N a t i o n a l A g r o f o r e s t r y C e n t e r

4

see ALLEY CROPPING on page 2

Inside

Spring 2001

3

“Tree planting in the Great Plains is a team effort,” says Joe

Cervantes, Resource Conservationist with the USDA Natural

Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) in Alliance, Nebraska. It

takes an interested landowner, resource professionals with technical

and program expertise, and professional tree planters. 

Jim Jelinek, a farmer from western Nebraska, is one of those

interested landowners. He says, “When the dirt blows, it’s disgusting.. The trees planted in the 1930’s and 1940’s are dying and there

just aren’t the trees out there that there used to be.” While talking

about planting trees through the Continuous Conservation Reserve

Program (CCRP) Jim said, “It was easy, Joe sat down and explained

6

LANDOWNERS

CAN HARDLY

BELIEVE IT!

REVITALIZING WINDBREAKS

Agroforestry

GETTING

BUFFERS

ON THE GROUND:

A GROUP EFFORT Center pivot irrigation corners planted with trees,

shrubs, and grass help protect soil and crops, while

enhancing wildlife habitat. Pictured are Dave and

Dean Buskirk in their five-year-old pivot corner

planting in the western Nebraska Panhandle.

Photo courtesy of Doak Nickerson, 

Nebraska Forest Service.

by Rich Straight

Forest Service Lead Agroforester, NAC, Lincoln, Nebraska

see BUFFERSon page 6

Alley Cropping System Buffers Water Table

Deep in the Mesilla Valley near Las

Cruces, New Mexico you’ll find over 25,000

acres of pecan trees. At first glance this just

looks like a lot of pecan trees, but after closer

inspection and a visit with NRCS Soil

Conservationist Rudy Garcia of the Las

Cruces Field Office, you’ll find that some of

the plantings are an interesting and productive

Kimberly Stuhr

Technology Transfer Specialist,

NAC, Lincoln, Nebraska

alley cropping / buffer system of pecan trees,

orchard grass (like Bermuda grass), and dairy

waste nutrient management. 

According to Garcia, “This alley cropping system buffers excess nitrate leaching

into the water table. Here in the desert we

have a shallow water table that is only about

seven to nine feet below the surface.” 

The Mesilla Valley is home to 22 large

dairy operations that produce manure in need

MAKING

WATER

COUNT

Inside 
of disposal, or more appropriately, “utilization.” Typically 10 to 15 tons of dairy manure

is applied per acre every three to four years on

a pecan orchard. By applying “waste” to the

grass and trees, nutrients are readily available

that improve forage and pecan production.

Obviously, what used to be considered waste

can alternatively be seen as a valuable component of a productive agroforestry alley cropping system and efficient disposal means of a

sure supply of manure. 

The grass is planted between pecan trees,

which are planted at a 40-foot by 40-foot

spacing. It is harvested about two times per

year and often sold to local farmers for feed or

bedding. Many landowners consider the grass

an excellent soil conditioner (i.e., the grass 

is mowed between rotations) that

improves soil quality properties,

which beneficially influence

yield and quality. When sold,

the Bermuda grass provides an annual income

for the landowner

throughout the summer

growing season. Then,

in late autumn the pecans are harvested for

another source of income. Garcia says,

“Several landowners who have recently converted to this system really like it. They maxiBuffers: More Relevant Today Than Ever!

NAC Director’s Corner

A commentary : by Center Director, Dr. Greg Ruark

Agroforestry buffers utilize trees and/or shrubs to protect

things that are important. They protect waterways from nonpoint source pollution, prevent soil from eroding, and moderate dust and odors. Fields, homes, communities, and roadways can

be sheltered from the adverse affects of harsh climates and strong

winds. Buffers can also provide social benefits, like wildlife habitat,

visual beauty, recreation opportunities, and carbon storage. The economic profitability of a farm or ranch can often be improved when

agroforestry buffers are properly planned and installed.

Former Secretary of Agriculture, Dan Glickman, once said,

“When combined with conservation tillage and nutrient and pest

management, buffers can all but eliminate serious water pollution

and related environmental problems from farms.”

