don Sturm of Sturm’s Berry Farm. Don grows berries on flat ground and Christmas Trees on steeper ground. Making several passes with a tractor to prepare the hillsides for tree planting also left the soil bare and susceptible to erosion. Now he plants directly into sod to protect his soil.
Learn how he sprays around the trees, including a demonstration of an easy-to-use sprayer attachment. As Don talks, you’ll begin to realize he is using Integrated Pest Management methods throughout his operation.
We thank Don and Sturm’s Berry Farm for helping us with this video and applaud his work to conserve soil and protect water!
Our interview with Don Sturm is the first in a two-part series.
Noble Mountain Tree Farm (Part 2 of 2)
“Our soil is our lifeblood,” states Bob Schaefer of Noble Mountain Tree Farm. Bob talks with Jeremy Baker about the innovative soil erosion control methods used on the largest contiguous Christmas Tree farm in the world. With 2,100 acres under cultivation and growing about 3,000,000 trees on a thin layer of topsoil, preserving soil is critical current and future generations who farm this land.
Straw water bars are a key innovation that have proven to be extremely effective at slashing soil loss. Cover crops are used to help protect and build soil. We apologize for some of the wind noise in this video, but listen for the birds singing throughout the video!
We thank Bob and Noble Mountain Tree Farm for sharing what they’ve learned about controlling soil erosion and preserving soil!
You can find all of our conservation videos online at https://vimeo.com/ccswcd/videos.
Check out our brochure that describes Best Management practices for reducing soil erosion on Christmas Tree farms.
