Soil, water district takes tour of county

The Auglaize County Soil and Water District hosted a tour for board members and county commissioners Tuesday, showing progress made with paid conservation practices among land owners.

The first stop was Joe Gerstner’s land in Wapakoneta, showing a long-established waterway installed in 2004. Conservation Reserve Waterway programs pay landowners for installing the waterways to reduce soil erosion. Those contracts are renewed every 10 years. Landowners are responsible for maintaining those waterways.

Another stop on the tour featured Pat Severt’s land in the 14000 block of GlynwoodNew Knoxville Road.

Technician Doug Schmerge explained how they constructed a 1,650-foot waterway to avoid older county maintained mains.

Schmerge called the waterways nearly indestructible, especially when incorporating some biodegradable erosion control blankets.

Paid conservation practices also include compensation for grasslands for organic dairy farms. John J. and Jordan Settlage have roughly 400 acres of fenced pasture. Those pastures are planted with a mixture of three legumes and four grasses. Cattle are fed roughly 80 percent from the pasture, with water points every few hundred feet.

Jordan Settlage explained they also are able to export excess manure mixed in with wood chips as a dry fertilizer.

Often times conservation practices spread by word of mouth and neighbors talking to one another. John A. Settlage and neighbor Chris Speckman have acres of wetlands in New Knoxville installed simultaneously through the conservation reserve program in

2018.

Both had nothing but positive things to say about the process.

John Settlage said he is all about clean water and that the wetlands work well.

He said the hardest part of maintenance is cottonwood trees growing along the edges.

Speckman and Settlage’s wetlands have also attracted a lot of mallards and wood ducks on their properties

Currently there are 35-40 waterways in the process of being reenrolled. About 10-15 new waterways are being signed up.

Several new wetlands are also being explored with two in the design process.

Staff photo/Bob Tomaszewski Jordan and John J. Settlage show off the conservation practices they have in place on their farms during a tour Thursday throughout Auglaize County.