Award From Lord Fairfax Soil and Water Conversation District
11/10/22 15:04
At an awards luncheon on November 10 given by the Lord Fairfax Soil and Water Conservation District (LFSWCD), Clermont Farm in Clarke County received a “Virginia Clean Water Farm” award honoring its conservation practices.
According to the LFSWCD, farmers and landowners who receive the award are “progressive in managing their farm operations and have adopted and implemented innovative conservation tools, technologies and practices.
Clermont Farm is owned by the Virginia Department of Historic Resources, and managed and funded by The Clermont Foundation. The Foundation is a non-profit with a local board of trustees established by Elizabeth Rust Williams, whose death in 2004 triggered both the gift of the historic farm to the Commonwealth and the establishment of the Foundation.
The 360-acre farm, surveyed by an 18-year old George Washington in 1750, has a stream, Dog Run, a tributary of the Shenandoah and the Chesapeake, crossing the entire farm through both pasture and cropland. The stream has a fenced 50’ buffer on both sides planted with native trees and grasses, enclosing about thirteen acres overall.
This riparian buffer, in place already for fifteen years and recently renewed for another fifteen, is one of the reasons for which Clermont was cited. Were there no protective buffer, Clermont’s Angus cattle and Katahdin sheep would get their water directly from the stream, breaking down the banks, increasing the turbidity of the water, and polluting the water with urine and excrement.
The buffer also protects the stream and downstream waters from the infiltration of soil through erosion and applied nutrients, as well as providing good habitat for wildlife important to the health of the overall ecosystem (including at Clermont American Mink).
A federal incentives program provides cost sharing to farmers to pay for the fencing and the animal watering systems which replace use of the creek.
Among the conservation tools used at Clermont cited in the award were its Nutrient Management Plan, its Conservation Plan, its Forest Stewardship Management Plan, and a Prescribed Grazing Plan
The award came with a sign “Clean Water Farm Award” which will be posted at the Clermont gate.
END
According to the LFSWCD, farmers and landowners who receive the award are “progressive in managing their farm operations and have adopted and implemented innovative conservation tools, technologies and practices.
Clermont Farm is owned by the Virginia Department of Historic Resources, and managed and funded by The Clermont Foundation. The Foundation is a non-profit with a local board of trustees established by Elizabeth Rust Williams, whose death in 2004 triggered both the gift of the historic farm to the Commonwealth and the establishment of the Foundation.
The 360-acre farm, surveyed by an 18-year old George Washington in 1750, has a stream, Dog Run, a tributary of the Shenandoah and the Chesapeake, crossing the entire farm through both pasture and cropland. The stream has a fenced 50’ buffer on both sides planted with native trees and grasses, enclosing about thirteen acres overall.
This riparian buffer, in place already for fifteen years and recently renewed for another fifteen, is one of the reasons for which Clermont was cited. Were there no protective buffer, Clermont’s Angus cattle and Katahdin sheep would get their water directly from the stream, breaking down the banks, increasing the turbidity of the water, and polluting the water with urine and excrement.
The buffer also protects the stream and downstream waters from the infiltration of soil through erosion and applied nutrients, as well as providing good habitat for wildlife important to the health of the overall ecosystem (including at Clermont American Mink).
A federal incentives program provides cost sharing to farmers to pay for the fencing and the animal watering systems which replace use of the creek.
Among the conservation tools used at Clermont cited in the award were its Nutrient Management Plan, its Conservation Plan, its Forest Stewardship Management Plan, and a Prescribed Grazing Plan
The award came with a sign “Clean Water Farm Award” which will be posted at the Clermont gate.
END