Greene County Soil & Water Agricultural Programs

Since its inception in 1961, the District has always had a strong involvement with providing technical assistance to Greene County agricultural operators.  While in recent years, Greene County has experienced a strong trend of traditional farms going out of business, the District still considers farmers to be a priority customer. To assist farmers, the District works with a wide variety of local, state and federal agencies

Cornell Cooperative Extension of Greene County

NYS Agriculture Markets

USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service

USDA Farm Service Agency

Watershed Agricultural Program

New York City Watershed Agricultural Program
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Since 1990, the District has been an active partner in the Watershed Agricultural Program  which was developed in response to proposed rule and regulations for the New York City upstate reservoirs. Assessments of the initial draft rules regulations indicated they  would have a devastating effect on agriculture in the watershed with up to 75% of the farm land rendered unusable or severely restricted if the regulations were adopted.

As the result of an educational campaign by local, state and federal agencies with a long tradition of providing technical assistance to farmers, New York City was shown that agriculture is a preferred land use in the watershed. By enacting severe regulations which would have driven farmers from business, it was expected that agricultural lands would quickly besold for other uses less compatible with the protection of water quality. While at first glance agricultural operations such as grazing and manure spreading may seem "bad" for water quality, they are far less of an impact especially compared to the alternative of the farmers selling their land for residential developmentAs a result of a joint effort between local, state and federal agencies, as well as the watershed farmers, the Watershed Agricultural Program was developed to provide technical assistance and funding for farm Best Management Practices which would further protect the NYC water supply

The program is operated by the Watershed Agricultural Council, which is a not for profit corporation consisting of active farmers in the watershed. The WAC sub-contracts with Natural Resources Conservation Service, Cooperative extension and local Soil & Water Conservation Districts to provide the technical assistance required for a multi-agency, multi-discipline farm planning  team which develops a Whole Farm Plan tailored for each individual farm. One the plan is approved by the WAC, the Soil & Water Conservation Districts are responsible for implementation, and construction of the BMPs.

Since the programs initiation in Greene County, the District has implemented over  $750,000 dollars in Farm Best Management Practices. For additional information on the Watershed Ag Program contact;

USDA Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP)

The District works in partnership with local farmers as well as state and federal agencies to deliver USDA Farm bill Programs in Greene County. In 1998 the District and our federal partners were successful in obtaining EQIP funds for projects in the Pepacton Watershed, and were are currently working on a plan for the Murders Kill creek, which is the primary source of  drainage to Sleepy Hollow Lake.

SHL is a private, residential community with over 500 homes and a total build-out potential of over 2400 residences at full capacity.  EQIP funds are used to assist farmers with the development of Best Management Practices for the protection of water quality.  In 2000, the District has targeted increased participation in the Wetland Reserve Program   and Wildlife Habitat Incentive Program.

Agricultural Lands

Assessment Program

Agricultural Producers in Greene County may qualify for a reduced land assessment if they meet certain qualifications. To find out more email Jeff Flack

 

 

 

 

Tier I Agricultural

Inventory & Assessment Project

In 1998, the District worked with a multi-agency steering committee to undertake an inventory and assessment of those farms in the county outside the NYC Watershed. The District wanted to determine how many farms were still operating, what was the nature of their business and what was the farmers interest in participating in local, state or federal programs for water quality.

The agricultural operations were identified by the multi-agency team and a Tier I assessment form was developed. The District made one on one visits with the farmers, and was able to obtain assessment data from over 50 farms in the project area. The results of the Tier I worksheets were than tabulated and a final report issued.  The wok sheets provided the participating agencies with information on the types of farms, number of animals, acreage, crop types, market access and other topics.

In the final summary, two primary findings were noted;

While agriculture on the whole, across the entire country has experienced a significant decline in recent years, the impact in Greene County is  even worse. During conversations with current farm operators, the prevailing attitude was that agriculture  was a dying, dead end businesses and there was very little hope for a turn around. After years of working in a barely profitable business, most farmers were very discouraged by what the future would bring.


 On a positive note, the Tier I worksheets indicated that there was little to no current water quality impacts associated with agricultural operations in Greene County.

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