The NRCS Plant Materials Program eNewsletter for the conservation community

Landowner’s Living Snow Fence Prevents Accidents

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 During a storm, the wind would deposit snow over

a particularly hazardous stretch of Route 41 outside of

Cortland, New York. No matter how many times the

snow removal crew plowed the stretch, an hour later it

drifted over again. Some days, a dozen motorists

veered off the road.

 “I’ve driven this road all my life,” says Dave

Barber, general foreman for the Cortland County

Highway Department. “And that’s a dangerous part of

the highway. The wind just howls and sometimes

you’d see ten-foot-high drifts.”

 In 1993, the local NRCS field office worked with

landowner and dairy farmer Steve Butts to plant a

living snow fence, one of the first in the area. They

completed a 900-foot demonstration planting in Butts’

cornfield, using shrubs that grow fast, have dense

branches, and don’t root-sucker or spread by seed.

 Ten years later, the snow fence exceeds 13 feet tall

and often stacks up to five feet of snow on the leeward

side, tapering down to 12-18 inches near the road

surface. A motorist sliding into the ditch along the

stretch has become a rare occasion.

 “It’s really made a difference,” Barber says. “I

think the landowner likes it too. People aren’t knocking on his door at all hours of the night asking to be

pulled out.”

 Butts estimates the snow fence costs him $65

annually in lost silage corn production. But he says he

doesn’t care—the cost is insignificant compared to the

benefits to his operation, public safety and reduced

road maintenance.

 John Dickerson,

NRCS plant materials

specialist in Syracuse,

New York, says

sometimes crop yields

go up near living

snow fences.

 “Windbreaks and

living snow fences

slow wind speed,

improve pollination

and increase soil moisture retention.”

 “Plus,” he says, “living snow fences save lives.”

Snowfence Helps Dangerous Highway

 A living snow fence is saving lives in Idaho.

 USA Today once named a stretch of Interstate 84

outside of Burley, Idaho, the “Most Dangerous

Freeway in America.” Wind and blowing snow

caused several multiple vehicle pile-ups and

numerous fatalities.

 With the help of the Plant Materials Program,

the local NRCS field office staff planned and

designed over 4.5-miles of living snow fence, and

planted it with pine trees, Rocky Mountain juniper

and other shrubs.

 “The trees and shrubs have already decreased the

blowing snow,” says Dan Ogle, plant materials

specialist in Boise, Idaho. “As they continue to

grow, this section of I-84 will become a much safer

place to drive.”

Snow piled up on the leeward

side of the snowfence.

More info:

http://plant-materials.nrcs.usda.gov/technical/

publications/windbreak.html
Ask the Expert

 Confined animal agriculture will be facing tighter restrictions on emissions

as urban encroachment causes more neighbor complaints and as the

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) works to meet the requirements under

the Clean Air Act. Here in the Northeast, our greatest challenge is poultry

operations.

 By using trees as a buffer, we hope to visually screen the operation from the

neighbors, improve production efficiency, and capture ammonia, dust and odors

emitted from the exhaust fans.

 We recommend planting multiple tree rows around the perimeter of the

houses. At one site, we planted Eastern red cedar, the most dense species, on the

outside, a middle row of Leyland cyprus, and bald cyprus on the inside, closest

to the exhaust fans. Deciduous trees placed closest to the exhaust fans serve as a

prefilter and will shed the emission-laden leaves in the fall and grow fresh

leaves in the spring.

Contact: Bud Malone at malone@udel.edu

Question: Many conservationists are working to improve air

quality around confined animal operations. In your work with

poultry farms and windbreaks, what techniques are most

effective?

 Did you know even an island paradise needs wind protection? In Hawaii, the trade winds blow at 15 to 20

miles per hour, or stronger, causing considerable damage to crops.

 The need for windbreaks is increasing in recent years as growers switch from

sugar cane and pineapple to vegetables and seed corn. Sugar cane and pineapple

grow well without windbreaks but other crops do not.

 In the past, farmers planted ironwoods, eucalyptus, Cook and Norfolk pines

and other tall trees for windbreaks.

 “Many producers are now favoring more compact, faster-growing trees that

take up less space,” says Bob Joy, NRCS plant materials specialist in Hoolehua,

Hawaii. “For example, ‘Tropic Coral’ tall erythrina likes Hawaii’s lower elevations and can grow up to 40 feet tall in four years.”

 Other growers are planting windbreaks with multiple uses, such as banana

trees.

Contact: Bob Joy at bob.joy@hi.usda.gov

Did You Know?

Above: Planting trees. Below: A

shelterbelt of Eastern red cedar

grows near a poultry house.

Bud Malone, Extension Poultry Specialist, University of Delaware

Quotable Quotes

“He who plants trees, benefits another generation.” --Synephebi

‘Tropic Coral’ tall erythrina, a

Plant Materials Program release.

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