This issue of Inside Agroforestry focuses on several types of

agroforestry buffers. Local stories are used to illustrate how alley

cropping, riparian forest buffers, field windbreaks, living

snowfences, and planted pivot corners are being used throughout

the country. Unfortunately, many existing buffers have reached

the end of their service life and are in dire need of renovation or

replacement. This is especially true for field windbreaks that were

planted in the Great Plains to combat the “dust bowl” of the

1930’s.

Don’t underestimate the benefits of agroforestry buffers.

These strategically placed “linear forests” can work for

you, they can work for your neighbors, and they can work

for watersheds and the entire nation.

2 Inside Agroforestry | Spring 2001

Alley Cropping

continued from page 1

mize the use of their fields and are generating

greater income through increased yield

and quality of both the pecans and the

grass crop.”

For more information about this unique

alley cropping / buffer system, contact Rudy

Garcia by phone: 505-522-8775 or e-mail

him at: Rudy.Garcia@nm.usda.gov

This alley cropping system in 

New Mexico provides annual income 

the groundwater from excess nitrates.

from forage and pecans while buffering 
Spring 2001 | Inside Agroforestry 3

Bern Sweeney, Director, 

Claire Birney, Development Director, 

Stroud Water Research Center,

Avondale, Pennsylvania

see STROUD CENTER on page 4

New York City dwellers use an average

of 1.2 billion gallons of water daily. Fifty-six

upstate cities, towns, villages, and other

water districts draw another 123 million gallons. New York City’s water,

considered among the cleanest and best tasting of any city

in North America, is internationally envied. What’s more,

the water is unfiltered. And

most interested parties want

to keep it that way.

The problem that New

York faces is that federal regulations now insist on filtration for communities that use surface water

sources. But a water authority can avoid filtration if it demonstrates to the EPA that it

can “maintain a watershed control program

which minimizes the potential for contamination by Giardia (microorganisms that

cause painful intestinal sickness) and viruses in the source water.

New York City draws its water from a

network of rivers, streams, and reservoirs in

the watersheds of the Hudson and Delaware

rivers. Hundreds of streams feed the systems

18 collecting reservoirs and three lakes that

hold about 548 billion gallons. The system

watersheds cover 1,969 square miles, with

the outer edges lying 125 miles from

Manhattan.

One part of the system is already beyond

filtration avoidance. The once rural East-ofHudson Croton watershed is fast turning into

a sprawling suburbia, and the Environmental

Protection Agency (EPA) has ordered New

York to filter water from this section, which

provides only 10 percent of the city’s water.

The Croton filtration plant will cost $687

million – relatively cheap next to the estimated $6 billion cost (plus $300 million a

year to run) of filtration for the CatskillDelaware system, which provides 90 percent of the city’s water. Not surprisingly, the

city has decided it would rather spend $1.5

billion over 10 years to implement a watershed management strategy than to face the

high costs of filtration.

“Every Drop [of water] Counts...” is the

Stroud Water Research Center’s (SWRC)

motto. The Stroud Center, located about 40

miles southwest of Philadelphia,

Pennsylvania, is a scientific and educational

institution dedicated to understanding, preserving, and restoring streams, rivers, and

their watersheds throughout the world. They

have been contracted by New York State at

$1.2 million a year to help find, measure,

and design controls for the sources of pollution in the myriad of streams and rivers that

provide New York City’s drinking water.

Stroud scientists hope to pinpoint the problem areas and come up with a prescription

that is cheaper, less dependent on chemicals,

and more sensitive to both water quality and

Protecting Water: Stroud Center employees Jessie

Mathisen (left) and Arlene Casas sample

icy waters of the Esopus Creek in the

New York Catskills this past winter.

A filtration plant could cost as much $6 billion. Not suprisingly,

New York City has decided it would rather spend $1.5 billion

over 10 years to implement a

watershed management strategy.
“We all know that cost sharing will never be

sufficient enough to meet the need; therefore, we must show a less expensive way

that is attractive to landowners.” With

money from the grant, North Dakota held

four windbreak renovation workshops across

the state with over 200 people attending. As

a result, several conservation districts have

purchased some of the innovative equipment

demonstrated for use by local landowners.

