Pennsylvania - Exclusionary Fencing, Local Partnerships

In the northwest corner of Lancaster County, some 35 miles from the Chesapeake Bay, streams such as Donegal Springs, Pequea and Mill Creeks, and Lititz Run rise and run into the Susquehanna River and the bay. It is an agricultural area, mostly in dairy farms with a few beef and chicken operations. The farms are small and they are numerous--1,000 dairies with 55,000 cows in the Pequea and Mill Creek watersheds alone. Many are owned by Amish people.

Starting in the early 1990s, local conservation groups and state and Federal agencies began looking for ways to protect area watersheds and, ultimately, Chesapeake Bay. Work on Donegal Creek, which drains 17.2 square miles or about 11,000 acres in the northwest corner of the county, began in the early 1990s with local initiatives, says Mark Metzler, Conservationist with the Lancaster County Conservation District. For the first project, "we used profits from the district's tree sale, volunteers, and free stuff" to fence both sides of a 1,000-foot stretch of the creek at no cost to the farmer. Some of the labor came from the Donegal Fish and Conservation Association, a local sportsman's club that also maintains the fence.

Beginning in 1994, funding was available through the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (PDEP). In March of 1996, when the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) came through with a Clean Water Act grant of $136,670, says Metzler, "we began spending our money. We contacted landowners; and we bought and installed fence and trees, built fish enhancement devices, and stabilized the eroded streambanks. Some of the kids from Donegal High got out of school to help stock fish. An entire 10th grade shop class made 20 stiles to help people cross the fences." The result is 4.5 miles of fenced stream corridor with new riparian forest buffers planted with such species as silky dogwoods, red osier, gray-stem dogwood, green ash, white ash, red and silver maples, pin oak, red oak, sycamore, black walnut, river birch, shagbark, and shell-bark hickory, as well as conifers for bird cover and weeping willows "for esthetic value." Because of the small size of farms and fields, the buffers range in width from 10 to 35 feet. "It's not like it is on a western ranch where pastures are miles long, not feet," says Metzler. "In Pennsylvania, some of our pastures are really small, many of them less than 10 acres." Even so, he says, the aquatic life has responded very well. "Wild trout are thriving in Donegal Creek, as our stream monitoring--and local anglers--will attest. They weren't there before."

Trout also are returning to streams in the Pequea and Mill Creek watersheds, which cover 135,000 acres, or 22 percent, of Lancaster County. Since 1991, hundreds of farmers have taken part in a very intensive cooperative effort sponsored by the Natural Resources Conservation Service, Farm Service Agency, Extension Service, EPA, Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), Lancaster County Conservation District, Pennsylvania Game Commission, PDEP, Trout Unlimited (TU), Chesapeake Bay Foundation, "and a host of other agencies." In the spring of 1998, Project Leader Frank Lucas tapped partners for a trout restocking effort on some newly fenced second-order tributaries of Mill Creek. The Chesapeake Bay Foundation and TU provided money and a local sportsman's association kicked in a hundred trout. The Pennsylvania Game Commission had provided 400 trees to one of the Amish farmers who had already planted them.

Now, says Lucas, the mainly Amish farmers in the area are initiating projects on their own, "and with Amish peer pressure, I don't have go out and look for folks anymore. People are coming in in droves." Extension Service interviews with area farmers bear out what Lucas says about word of mouth: all of them had fenced out 1,000 to 3,000 feet of stream to improve herd health and wildlife habitat, to reduce streambank erosion, or just to get rid of "mess." They liked the financial help, although many said they would now do it even if they had to pay for it themselves. All said they would--and probably did--recommend exclusionary fencing to other farmers.

Lucas has helped install numerous alternative watering systems for cattle to replace stream water "which is actually unhealthy for animals." He has used various techniques, including solar powered water pumps and "hydrorams" that use stream power to pump the water. Most Amish farmers do not have electricity for such purposes. Lucas says he often brings up the idea of rotational grazing which "fits well with the Amish system. Even though they have many mechanical devices, it's better for them than buying more machines."

Over 35 miles of riparian area in the Pequea and Mill Creek watersheds have been fenced and returned to permanent vegetation, mostly 'volunteers.' "Nature takes care of it," Lucas says, "although in some cases landowners plant trees to shade and cool the streams for trout." Most of the time, he explains, given the small size of the farms and fields, the fenced buffers are just 4 or 5 feet wide on either side of the stream. Corn and hay are the main crops, so much of the ground is in permanent vegetation, and the Amish farmers "use some, but not great amounts of chemicals." Lucas adds, "You'd be surprised at the wildlife that's in there, and I'm amazed at how quickly these small streams start narrowing down once they're fenced. Nature does a great job--just as soon as you get those big hoofed animals out of there." There is another kind of satisfaction, too. "The morning we stocked the trout," Lucas says, "I wondered: Why am I doing this? At the end, though, you know. It's a lot of fun watching those farmers and their kids learn to like wildlife. One Amish farmer, who is not a fisherman, says he likes to have the trout there for his kids; and he tells me that if there are nesting ducks, the kids always know where the nests are."

Lucas and Metzler both emphasize the importance of partnerships in these watersheds. "All the groups share stuff, labor, and ideas," Metzler says. "The neat thing is that we all know about each other and even steal each other's equipment." The TU Chapter (Metzler is a board member) was given a skid loader; FWS paid for new tires, a set of tracks, and a pair of pallet forks, plus a new set of teeth for the bucket. "TU uses it on the weekends and we use it during the week." Lucas solicited Ducks Unlimited, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, the Dairy Network Partnership, and the local chapter of TU for enough money to buy a post driver, which is now owned by Pheasants Forever. And, one of his employees got a trailer to haul the skid loader--reduced from $2,000 to $500. The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation paid for it--after an Amish man donated $500 "out of the blue" for help from FWS to construct a wetland on his place. The trailer is now owned by the local TU chapter.

Lucas says, "I was thinking about this partnership stuff the other day. In the last 10 years, finally the guys and girls in the field are getting the freedom to do things; where before it was pretty rigid. You couldn't get involved with all these partners, and now the more partners you get--the newer ones, the ones you never dreamed of--the better. You can think outside the box for a change. I always tell these Amish guys they might see a picture of me behind bars because I say: 'I lie, cheat, or steal and do whatever it takes to get something done.' They laugh."

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