| |
Plant Solutions
Updated
07/10/2008
November 2003
This document requires
Acrobat Reader.
Download PDF version
Landowner’s Living Snow Fence Prevents Accidents
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."
Idaho Snow Fence 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."
More info: http://plant-materials.nrcs.usda.gov/technical/publications/windbreak.html
Ask the Expert
Bud
Malone, Extension Poultry Specialist, University of Delaware
Question: Many conservationists are
working to improve air quality around confined
animal operations. In your work with poultry farms and
windbreaks, what techniques are the most effective?
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
Did you know...
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.
For more info: Bob Joy
at bob.joy@hi.usda.gov
Quotable Quotes
"He who plants trees, benefits another generation." --Synephebi
The
mission of the Natural Resources Conservation Service Plant Materials Program is
to develop, test and transfer effective state-of-the-art plant science
technology to meet customer and resource needs.
| | |