The full story on Farm Tour 2016
Editor's Note: Boundary County's Farm Tour has become an informative and fun annual event, the result of many hours of dedication, coordination, and hard work by the Boundary County Soil Conservation District and the Idaho Farm Bureau, who work together every year to put together and sponsor the Farm Tour. Our writer Mary Fioravanti traveled on the Farm Tour last Friday. Following is her report on her experiences and impressions on the tour.
The annual Farm Tour organized by the Idaho Farm Bureau was fascinating! Friday, May 20 a large group of about 60 people traveled to various places around Boundary County, and got a personal look at our local habitats and farms. The Farm Tour always presents a unique opportunity for local production insights, and is never quite the same because it changes destinations from year to year. Featured on this year's tour were visits to the Kootenai Tribe's Sturgeon release into the Kootenai River, the dikes along the river at Copeland, then we made our way up to the Houck Farm in the Porthill area where we observed multiple projects.
Starting off with sturgeon
In the morning, we met at the fairgrounds and our Farm Tour day began with a presentation from the Kootenai Tribe of Idaho's Fish and Wildlife Department about their restoration plan for the Kootenai River. They have been putting an aquaculture system into place and constantly trying to improve the fish and wildlife habitat of the river. The Tribe's Twin Rivers Sturgeon and Burbot Hatchery, located at the confluence of the Moyie and the Kootenai Rivers, is meant to help restore viable fish populations in the river. The hatchery tracks over 1,000 fish breeds native to the river. They are quite worried that the White Sturgeon population may soon go extinct if they can't raise the numbers again fairly quickly. Burbot fish are also becoming increasingly threatened.
When our Farm Tour Bus traveled down to the Search and Rescue dock at the Boundary County Waterways Building, there were thousands of juvenile White Sturgeon in tank trucks waiting to be released into the Kootenai River. As part of the magical experience, every person was permitted and encouraged to personally release a baby Sturgeon themselves. This was a rare and exciting chance for Boundary County residents to participate in such an influential way in this significant operation.
Don't laugh too hard, but I was frightened at first that the Sturgeon might cut me with their fins, but they were smooth and compliant. When I released one into the water, it just gently glided away into the depths. Many people may disagree, but I found the baby Sturgeon to be so cute! (It's funny how all babies are naturally cute t
o
some degree). Along with many others on Friday's
Farm Tour, this was my favorite part of the day.Slowly but steadily, the Kootenai Tribe has been adding nutrients to the river that are essential for the fish. As you may know, the Tribe managed several construction projects on the river last summer and fall to increase the depths and supply rocks so the fish can have spawning nests.
Additionally, many people have asked why the islands constructed as part of those projects now look so cluttered. We learned that, in order to protect trees and plants on the river islands from beaver and geese damage, the workers strategically placed shrubs and brush around the newly-planted vegetation on the island. It is those protective shrubs and brush that give the islands their cluttered look. Eventually the new vegetation will appear.
Part of the restoration plan includes capturing male and female Sturgeon to collect eggs and semen. They complete the fertilization process and regulate the growth of the Sturgeon until they are of age to be released into the river. When it is time for them to be released, all of them are tagged or marked with identification which alerts the Tribe that they were once in the hatchery, if the same fish are caught in the future. We were informed that Sturgeon released in the spring have a much higher survival rate than those released in the fall.
White Sturgeon in particular live from 50-100 years, and physically cannot mate until they are 30 years old. They told us that if the current Sturgeon survival rate holds up, there may be less than 50 by the year 2030. Each year the Tribe releases thousands of juvenile Sturgeon into the river at springtime, but there is a survival rate of only about 7-10%.
Dikes and flooding on the Kootenai River
After the Sturgeon release, we piled back on the tour bus and drove up to Copeland for a short time and got
off at the
river bank there. While there, we listened to a
presentation given by Bob Olson, a third
generation farmer who operates a 3,000 acre farm
in the Porthill area. Mr. Olson has lived through and witnessed years of
Kootenai River flooding. His presentation
was about the dike inserts
around the river banks. Mr. Olson said there had to be miles of
dikes for both sides of the river banks, partly
because the river twists so much. The dikes were
built onto the banks to help protect the farms
on surrounding lands from high water charges. It
was interesting to hear his observation that the
land around the river is highest at the river
edge. He said that the biggest flood was in
1892, and the most recent and likely last floods
from the Kootenai River were in the late 1960's.