Part of the EQIP educational grant is

supporting development of a windbreak renovation video. The video project is a cooperative effort among the USDA Natural

Resources Conservation Service, North

Dakota State University Cooperative

Extension Service, North Dakota Forest

Service, several soil conservation districts,

and several dedicated landowners. The video

will document a variety of windbreak renovation techniques and is slated to be completed later this year. For more information

on the video, contact: Marcus Jackson at

mjackson@ndsuext.nodak.edu or phone him

at: 701-231-8478.

People living on the plains and prairies

of North America have long appreciated the

buffering capability of windbreaks and their

many benefits. Now is the time to develop

effective windbreak renovation techniques.

This job will require help from conservation partners in both the private

and public sector.

4 Inside Agroforestry | Spring 2001

the natural environment. According to

Stroud Director Bern Sweeney, “This project fits well with our mission because it

applies basic research science to a real world

problem.”

The overall aim of the three-year project

is to establish a system to monitor the

amount of contaminants in the water and the

sources of contamination in the watersheds.

Bruce Wight

NRCS Lead Agroforester,

NAC, Lincoln, Nebraska

Much like the “baby boomer” generation, most of the windbreaks in the Great

Plains began life in the 1940’s, 50’s and 60’s

and are now reaching maturity. According to

Craig Stange, NRCS Forester in North

Dakota, an estimated 70 to 80 percent of

these windbreaks need some type of renovation ranging from reducing competition

between trees and encroaching grass to complete tree removal and replacement. Similar

renovation needs exist in the other states in

the Northern Great Plains.

With $50 per 100 feet as the going rate

for tree and stump removal, the potential

cost of rotating to second generation windbreaks is staggering. This cost can be

reduced to $20 per 100 feet if trees are

removed with a hydraulic sheer or

saw and the stump is left in the

ground. Stange and other resource

professionals in North Dakota are

exploring alternatives like the tree

sheer to find cost-effective renovation

approaches for landowners.

According to the 1992 National Resource

Inventory, there are over 150,000 miles of

windbreaks nationwide with about 90 percent

occurring in 15 states making up the Northern

Great Plains and Midwest. Estimates ranging

from 50 to 60 percent of these windbreaks

need some form of renovation.

Craig Stange is experimenting with

new renovation ideas and sharing the

lessons learned through an educational grant

from the Environmental Quality Incentives

Program (EQIP). One goal of the project is

to find a way to reduce renovation costs to

30 percent of the present costs. Stange says,

Saving Our Aging 

Windbreak Buffers

A circular saw mounted

on the Bobcat results in

a highly maneuverable

and efficient tool for

removing selected

trees in the windbreak

renovation project.

The system must also be able to measure

and predict future changes in water quality

as land uses change. Most importantly, for

the long run, the information provided by

the Stroud Center must lead to land and

water management practices that will prevent further contamination.

For more information about the Stroud

Center, the New York City project, and

other water quality projects visit their website at: www.stroudcenter.org or call

Claire Birney, Development

Director, at 610-268-2153 ext. 230.

Stroud Center

continued from page 3
GOOD THINGS

Spring 2001 | Inside Agroforestry 5

Talk about word-of-mouth advertising! Word about windbreaks is

spreading fast in Idaho. According to Dennis Hadley, District

Conservationist, for the USDA Natural Resources Conservation

Service (NRCS) in eastern Idaho, “Word is getting out. When you’ve

got a good buffer practice and a good program to support it, you can

talk about good things to people.” 

With the great incentives that the Continuous Conservation

Reserve Program (CCRP) offers and a first-rate buffer practice like

windbreaks, it’s no wonder that the High Country RC&D and the East

and West Side Soil Conservation Districts (SCDs) are installing

increasing numbers of new windbreaks per year. According to Hadley,

landowners are extremely pleased with their windbreaks and CCRP’s

incentives. The cost share plus the sign-up bonus for buffer practices is

fantastic. After you add in the annual rental payments, CCRP is the

see GOOD THINGSon page 7

These seedlings installed 

by the Idaho Department of

Transportation will eventually

protect the adjacent highway

from drifting snow and blowing

soil. The land was purchased

from willing landowners.

by Kimberly Stuhr

Technology Transfer Specialist, 

NAC, Lincoln, Nebraska

best conservation tree planting program that’s been available in a long time. Cooperators won’t find a better opportunity to apply a conservation planting to their land.

