It doesn't matter whether you are farming just a few acres or working several thousand acres. Either way, your actions are key to protecting the quality of surface water on your property. Good quality water benefits you, and when clean water leaves your property, you contribute to a healthy watershed for your community.

Phil Chadwick and Bill Sheard are two such farmers. While their operations are vastly different in size, they share similarities. Both have livestock. Both have streams on their properties. And both have a strong sense of stewardship towards their land.

Chadwick owns 25 acres in York Region in the headwater reaches of the Humber River on the crest of the Oak Ridges Moraine. A tenant farmer pastures 10-20 dairy heifers on five acres of the property. Sheard, on the other hand, as part of a family operation, owns and rents 1700 acres with a herd of 1300 finishing cattle. His property in Peel Region also lies within the Humber River watershed, but further downstream.

Both landowners are participants in Toronto and Region Conservation Authority's (TRCA) Rural Clean Water Program (RCWP), which is supported financially by several partners. The Agricultural Environmental Stewardship Initiative (AESI), funded by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and administered through the Agricultural Adaptation Council (AAC) and the Ontario Farm Environmental Coalition, has contributed to this initiative. The Ontario Soil and Crop Improvement Association is reporting on the project on behalf of AAC.

Chadwick's property offered the challenges of topography. His land is hilly with steep slopes. A tributary stream to Cold Creek and a wetland lie in the valleys. When Chadwick purchased the property in 1993, cattle had full access to the stream and wetland. The resulting loss of riparian vegetation, bank erosion, nutrient run-off and stream bed widening ultimately passed degraded surface water quality downstream.

Through RCWP, Chadwick installed 400 metres of fencing to exclude cattle from the stream and wetland, retiring a large portion of his pasture. Water troughs catching barn roof run-off, or fed by well water as required, provide an alternate water source.

"We're returning slopes within the retired area, and buffers along the stream, to tree cover," Chadwick explains. "When we moved here, there were only seven trees. We've now planted 4500 trees and shrubs, including 2500 just this spring."

"All plantings are from local, native stock," adds Phil Davies, Forest Stewardship Technician with TRCA. "We've used a cluster approach in the plantings along the stream to more closely approach natural conditions."

"With reforested areas to the north and south of Chadwick's property, the plantings will protect the water resources of the stream and wetland on his property, as well as restoring natural forest linkages," notes Aileen Barclay, RCWP's Project Ecologist. All this plays well in the bigger picture, improving ecological integrity within the watershed context and meeting objectives of the even larger Oak Ridges Moraine Conservation Plan.

Where do you start when tackling a job as big as improving water quality within a watershed? The obvious place is the headwaters as any impact here will be felt downstream, hence the importance of Chadwick's project. But that still leaves a broad area to target. Barclay explains TRCA's approach. "We use a GIS-compatible Agricultural Non-Point Source Pollution Model (AGNPS) that simulates surface water run-off, transporting sediment and nutrients, from the land after a single rainfall event."

"The model provides a theoretical picture of sediment and nutrient sources entering waterways. We then target areas where physical conditions or land use practices may be putting the environment at risk and recommend appropriate best management practices." These can include such measures as increasing forest cover, fencing livestock from waterways, riparian buffer enhancement and retirement of marginal land. Farmers understanding and supporting these measures are essential in helping the Conservation Authority meet its environmental objectives.

The AGNPS model also monitors the effectiveness of management activities aimed at reducing the impacts of non-point source pollution. This helps determine the most effective methods for improving water quality.

"When the program began we found some farmers who had already recognized problems on their properties and voluntarily had begun tackling them," Barclay notes. "With increasing regulation to protect water quality, farmers have been more than receptive to the additional technical and financial resources available to help them resolve some of these issues."

Further downstream, the creek running across Bill Sheard's property is a tributary of the West Humber in the mid-reaches of the Humber River watershed. About 80 metres downhill from his feedlot, the creek has, in the past, been susceptible to run-off during spring thaw and rain events. Sheard established hay in the field between the stream and feedlot to act as a filter and increase the absorption of nutrient run-off. A barrier of round straw bales intervenes along the natural drainage to further slow the rate of run-off.

Sheard has further protected the stream by planting native trees and shrubs in five metre buffer strips on both sides and along the edge of an offline pond. Cluster plantings of White Cedar are mixed with a variety of deciduous trees and wildlife shrubs, including Silver Maple, Eastern Cottonwood, Green Ash, Red-osier Dogwood, Common Elderberry, Shining Willow, Speckled Alder and Shrub Willow.

"Protecting the watercourse from feedlot run-off is an important part of our nutrient management effort," Sheard notes, having completed both an Environmental Farm Plan and Nutrient Management Plan. "Other measures we've taken to keep our 'clean water' clean include harvesting corn silage below 68% moisture to prevent silage seepage, covering silage with plastic to divert clean water, minimizing the size of our barnyard, diverting barn roof run-off, using extra sawdust for bedding to keep manure more solid, and windrowing and composting all our manure."

TRCA has worked with 15 landowners on 23 projects, including cattle fencing, riparian buffer establishment, reforestation, barnyard run-off control, wetland restoration and septic system repair/replacement. Barclay emphasizes, "The agricultural community continues to play a critical role in contributing to improved water quality and healthier watersheds."

Chadwick perhaps sums it up best as he finds his passion in the stewardship he has shown his 25 acres. "It's amazing how much this land has changed in just ten years," he says. "Protecting and appreciating this resource is what really matters."

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For more information and photographs of the project, contact Andrew Graham, Ontario Soil and Crop Improvement Association; Tel: 519-826-4214 or e-mail: oscia@ontariosoilcrop.org 

or

Nadine Buitenhuis, Agricultural Adaptation Council, Guelph; Tel: 519-822-7554 or e-mail: Nadine's e-mail