Urban sprawl, abandonment endanger rural areas

By Elna Seabrooks
Staff Writer
    HOULTON — Restoring grasslands in Aroostook County has definite environmental, financial and aesthetic ramifications according to Helena Swiatek, district conservationist for the Natural Resources Conservation Services (NRCS) .
    Swiatek said Aroostook County, like other parts of the U.S. is faced with a growing national problem — overdevelopment on the one hand and abandonment on the other. When asked how much of Aroostook County’s 14, 000 acres are potentially threatened, she replied: “I would say all of it due to urban sprawl and people subdividing it into house lots. Once you put a house on it, you can’t farm that land anymore.”
    With regard to abandonment and the impact on nesting birds like the bobolink and the Savannah sparrow or other grassland species, Swiatek was equally emphatic. “Naturally, grasslands revert back to forestland and Maine is primarily forested. So, as land is left idle and not in production, it naturally goes back to forest. And,  those species are losing their habitat.”
Houlton Pioneer Times Photo/Elna Seabrooks
TECHNICAL UPDATE — Helena Swiatek, district conservationist, and landowner Tony DeLucca discuss his progress in restoring 200 acres in Monticello for agricultural use during a meeting at the USDA Houlton office, 304 North St.
    Local farmer and businessman, Tony DeLucca, has been working for two years to restore his 200 acres in Monticello with government help through the Grassland Reserve Program (GRP). “It reduces the land’s value if bushes and trees take over because you can’t farm anymore. The whole purpose is also to keep the land in production. If we need to produce food in the event of a catastrophe in the world, that land will still be available.”
    DeLucca added that removing bushes and trees is difficult, labor-intensive and expensive. “Imagine when our forefathers came to this part of the world, they had to clear all this land. There were huge trees here. They had to cut them down and pull out the stumps, plow the ground and remove the rocks. It’s done now and we should maintain that.”
Funds and technical help
    Swiatek explained that financial assistance through the USDA is available to landowners and farmers who are interested in preserving, restoring or rehabilitating land threatened by non-agricultural use. She said based on factors like the person’s time, equipment and the cost of grass seed, the government will pay for as much as 75-90 percent. “That’s what the NRCS does. We give technical assistance and financial assistance because we recognize that a lot of people want to do it but they cannot afford it. That’s where we come in.”
    According to NRCS Chief Dave White, the country has lost 21 million acres of ranchland and pastureland to development in the last 25 years. Swiatek elaborated on the impact in Aroostook County. “As you drive around and you see the bushes, you can see how much we are losing. Grassland birds will not nest if they can see trees or bushes. That disrupts them. You need large acreages of open expanses of just grass for them to nest. Farmers will tell you they don’t see the bobolinks they used to see as kids and they are starting to really miss that.” Grassland species nest close to the ground and not in tall trees which is why they are threatened.
    DeLucca is in a voluntary program to restore his acreage with a 10-year contract that allows him to farm the land if he so desires. However, he cannot sell or put the land to non-farm use during the term of the contract.
    “Keeping farmland in farm production is a huge concern here,” Swiatek stated. She added that in addition to GRP, there are other programs to assist farmers with “a variety of benefits for everyone. This will affect quite a few farmers. We have quite a few livestock farms up here — people who need this for pasture and hay. Potato farmers also use ground like this for the hay to spread on the bare fields so the fields don’t erode. Having natural predators on the land also keeps the vermin on the livestock farms down. It benefits in many ways.”
     Applications for the Grassland Reserve Program are accepted until Friday, Jan. 7, 2011. For more information call 532-2087, ext. 3.