Agriculture

Master Topic

Master Topic pages provide an overview of wiki topics and content

Master Topics
(by last edit)

• Conservation Using Acquisition
• Stormwater
• Vegetation and Revegetation
• Salmon Recovery
• Puget Sound Ecosystem Funding
• Governments
• Flood Hazard Management
• Forestry
• Watershed Planning
• Water Management
• Land Cover and Development
• Restoration
• Transportation Networks
• The Law
• Conservation Using Regulation
• Biota
• Climate

Salish Sea References

• Ecology Shoreline Photography Viewer
• The Encyclopedia of Puget Sound provides a peer reviewed version of the wiki
• PRISM Project Search
• Washington Coastal Atlas
• UW River History Project

Wiki Rules

• Wiki text does not reflect the policy or opinion of any agency or organization
• Please adhere to our Social Contract and Style Guide
• Complain here, and be nice.

Agriculture is both a land use pattern that affects how the ecosystem functions, and it is a vital mechanism of our civilization--the means by which we feed ourselves.

Landscape Change under Agriculture

Historical modification of ecosystems to enable agriculture has transformed the landscape. Early farmers cleared forest and removed woody duff. Wetland soils are particularly fertile and moist but must first be drained. These changes have modified watershed hydrology, reducing interception, transpiration and percolation, increasing stream discharge and removing the buffering effects of a landcover that stores rainfall.

River and stream floodplains provide level topography, fine textured soils, and moisture that support intensive agriculture. Protection of agricultural landscapes have led to the development of Flood Hazard Management sytems. River Delta systems, affected by both tidal flood and river flood, are particularly dependant on delta flood and drainage systems involving dikes, tidegates and even pumps. Delta restoration can affect nearby farms by altering these systems.

Agricultural land naturally reverts back to wetland and forest. Drain systems clog and vegetation regrows. Maintaining agricultural functions can be constrained by the regulatory systems designed to restrict new impacts.

Ecosystem Services and Agriculture

• While agricultural landscapes require a loss of historical forest and wetlands, they may provide more ecosystem functions, goods, and services than more urbanized landscapes.
• Agricultural is not a homogeneous land use. Some agricultural systems have permanent ground and tree cover and carefully manage ever increasing soil health. Other systems are continuously disturbed and leach nutrients and toxins.
• Agroforestry designs that increase perennial cover, and woody plants in the landscape, while maintaining agricultural production are common in tropical environments, and increasingly promoted by the NRCS. Programs to require or incentive improvement in riparian buffer functions are controversial among some agricultural producers.
• Because of our dry summers, agriculture is an important end use of our water supply. Harvesting surface water for irrigation may meet agricultural water needs, while increasing the water holding capacity of the landscape, but isnot well demonstrated in the United States.
• When considering the design of public subsidies for agriculture, there is an indistinct line between supporting the maintenance of the public value of farm landscapes, and using public funds to increase the profits of individual business people.

Social Organization in Agricultural Systems for Stewardship

• File:Gilbert 2014 cooperative farming.pdf provides discussion of organizing cooperative agricultural ventures that may support management of common lands.
• https://farmcommons.org provides advice on legal frameworks for agricultural ventures

Public Management of Agricultural Systems

• Agricultural landowners are typically taxed by counties at a lower rate than other land owners.
• File:USFWS 2010 endangered species agriculture tax deduction.pdf - farmers can deduct ESA conservation expenses from their taxable income.
• Counties have acquisition programs like Conservation Futures or Purchase of Development Rights programs to acquire development rights on agricultural lands. Skagit County and King County have been leaders in this work.
• WWRP has an inconsistently funded program to acquire development rights on agricultural land.
• Transfer of Development Rights systems have been developed in many counties, but depend on restriction of urban growth.
• CREP is a USDA program that leases streamside land for 10-15 years of tree production.
• NRCS has a family of programs for acquiring and restoring agricultural wetlands and subsidizing conservation practices.
• Conservation Districts provide technical assistance and may collect revenue to match state and federal programs.
• Salmon Recovery systems may acquire farmland and covert it to forest or wetland to provide habitat functions.
• The National Estuary Program began a program in 2015 to target acquisition of conservation easements in agricultural landscapes.
• King County Agricultural Drainage Assistance Program provides BMPs for drainage maintenance. These practices increase the cost compared to historical practices, while potentially decreasing impacts to fisheries.

