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Conservation’s Biggest Players Work With Wisconsin’s Healthy Grown® Potato Growers
Antigo, WI — Take a good look around you. Two-thirds of the land in this country is privately owned — and the majority of that land is used for agriculture. For that reason, ecologists and conservation groups are taking a new look at privately owned lands as starting points for major conservation efforts. “We have to realize that farms do more than simply provide produce — they can provide clean ground water, biological diversity, carbon accumulation, healthy soil and improved natural lands and homes for myriad species,” notes Jeb Barzen, International Crane Foundation Director of Field Ecology. “Large-scale agriculture can both help and hurt natural ecosystems. Farmers have a strong land ethic — but they don’t necessarily have the resources or tools needed to care for the land as much as they, or we, might wish. Conservationists and farmers have great opportunities to collaborate and solve most environmental problems that society faces worldwide, and through collaboration we can implement many conservation activities.”
Enter the Healthy Grown® potato eco-label. Explains Barzen, “Healthy Grown represents the future of farming and conservation working together. The growers use a whole-farm approach, addressing biodiversity, water pollution, and soil erosion while simultaneously producing our food.”
Healthy Grown is a result of the Wisconsin Eco-Potato partnership between the Wisconsin Potato and Vegetable Growers Association (WPVGA), the World Wildlife Fund and the University of Wisconsin. The International Crane Foundation and the Defenders of Wildlife are also part of the partnership. Since 1996, the partnership has helped Wisconsin potato growers reduce the use of crop inputs such as nutrients, pesticides and other additives, and adopt biologically based pest management systems that do not harm the environment, while also improving farm resources such as soil health. All Healthy Grown growers, packers and shippers are certified and audited annually by Protected Harvest — an independent oversight organization that ensures strict adherence to sustainable agriculture standards.
In order to restore degraded lands, improve biodiversity and restore native ecosystems, a natural community portion of the Healthy Grown standard was designed based upon The Nature Conservancy’s (TNC) ‘5-S’ system for site conservation. According to Emily Aker, a graduate student at the Gaylord Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies at the UW-Madison, since the 1840s, Wisconsin has experienced devastating losses to its native ecosystems. Less than .01% of upland prairies, oak savanna and oak-pine barren communities’ original land coverage remain in Wisconsin.
“We’re working to reverse this by restoring unfarmed lands on each of the Healthy Grown farms,” explains Dr. Deana Knuteson, BioIPM Field Coordinator for the Wisconsin Eco-Potato partnership. “Native landscapes were diverse — and that diversity prevented invasive species from taking over. During the past 170 years, agriculture, suppression of fires, drainage of wetlands and logging have taken their toll. We now have landscapes that are significantly less diverse and overrun by invasive species. Every acre we restore on these farms can have a positive effect on neighboring lands — improving biodiversity, wildlife habitats, pollination, soil fertility, nutrient cycling, water quality and filtration.”
Healthy Grown farmers work with teams of ecologists from the University of Wisconsin and the International Crane Foundation to determine which lands can be restored. Methods include prescribed burning, mechanical cutting, selective herbicide application, and establishing native vegetation by planting seeds or seedlings.
“Defenders of Wildlife has been involved in the Healthy Grown collaboration for over five years and will remain a future partner as the restoration of critical ecosystems and biodiversity conservation expands on Healthy Grown farms,” states Dr. Frank Casey, Director, Conservation Economics Program, Defenders of Wildlife. “In the face of population growth in rural areas and as the impacts of climate change on biodiversity emerge, the forward-looking, pro-active conservation efforts of Healthy Grown producers will be critical to species abundance and survival. The Healthy Grown experience serves as a model for incorporating biodiversity conservation into current efforts to define indicators for sustainable agricultural production.”
Adds Barzen, “People underestimate the importance of farmlands to wildlife. Of the 15 crane species worldwide, 14 of them use agricultural lands during some portion of their annual cycle. The future management of private lands, therefore, will determine the future of many crane populations.” He cites, as an example, the fact that crane numbers in Wisconsin have tripled in the last 30 years. According to Barzen, this increase is due to cranes adapting their habits to nest in abundant, privately owned wetlands. “Cranes benefit from management of wetlands owned by Healthy Grown farmers. Prescribed burns have reduced shrub and tree cover that has slowly encroached on these previously unmanaged wetlands. Other unproductive agricultural fields are being restored to native prairie, creating more crane habitat. When we restore native ecosystems that serve as crane habitat we can benefit many grassland and wetland species that are in decline.”
“The Healthy Grown standard is an experiment driven by the growers — they aren’t waiting for conservation legislation, they’re driving the process. We’ve come a long way and still have a long way to go, but this standard is an example of how conservation might be accomplished on agricultural lands,” concludes Knuteson.
A copy of Emily M. Aker’s Master’s thesis, “Monitoring vegetation response to ecosystem management in agricultural landscapes under an ecolabel scheme,” is available upon request.
About Healthy Grown®
The Healthy Grown® eco-label, established in 2001, is a product of the Wisconsin Eco-Potato partnership between the Wisconsin Potato and Vegetable Growers Association (WPVGA) and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The International Crane Foundation, World Wildlife Fund and the Defenders of Wildlife are also part of the partnership. The Healthy Grown standard is designed to help growers reduce contamination of water, conserve natural ecosystems, increase biodiversity and improve productivity through researched-based sustainable and IPM processes. Healthy Grown sustainable farming practices are overseen by Protected Harvest, an independent oversight organization. http://www.wisconsinpotatoes.com/HealthyGrown/index.html.
