Environment: Water Tops the List of Environment Improvements
At Cedar Creek Estates' Desert Ridge Vineyard in Osoyoos, a recently installed drip irrigation system conserves water.
On Karl Wicki's ranch west of Prince George, new fencing protects the reinforced bank of the Upper Mud River.
Outside Rick Thiessen's broiler barns in Abbotsford, concrete pads and covered manure storage facilities reduce run-off and help with on-farm biosecurity.
Across British Columbia, producers are making changes to reduce the impact of agriculture on the environment through Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada's (AAFC) Environmental Farm Planning (EFP) process.
 "We always try to be as environmentally responsible as possible," says Gord Pettman of Cedar Creek Estates Winery. "Sometimes making the environmental choice costs more money. The incentives offered by this program made it more affordable for us to make the best environmental choices for our vineyard."
In the new vineyard, drip irrigation improves water efficiency by 200-300% and reduces the use of herbicides for weed control. A special attachment for the compost spreader also helps with weed control by helping direct nutrients closer to the vines. "It helps us feed and water the vines, not the weeds," says Pettman.
"The response to Environmental Farm Planning has been positive across all commodities and all regions of the province," says Ron Bertrand, who, along with Niels Holbek, coordinates the EFP and BMP programs on behalf of the BC Agriculture Council. "This demonstrates the priority that B.C.'s agriculture industry places on protecting and enhancing the environment."
Through the EFP program, producers identify their farm's environmental strengths, prioritize any potential risks to the environment, and take advantage of tools and techniques available to manage those risks. Once the plans are approved by an EFP planning advisor, the AAFC's National Farm Stewardship Program and Greencover Canada provide cost-shared funding and technical assistance to producers to implement their on-farm improvements based on a suite of over 30 different beneficial management practices (BMPs). To date more than 2100 BMP projects have been undertaken in B.C.
"Improvements to irrigation and water use have clearly been the most popular," says Bertrand. "Then producers are looking at how they are storing and managing manure. What really impresses me is the number of producers taking steps to protect riparian areas and streams. That's an investment with limited payback to the farmer's bottom line."
Karl Wicki has been ranching on the banks of the Upper Mud River for 30 years. "In our valley we have a lot of flooding and we are losing a lot of land," he says. "I went to the EFP sessions and got interested in one or two things that I could do."
Using cut willow bundles, Wicki rebuilt the riverbank in three areas where it was being washed away. Cutting the bank down gave the water a chance to climb the bank instead of eroding the soil out from below. Once that was done, he installed fencing and planted willows to help stabilize the new bank.
"Good water quality is essential to all of us, we need it for cattle and people," Wicki says. "And it's not just for us - it's for the people downstream too."
As of December 31, 2007, the BC Agriculture Council has paid out over $4.5 million through the Agricultural Policy Framework environment programs to assist with environmental improvement projects in B.C. "Those are just the government dollars," says Bertrand. "The total project value is probably three times that, and the difference is being paid by farmers."
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