West Virginia Success Story

New Chesapeake Bay Watershed Initiative Successful in Mineral County

Program or Category: Chesapeake Bay Watershed Initiative (CBWI)

Overview: West Virginia agricultural producers located within the Chesapeake Bay watershed are eligible for special assistance to reduce excess nutrients and sediments under the new Chesapeake Bay Watershed Initiative (CBWI), CBWI was authorized in the Food, Conservation and Energy Act of 2008 (the 2008 Farm Bill) to provide assistance to producers to minimize delivery of nutrients and sediments in order to restore, preserve, and protect the Chesapeake Bay.

The poultry farms are located on Beaver Run and Patterson Creek, two of the main tributaries leading into the Potomac River and Chesapeake Bay. Both farms are large operations; one having four houses of broilers and the other having two 600’ houses of broilers.

The feeding facility is also located along Beaver Run and the farm is a small rodeo operation run by Janet Wilder. Mrs. Wilder has a passion for rodeo, animals, and conservation; she just needed a little guidance and incentive to improve her operation. The animals are mostly grazed at other farms during the summer months but in the winter they degrade the pasture at the main farm and roam freely in the stream. She also has the manure inputs from other people’s livestock during rodeo weekends.

Accomplishments: Four farms in Mineral County received $340,725.00 for two feeding sheds and one feeding facility. The Comprehensive Nutrient Management Plans (CNMP) have been started. Soil analysis will determine if litter will continue to spread litter there or sold to producers that live outside the Potomac Valley. The producers have been educated on spreading litter and the appropriate times to do so. The landowners all have agreed through their contracts to follow these plans and this will greatly improve the water quality in these streams.

Program Benefits to Community: The program offers financial and technical assistance to producers to install practices that help control soil erosion and nutrients on eligible agricultural land from reaching the Bay.

With help from the CBWI program the herd of coriander and Texas longhorn steers will no longer have access to the stream and will be fed inside a facility where the majority of the manure can be handled properly.

Contact:
Sarah Fitzwater, Soil Conservationist
304-788-2332
sarah.fitzwater@wv.usda.gov

Keyser Service Center
251 Carskadon Lane
Keyser, WV 26726

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