Are you ready? The 2025 Wayne County Envirothon will be held at the Montezuma Audubon Center on Thursday April 27th. Envirothon is an annual competition in which teams compete by demonstrating their knowledge of environmental science and natural resource management. Teams, each consisting of five students from schools, home study groups and environmental clubs, exercise their training and problem-solving skills in a competition centered on five testing categories: Soils/Land Use, Aquatic Ecology, Forestry, Wildlife, and Current Environmental Issues.
Conservation Packs
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The 2023 Forever Green Tree & Shrub sale is underway. This year the District is offering five different types of conservation packs. These are great starters for the garden. Each pack is $20 and contains 2 of each 5 different species. Order with payment due by March 10, 2023
Native New York Wildlife; 2 each of White Pine, Red osier Dogwood, Black Cherry Tree, Hazelnut Bush, Juneberry Bush
Perennial Plant Pack; 2 each of Dream Baby Daylilly, Stella De Oro Daylilly, Mixed Peony, and White Iris
Butterfly and Bird Pack; 2 each of Butterfly Bush, Elderberry, Lilatris, Ninebark, Stella Dora Daylily
Ornamental Flowering Pack; 2 each of Ninebark, Butterfly Bush, Lilac, Rose of Sharon, White Flowering Dogwood
Pond Habitat Pack; 2 each of Red osier dogwood, Buttonbush, Sycamore, River Birch, Willow
Hosta Plant Pack, 2 of each species/ variety of Ventricosa, Hyacinthia, Albo Marginata, F. Aureo Marginata, Honey Bells
Great Backyard Birdcount
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The Great Backyard Bird Count starts tomorrow, February 17th and runs through the 20th. The Backyard Bird Count is a four day annual event, the world comes together for the love of birds!! The Backyard Bird Count is a four day annual event, the world comes together for the love of birds!! Over these four days the public is invited to spend time in their favorite places watching and counting as many birds as they can find and report them. These observations help scientists better understand global bird populations before one of their annual migrations. Visit Cornell Labs for reporting and more information. https://www.birdcount.org/[/su_column]
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Windbreaks and Privacy Row – Tree Sale
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Diagram showing a windbreak and relationship between windbreak height and the subsequent impact on wind velocity (from: Tree Windbreaks for Farms and Homes, Purdue University Extension).
The Tree and Shrub Sale offers great stock if you are planning a windbreak or privacy row. Start with at least 3-4 rows. The Norway Spruce is excellent and is a fast growing (2-3’ per year) it can grow up to 5 ft a year in a good weather year, another conifer for the tall row is Douglas Fir. For the medium row, Eastern White Pine or White Spruce, for low row, a mixture of shrubs like Lilac or Hazelnut.
Tree and shrub windbreaks are valuable conservation tools with many functions:
Reduced soil erosion — Windbreaks prevent wind erosion for 10 to 20 times their height downwind. They also filter wind-blown soil particles from the air.Energy conservation — Windbreaks can reduce winter heating costs 20 to 40% by reducing cold air infiltration into buildings. In summer water evaporation from leaves directly cools the air. Windbreaks can be designed to provide energy savings for a small residential lot, a farmstead, or an entire housing development.Wildlife habitat — In open areas where windbreaks are needed for wind reduction, they may also provide the only woody cover and food necessary for some wildlife species.Beauty — Trees provide visual screening and permanence in the landscape that other types of plants can not.Crop protection — Windbreaks can increase crop yields up to 44%. Wind protection reduces crop water use, increases a plant’s ability to make food, and may increase pollination. Quality of fruit and other high value crops can be increased due to reduced sand and soil abrasion.Snow control — Windbreaks can serve as “living snowfences”, controlling drifts near roads, buildings, or livestock or distributing snow evenly over large areas likecrop fields. Money and energy are saved by reduced need for snow plowing and artificial snow fences.
Livestock protection —Windbreaks can be used as“outdoor barns,” sheltered areas for feeding, calving, and other livestock-related activities.For questions or design ideas, call 315-946-7200 or email drew@waynenyswcd.org
Finger Lakes National Heritage Area Feasibility Study
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The National Park Service (NPS) today delivered the final Finger Lakes National Heritage Area Feasibility Study to Congress. The feasibility study determined that the 14 county study area in the Finger Lakes region of New York state meets the congressionally established criteria to be eligible for inclusion as part of the National Heritage Area System. The counties included in the study area included Wayne, Cayuga, Chemung, Cortland, Livingston, Monroe, Onondaga, Ontario, Schuyler, Seneca, Steuben, Tioga, Tompkins, and Yates.
The study found that Central New York’s landscape is nationally important for its association with the distinct geological formations of the Finger Lakes.
This is a very large PDF document (56m), but you can download here: Click Here
Electronics Recycle Event – Lyons, NY
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The District’s next Electronic Recycling Event will be on Wednesday October 4th and Thursday October 5th for Wayne County Residents. Registration is required. Click here to read more and to register!
Cover cropping, Irrigation system management and the promotion of pollinator habitat.
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The District is pleased to announce funding to help with cover cropping, Irrigation system management and the promotion of pollinator habitat.
$29,450 was awarded to Wayne County Soil and Water Conservation District to work with a vegetable and maple operation to implement an irrigation water management system. The project will also include the establishment of pollinator habitat to increase beneficial insects that support the farm operation and add to biodiversity.
$154,663 was awarded to Wayne County Soil and Water Conservation District to work with a vegetable and fruit farm to implement an irrigation water management system to water 30 acres of fruit trees. The project will also incorporate an integrated pest management system and weather monitoring system to prevent pest and frost damage related to climate change.
$35,468 was awarded to Wayne County Soil and Water Conservation District to work with a fruit orchard on their irrigation water management system, installing a micro-irrigation drip system over 22 acres of high-density fruit trees. The system will directly apply water or fertilizer to the root zone and maintain soil moisture. A riparian buffer will be installed to promote biodiversity and pollinator habitat
$185,856 was awarded to the Wayne County Soil and Water Conservation District to implement 830 acres of cover crops on four farms for three years, resulting in 2,490 acres of cover cropping over the life of the project. Much of the project acreage borders directly on the Canandaigua Outlet, and cover cropping will increase the farms’ climate resiliency, greatly improve the soil health of the land, and elevate water quality in the surrounding watershed.