Hadley continues, “In fact, landowners can hardly believe

it. Sometimes I almost need to pinch them!” 

Windbreak buffers of all types are important in this

part of the country. A lot of the cropland is irrigated and is

very erodible due to high winds. Furthermore, many parts

of Idaho experience blowing and drifting snow each winA GOOD THING is doing
Other key players on this successful conservation team are

brothers Dave and Dean Buskirk. The Buskirks, landowners themselves with over 20,000 trees planted on their own farms for windbreaks and wildlife habitat, started their tree planting company; Trees

Are Us, about six years ago. The first year we planted one job. Now

we’re up to three tree planting crews with seven people on each crew.

Each crew plants trees and installs fabric mulch, Trees Are Us contracts with the local Upper Niobrara White Natural Resources

District (NRD) to provide tree planting and mulch installation services for producers in the area. 

The Buskirks’s not only plant trees but they also install fabric

water conservation mulch on windbreaks. “The advent of fabric

mulch made it possible to increase survival and growth of seedlings,”

says brother Dean. “It took a few years to develop a fabric mulch

installation machine that also worked in no-till situations.” Farmers

and ranchers don’t like breaking the sod on the sandy soils because

of the increased risk of wind erosion here on the edge of the

Nebraska Sandhills. 

This conservation team works because each person does their

part with personal commitment. Joe and Deena provide USDA technical and program expertise to assist landowners like Jim develop

effective conservation plans. Conservation Districts and landowners

then work with local businesses, like Trees Are Us, to get the job

done. 

Working together to conserve our natural resources makes

sense. And Conservation Buffers, like field windbreaks and

living snowfences, are common sense conservation.

6 Inside Agroforestry | Spring 2001

Buffers

continued from page 1

Dan Gullickson

Forester, Minnesota Department of

Transportation, Office of Environmental

Services, St. Paul, Minnesota

Living snowfences are plantings of

trees, shrubs, native grasses and sometimes

standing rows of corn that trap blowing and

drifting snow. These barriers help keep

roadways clear and prevent big drifts that

lead to stranded motorists. 

Living snow fences save lives. 

According to the Federal Emergency

Management Administration the number

one natural disaster that claims the most

lives in Minnesota is winter weather.

Between 1990 and 2000, in the MankatoWindom area alone, there were 1,411 vehicle crashes due to snow, 917 crashes due to

blowing snow, and 86 crashes resulting from

cross winds. With living snowfences, driver

visibility is improved and these vehicle accidents are reduced.

Living snow fences save money. 

According to Standard and Poor’s

financial information services, economic

disruption of having to shut down the highways for one day in Minnesota would cost

$66 million in lost wages and $27 million in

lost sales. Living snow fences help keep

roads open and reduce shipping delays for

goods and services. They also help us make

better use of the public’s money because the

need for plowing snow is reduced. 

Living snow fences look good.

These barriers are natural, live materials

Living snowfences help save lives and money, Living Snowfences and are aesthetically pleasing year-round.

that are aesthetically pleasing year round.

They provide visual cues, or land marks, to

help drivers find their way. Living snow

fences are an environmentally sound solution to improve snow management. Less

salt, fewer plow and truck trips, and less fuel

are required to keep the roadways clear. 

As a result, the Minnesota Department

of Transportation (MnDOT) has acquired a

$2.5 million grant from FEMA and participation of landowners and local governments

in the Living Snowfence program. We are in

the middle of planting 100 living snowfences that will be completed by June, 2001.

For more information, contact me 

by phone: 651-284-3763, or e-mail:

Daniel.gullickson@dot.state.mn.us

the program and how I could use it. My family has about 10 CCRP

windbreak contracts between my place, my Dad’s place, and my

Grandad’s estate.” Jelinek adds, “We’ve planted windbreaks around

most of our pivot-irrigated fields and around the pivot corners.

Otherwise, planting crops in the corners with 50- to 60-feet equipment is difficult. Millet is about the only thing I can grow because it

is inexpensive to plant.” Jim has become a tree-planting-promoter, he

says, “Now my landlords are following my lead and planting field

windbreaks.”

Jim is quick to point out that staff at the USDA Farm Services

Agency (FSA) were invaluable when it came to filling out forms.