Wiki Pages in the Agriculture Category

Topics Harvesting Surface Water for Irrigation Delta flood and drainage Delta restoration and farm system function Snohomish Agricultural Resilience Holistic Management Biochar Snohomish Agriculture Resilience Plan Integrated Floodplain Management Integrated Riverscape Management Syntropic Agroforestry Coppice Voluntary Stewardship Program Loraine Loomis Act Glyphosate Temporary Worker Housing Fringing marsh resilience, wave attenuation and flood management Community-Supported Agriculture Shellfish Aquaculture Scythes Workgroups Snohomish Sustainable Lands Strategy Snohomish Conservation District Sno-Valley Tilth Washington State Conservation Comission Agrarian Commons San Juan Islands Agricultural Guild Northwest Meadoworks LLC Washington Farmland Trust Agroforestry Northwest Community Farmland Trust Efforts, Places and Other Pages Working Buffer Pilot Project Scatter Creek Farm and Conservancy Black River Farm File:Scatter creek site physical with field boundaries.pdf French Slough Drainage Management File:French creek ditches.jpg Sno-Stilly Riparian Zone Management Strategy Lower Snohomish Reach Scale Plan Snohomish Farmland Protection Strategy File:Holistic management.jpg Skagit Farmland Legacy Program Whatcom Drainage Maintenance Guidance Stillaguamish Valley Protection Initiative Predicting Sea Level Rise Impacts on Ag Production Lower Skykomish Floodplain Land Strategy Sustainable Farms and Fields Grant Program Conservation Innovation Grant (CIG) Edwards Mother Earth Foundation The Ecosystem Guild/Bio-Cultural Restoration Field Stations Regenerative Riverscape Agroforestry Snoqualmie Fish, Farm & Flood Initiative Snoqualmie Fish, Farm and Flood Initiative Voluntary Clean Water Guidance for Agriculture King County Agricultural Drainage Assistance Program (ADAP) King County Farm Preservation Program (FPP) Snohomish Estuary Restoration Effects on Temperature, Salinity, and Tides Puget Sound Tidal Restriction and Wetland Mapping Skagit Farm, Fish and Flood Initiative Stillaguamish Delta Restoration Pre-design Puget Sound Marine Riparian Mapping Puget Sound Large River Delta Tidal Restriction and Wetland Mapping Automating Landscape Connectivity for Puget Sound River Deltas and Pocket Estuaries Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP)

Documents Stuart & Canty 2010 environmental markets for agriculture.pdf Peters 2009 washington water rights for agricultural producers.pdf Benedict & Shaw 2012 shade benefits from hedgerow on ditched streams.pdf Varanasi 2003 buffer critique GEI report.pdf GEI 2002 agricultural riparian buffers.pdf Idassi 2012 agroforestry in southeast.pdf Greene et al 2012 effects of tidegates on fish.pdf Boggs & Corey 2009 whatcom drainage maintenance plan.pdf Carr et al 2014 snohomish landowner buffer preference survey.pdf Dean 2011 farm succession strategies.pdf Smith et al 2005 tide gate salmon recovery analysis skagit.pdf Cereghino 2015 working buffers info sheet.pdf Canty et al 2012 farmland protection puget sound.pdf Canty 2015 NEP riparian easement advisory.pdf Snohomish County 2005 agriculture action plan.pdf AFW 2002 federal riparian buffer matrix.pdf Dittbrenner et al 2015 working buffers analysis.pdf SAEDAT 2007 snohomish agricultural development strategy.pdf Evans & Moore 2011 snohomish sustainable lands strategy framework.pdf SCB 2015 snohomish county agriculture research.pdf WDFW 2015 french creek drainage maintenance HPA.pdf SEE 2015 french creek drainage district regions and ditches.pdf Savory Institute 2014 grazing bibliography.pdf Joseph et al 2002 short duration grazing africa.pdf Holecheck et al 2000 short duration grazing trials North America.pdf Briske 2011 prescribed grazing.pdf Briske et al 2008 rotational grazing perception and evidence.pdf Soloviev & Landua 2016 regenerative agriculture levels SnoCo 2014 DRAFT lower skykomish reach scale plan.pdf SnoCD 2016 DRAFT climate change effects on agricultural drainage proposal.pdf Dittbrenner et al 2017 snohomish coastal resilience proposal.pdf SnoCo 2017 diking and drainage district relationships.pdf Boggs & Corey 2009 whatcom drainage maintenance guidance.pdf Thurston County 2017 voluntary stewardship plan.pdf Gilbert 2014 cooperative farming.pdf Hill 2002 keyline yeomans and whole farm design.pdf Crowder & Darris 1999 produce cuttings in beds.pdf Savanna Institute 2019 understanding agroforestry brochures.pdf USFWS 2010 endangered species agriculture tax deduction.pdf Hume & Bush 2020 final report riparian protection restoration.pdf Rentz et al 2020 WDFW riparian management recommendations.pdf Vance et al 2001 non timber forest products.pdf Bentrup 2008 conservation buffer design guidelines.pdf Geitzen 2019 syntropic agroforestry.pdf Yeomans 1958 the challenge of landscape Kubo et al 2019 snoqualmie riparian buffer best science.pdf LeDoux & Kubo 2020 snoqualmie riparian buffer task force final report.pdf Kanissery et al 2019 glyphosate persistence and impacts on soil health SDHP 2014 skagit hydrodynamic model report.pdf