BATH COUNTY, Va. (VR) – The Mountain Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD) will host a field day on Wednesday, May 17. Registration will begin at 9 a.m. at the Old Dairy Barn, 46 Old Dairy Rd., Warm Springs, VA 24484. The group will move to Gramercy Farm, 3236 Dunn’s Gap Rd., Hot Springs, VA 24445 at 9:35 a.m.
Farm manager Scott Robertson will address the group about a Virginia agricultural best management practice that was recently completed on the farm. This cost-share practice is stream exclusion with wide-width buffer and grazing land management.
Robertson, along with Chris Swecker, conservation specialist with Mountain SWCD, will talk about how the purpose of this practice is a structural/management practice that will enhance or protect vegetative cover to reduce runoff of sediment and nutrients from grazing livestock on existing pastureland through livestock exclusion. Livestock watering systems and fencing improve water quality, control erosion and eliminate direct runoff input to all live streams or live water.
At 11 a.m. the group will move back to the Old Dairy Barn for a complimentary lunch. The district’s regular May meeting will follow lunch at 12:15 p.m. The meeting is open to the public.
Participants should RSVP for the field day and lunch by Friday, May 12, by contacting the Mountain Soil and Water Conservation District Office at 540-839-4616 or 1-800-254-3854 or emailing mswcdlorie@tds.net.
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