Deena Collins, Program Technician, and landowner, worked with me

to complete the paperwork. She not only knew how to fill out the

forms, but she understands how programs can work on my farm. 

Deena says, “Conservation is important to me. We live on an old

1889 Tree Claim and still have the deed that was signed by Ulysess

S. Grant. Shelterbelts help save natural resources for our kids.” She

continues, “Buffer practices like field windbreaks only need a small

number of acres, they [producers] are not giving up as much as they

are getting in return. The wildlife aspects, like protected areas for

pheasant and sharptail grouse, along with saving resources for our

kids, and better crops, all from windbreaks. I love it. CCRP makes it

easy to talk to landowners about windbreak possibilities.”
Spring 2001 | Inside Agroforestry 7

ter. This adversely affects winter travel,

commuter safety, and snow removal budgets. Windbreaks take up very little space

compared to the area they protect, whether

they are planted to protect people, livestock,

soil, or crops from harsh winters and

extreme spring winds or to provide a visual

screen from conflicting land uses like rural

housing developments, dairies, or landfills.

For example, a two-row, one-half mile long

windbreak takes up less

than two total acres.

Additionally, windbreaks

add aesthetic variety to

the landscape, provide

wildlife habitat, and

improve working and living environments. 

Windbreaks provide

benefits not only to individual landowners but

also to communities as a

whole. The Bone Road,

located in rural

Bonneville County, Idaho

is the only maintained winter access connecting Bone, Idaho to the greater Idaho

Falls area. Snow removal costs on this road

are usually quite high. The East Side SCD

and High Country RC&D cooperated with

Bonneville County Roads and landowner

Steve Rhodes to design a special type of

windbreak buffer, known as a living

snowfence. In 1993 over 9,000 feet of

Siberian Peashrub and Rocky Mountain

Juniper were planted and are well on their

way to maintaining winter access between

the two communities.

Prior to 1992, windbreaks were

installed sporadically throughout Idaho. The

windbreak program dramatically increased

when NRCS made a commitment to

increase windbreak technology within the

Good Things

continued from page 5

state. Technologies were advanced through

training, technology improvements, and

coordination with outside agencies and programs. A NRCS forester was hired specifically to facilitate and coordinate the windbreak program. 

Gary Kuhn, current NRCS Agroforester

for NAC, located in Spokane, Washington

was previously the NRCS State Staff

Forester in Boise, Idaho. According to

Kuhn, the windbreak program in Idaho has

really taken off. Kuhn says, “During my

time as Idaho NRCS forester, it was a pleasure to see the commitment to advance a

specific conservation technology, in this

case, windbreak technology. After conducting two intensive windbreak technology

training courses, the confidence and cooperation of resource professionals led to the

expansion of windbreak plantings in Idaho.

What’s special is the windbreak activities

continue to remain strong. I look forward to

the years ahead to seeing the fruits of our

effort.”

The CCRP encourages buffer practices

that occupy small amounts of space but provide big benefits. Hadley receives requests

from landowners wanting windbreaks ranging from field and farmstead windbreaks to

feedlot windbreaks. Landowner windbreak

plans vary in size from two to 16 rows, and

many of them include a wildlife habitat

component. Additionally, both acreage

landowners and traditional farmers are getting involved in the program.

When asked about how he markets and

outreaches to landowners in his area, Hadley

said simply, “Word-of-mouth.” He then

added that he occasionally speaks to farm

and watershed groups and reaches prospective clients there. The USDA Farm Service

Agency (FSA) also includes information in

their District’s newsletter. And then, of

course, there are conservation partners who

participate in the plantings and promotion of

conservation. Some of the groups include:

the Idaho State Transportation Department,

East Side Soil & Water Conservation

District, High Country RC&D of Bonneville

County, Idaho Fish & Game, Farm Service

Agency (FSA), West Side Soil & Water

Conservation District, and Idaho

Department of Lands.

“For the past nine years the program

has been growing and now it seems like

every day we get calls.” Hadley sums up.

“We’ve got about 12 windbreaks to install

this spring. Twelve more are in the works

for next year and by the end of summer,

we’ll have even more inquiries, probably 30

to 40.” In a couple more years we will have

installed several hundred windbreaks! Now,

that’s a good program doing good things for

people, wildlife, water, and the land!

