Alien-looking contraptions with metal arms protrude out of farm fields throughout the state of Washington. Look closer and you’ll see gauges on the arms measuring all kinds of weather data, from temperature and precipitation to wind, dew point, solar radiation and humidity. The stations—part of Washington’s AgWeatherNet—relay data to a website (weather.wsu.edu) that farmers and the public can check for free information on current weather and agricultural conditions.

“I don’t know a farmer or field consultant who doesn’t use it,” says Washington State University (WSU) plant pathologist and AgWeatherNet director Gary Grove. “Over an eight year period, we went from a few people using it to everyone.” The network—launched in part by a grant from the EPA and American Farmland Trust—is one of the most advanced of its kind in the country. Farmers use it to make decisions about everything from irrigation and pruning to fertilizer and pesticide use. (And can sign up for text messages alerting them to adverse weather conditions).

Grove and other WSU researchers are using the weather data—along with disease and insect models—to help growers predict potential insect and disease outbreaks. By better assessing the risk from such threats, the network is helping farmers reduce their chemical use. Grape growers, for instance, have been able to use the data to better time their efforts to combat powdery mildew that infects grapevines. “We’ve reduced fungicide use over 27 percent with wine grapes,” Grove says.

This profile, along with many others can be found in the Integrated Pest Management cover story of our 2010 summer issue of American Farmland magazine. You can get your yearlong subscription by becoming a member of American Farmland Trust today.

About the Author: Kirsten Ferguson is Editor/Writer for American Farmland Trust. She works in the Saratoga, NY office and can be reached at kferguson [at] farmland.org

On the outskirts of Wenatchee, a city in the heart of central Washington where golden hills surround endless miles of irrigated fruit orchards, a large apple-shaped sign reads, “Apple Capital of the World.” In a region that ships over 100 million boxes of apples a year around the nation and the world, education has been the key to helping growers—especially the valley’s many Latino orchard employees and managers—reduce their use of pesticides.

Apple and cherry grower Jesus Limón, who worked his way up the ranks at a fruit company in order to purchase his own Wenatchee Valley orchard, participated in a Latino orchard employee education program—funded by an EPA grant administered by American Farmland Trust—that teaches growers in Spanish about integrated pest management (IPM).

“You get hooked on it,” Limon says about the natural techniques for identifying and eliminating orchard pests. Since the 1970s, researchers have been exploring safer and more ecologically sound ways to manage pests like insects and plant diseases. IPM includes sustainable methods such as scouting for pests, weather monitoring, disruptions to a pest’s life cycle, and ways to reinforce a pest’s natural enemies.

The Wenatchee-region IPM classes—taught initially by pest management consultant Naná Simone and then by Leo Garcia and other IPM experts at Wenatchee Valley College—were integral in helping Limón reduce the use of pesticides in his orchard, which he then converted to 100 percent organic over a three-year period. “Knowledge is the best thing you can acquire,” Limón says. “The classes helped me tremendously because I couldn’t depend on the conventional sprays anymore.”

Limón’s conversion of his orchard to organic had a domino effect on the farms around him. “This guy just became organic and then the next guy and next guy,” Limón says, pointing to neighboring apple orchards. The program’s classes were such a success not only because the Spanish language instruction helped growers understand the complexities of IPM more quickly, but also because they were taught right in the student’s orchards and fit around the schedule of the farmers.

 “This is a much better way to get people to change,” Limón says. “This program got us away from [conventional chemicals] without forcing us. Trying to work with the farmer is better than being the mean guy on the block. If the EPA knew what this program really did for us, they would do more programs like it.”

Limón proudly points to wooden hawk boxes he installed on poles lining the rows of his apple trees. After two years, he finally got a family of hawks to move into his orchard. The hawks scare away birds that like to peck apples and cherries off the trees. This natural approach to managing wildlife is also an outgrowth of learning about IPM, Limón says. “I liked learning about how the bug populations worked. Once you start putting the pieces together, you see everything: the mice, the snakes, the cougars.”

This week, Jim Baird, Mid-Atlantic Director of American Farmland Trust (center, with plaque), donated 945 nutrient credits worth over $4,000 to the Lancaster Farmland Trust, a big step in our long-term goal of helping farmers reduce nutrient run-off into the Chesapeake Bay.  

The credits were generated by three Lancaster County farmers who participated in our Best Management Practices (BMP) Challenge, which helps farmers test fertilizer reductions by insuring any loss of yield that occurs in the process.  The program allows farmers to improve their environmental stewardship, while eliminating the biggest obstacle in their path – loss of profits.

 Jim Baird describes the BMP Challenge:

“The BMP Challenge is an innovative tool that allows farmers to improve their environmental impact on their land without compromising their ability to compete economically. The success of farmers like these who are willing to do their part, in Pennsylvania and other states, demonstrates that you don’t need hard-and-fast regulations to expand agriculture’s role in cleaning up regional waterways-an important fact for everyone to remember as federal agencies develop a new strategy for restoring the health of the Chesapeake Bay and the creeks, streams and rivers that feed it”

By participating in the BMP Challenge these farmers generated nitrogen credits that were certified through the Department of Environmental Protection’s Nutrient Trading Program.  Now, these credits can be purchased by a third party that doesn’t meet it’s water pollution standards, giving farmers an added income stream for their stewardship.

This process has the additional benefit of keeping the land in agriculture, as Karen Martynick, executive director for the Lancaster Farmland Trust, explains:

“We are really excited that American Farmland Trust is engaging farmers through the BMP Challenge in Lancaster County. The nutrient credits generated by the project could provide another source of income for our farmers, and it’s one more piece of the puzzle in preserving agriculture as a way of life in Lancaster County.”

Learn more about American Farmland Trust’s BMP Challenge and about our work helping farmers play an active role in cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay.