When it comes to water quality practices, buffer strips have proven to be effective, but they come with a price: the loss of some production land. Local farmer Rob Stout uses buffer strips, and he explains, “It’s a strip of land, and in our case it’s about 60 feet, that is between the farm ground and a stream. It had been farm ground, and we took it out of production. And it’s just seeded down to a lot of native grasses that will help hold that soil from getting through that. In this case, it’s a fairly steep ground, so it keeps the ground there. And the plants will also suck up some nitrogen and some nutrients from the ground, to keep it from getting into the stream.”

Sacrificing land to improve water quality might give other farmers pause, but Stout says it’s made easier thanks to the Conservation Reserve Program. CRP is part of the United States Department of Agriculture’s Farm Service Agency, and it can cover many of the costs related to installing and maintaining buffer strips. Stout encourages other farmers to take advantage of the program and give buffer strips a try, because he finds they’ve worked well in improving the quality of water entering the streams from his farm. To hear more about buffer strips and other water quality practices, listen to the Agriculture Magazine interview with Stout.