When Libby Dam was built, it again helped to
control flooding of the river. Formerly when
flooding was prominent, kids used to go on dike
patrol for flood watch, Mr. Olson told us.
Learning about the role of forest management in fire prevention
Next, we traveled up to the Houck Farm. We first watched an astonishing forestry demonstration up close to show us the impact of keeping our forests managed effectively. The demonstration, presented by Lee Colson of the U.S. Forest Service, was a diorama of two miniature forests. Keeping everything safe and contained, Mr. Colson lit the two forest comparisons on fire and we watched them go up in flames. The wild-looking example caught everything on fire in less than 20 seconds, and the cleaner one took a couple of minutes. Mr. Colson made his point clear about the importance of forest management, and after elaborating more on the subject, he gave us a Q & A session.
The presentation on the causes of Boundary County's forest fires of last summer was simply intriguing. One cause mentioned was all of the peat found underground in the Copeland valley and around the mountains. It was hypothesized that all of the peat had come from the debris of the last ice age when the glaciers carved through our area.
Interestingly, we were all informed that peat has attributes similar to those of charcoal. The peat is actually a compressed layer of organic matter under the ground, extending anywhere from the surface to 10 feet below. It acts as an unrelinquishing chamber to hold fire.
When the peat gets hot it burns underground, even if the surface with existing vegetation is cool. The peat can burn for miles underground, which is scary because the peat is always hot and ready to ignite the surface. Sparks would then seem to come from nowhere when a fire starts, but the cause is the peat. Only farmers in the area knew of the peat, but were unaware of its damaging effects.
While we waited for our lunch to arrive, we were also able to get a good look at the noxious weeds invasive to North Idaho. There was a display board showing noxious weeds in our area, and why we shouldn't let them get out of hand. When lunch had arrived, it was delicious and a pleasant break for everyone! Lunch included smoked steak slice sandwiches, cole slaw, beans, desert and more! (All catered by Big Daddy's Grill in Porthill). It was truly a high-end meal.
Visiting the Houck Farm
At the Houck Farm, there were so many things to see. After lunch was finished and the rain had passed, we listened to Tim Dillin talk about the Houck Farm, started by his grandfather, and all of the renovations it has gone through. In addition to being a long-time farmer in Boundary County, Mr. Dillin serves on the Board of the Soil Conservation District, one of the groups who annually organizes the Farm Tour. The Houck Farm is about 1,600 acres. The crops grown on the farm include wheat, barley, canola, garbanzo beans, and new experiments with quinoa.
The farm has a lot of local support in our area. Woods Meat of the Bonner County area is one client, feeding barley from the Houck Farm to their cattle. The farm's flour also reaches the shelves of Super 1 Grocery and the Harvest Foods Market in Bonners Ferry, Boundary County's Bread Basket Bakery, and health food stores in both the Sandpoint and Bonners Ferry areas, along with other area merchants. The newly constructed flour mill on the farm started out just as a hobby, but as you can see in the photograph, their mill developed so much business that sales took off!
Lastly, the farming equipment is super impressive! Mark Awbrey, an employee of Houck Farm, along with Jeff Hood, explained that the tractors are all linked to about 13 different satellites that map out where the tractor needs to go. This maps out the routes for the tractors so that the crops are harvested perfectly, and they aren't being damaged by being driven over twice. In fact, the tractors have a built-in mode to drive themselves when you punch your desired route into the system. We got to test this when they let us ride in the auto-driven tractor to see for ourselves that it does indeed work! One large tractor we saw had multiple attachments with two commodity tanks and a 36 foot long harvester. They said just this alone equaled about $150,000. Wow! You could buy a house for that price.
When the tour came to an end, I was well satisfied. The day was very eventful, educational, and fun! I never thought I would ever be riding in an auto-drive tractor or releasing a juvenile White Sturgeon into the Kootenai River with my bare hands! Everything was a really great experience and entertaining as well. I highly recommend to others going on the Farm Tour in the future if you have the chance. You'll learn a thing or two, and enjoy what Boundary County has to offer. That's all for now!