Idaho windbreak planting statistics

graphically demonstrate the increased interest in windbreaks in east central Idaho. In

1999, East Side and West Side SCD’s

assisted with over 11,000 feet of windbreaks

(about 16 percent of the windbreaks reported in Idaho). In 2000, they assisted with

windbreak installation of about 36,000 feet

(about one-fourth of the windbreaks reported in Idaho).

So, there you have it, when you’ve got

a time-honored, well-proven buffer practice

like windbreaks, field demonstrations that

prove the benefits, and a Government

program like CCRP good things are

bound to happen to you, and the land. 

Here, fabric mulch is layed for

the living snowfence. The

three-row windbreak consists

Siberian Peashrub on the

windward side, hybrid poplar

in the middle, and blue spruce

on closes to the highway.

Designing Silvopasture Systems:

Managing for Trees and Livestock

Soil and Water Conservation Society, Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, 

Sunday, August 5 — 1:00 to 5:00

A half-day technical workshop on how to plan and design silvopasture systems for

the Southeastern United States will be offered during the annual meeting of the

Soil and Water Conservaiton Society. The target audience are resource planners

that provide information on how to incorporate long-term timber production into

pasture and livestock management operations that provide both an annual income

and a long-term cash flow. 
National Agroforestry Center

East Campus-UNL

Lincoln, Nebraska 68583-0822

PRSRT STD

POSTAGE & FEES PAID

USDA — FS

PERMIT NO G-40

July 10-11, 2001

Breaking New Ground: The Benefits 

of Ecological Enhancements in 

Brownfield Development & 

Superfund/RCRA Remediation 

Projects. Wildlife Habitat Council.

Renaissance Washington, D.C. Hotel.

WHC Phone: 301-588-8994 or 

RCRA@wildlifehc.org

August 4-8, 2001

2001 SWCS Annual Conference. 

Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

FAX: 515-289-1227.

August 16-18, 2001

Seventh Conference on Agroforestry 

in North America. Regina, Sask., 

Canada. Contact John Kort, phone: 

306-695-2284, kortj@em.agr.ca,

www.agr.ca/pfra/aftappfa.htm

September 14-17, 2001

Society of American Foresters Annual 

Meeting. Agroforestry technical 

Official Business

Penalty for Private Use, $300

sessions and tour, Denver, Colorado 

www.safnet.org

October 2-4, 2001

Agroforestry/Carbon Conference. 

Binghampton, New York. Contact: 

Mark Grennan, Hudson Mohawk 

RC&D. Phone: 518-828-4385, ext. 

105. 

Agroforestry | Spring 2001 Inside

Upcoming Events

Inside Agroforestry is published quarterly by the

USDA National Agroforestry Center. 

Phone: 402-437-5178; Fax: 402-437-5712.

Greg Ruark, Center Director ext. 27

Michele Schoeneberger, 

FS Research Leader ext. 21

Rich Straight, FS Lead Agroforester ext. 24

Bruce Wight, NRCS Lead Agroforester ext. 36

Kimberly Stuhr, TT Specialist/IA Editor ext. 13

Ryan Dee, TT Assistant ext. 14

Mike Majeski, FS Agroforester

St. Paul, MN phone: 651-649-5240

Jim Robinson, NRCS Agroforester 

Fort Worth, TX phone: 817-509-3215

Gary Kuhn, NRCS Agroforester 

Spokane, WA phone: 509-358-7946

www.unl.edu/nac

The National Agroforestry Center (NAC) is a partnership of the USDA Forest Service, Research

& Development (Rocky Mountain Research Station) and State & Private Forestry and the USDA

Natural Resources Conservation Service. The Center’s purpose is to accelerate the development and

application of agroforestry technologies to attain more economically, environmentally, and socially

sustainable land-use systems. To accomplish its mission, the Center interacts with a national network

of partners and cooperators to conduct research, develop technologies and tools, establish demonstrations, and provide useful information to natural resource professionals.

USDA policy prohibits discrimination because of race, color, national origin, sex, age, religion, or handicapping condition. Any person who believes he or she has been discriminated against in any USDA-related activity should immediately contact the Secretary of Agriculture, Washington, DC 20250.

Opinions expressed in Inside Agroforestry are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the policy

of the USDA Forest Service and the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service.

Mission