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ARS News Service
Agricultural Research Service, USDA
November 25, 1998
Don Comis, (301) 504-1625, dcomis@asrr.arsusda.gov
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Trees can shelter livestock--as well as farmsteads--from winter's cold as
well as summer's heat. But ... 1,200 trees in a pasture?
That's how many black locust trees Charles M. Feldhake is growing in a West
Virginia pasture. The Agricultural Research Service soil scientist planted
the trees in rows about 30 feet apart in a 5-acre watershed where 25 sheep
graze. Another 25 sheep graze an adjacent, treeless watershed.
Feldhake and horticulturist Carol M. Schumann want to find out whether the
trees can catch excess nitrogen from livestock urine and manure in subsoil,
before it reaches groundwater. The researchers are at ARS' Appalachian Soil
and Water Conservation Research Laboratory, Beaver, W.Va.
Feldhake and Schumann are interested in other benefits of "agroforestry,"
the term for growing trees and shrubs on farms. Locust trees, for example,
can be sold for firewood or fenceposts. The trees' flowers provide nectar
for honey-making bees.
The scientists are also testing black walnut, honey locust and sea buckthorn
on pastures. European farmers grow sea buckthorn, a shrub, for its
nutritious, tasty berries.
This past winter, the scientists opened up a forest strip and planted red
oaks along with faster-growing trees and shrubs, including white pine,
Chinese chestnut, pawpaw, hazelnut, blueberries and raspberries. They want
to find out if the shorter-term plantings can yield marketable products
without negative effects on the red oaks that would be selectively cut for
high-value veneer.
In addition to the research goals, the scientists hope to demonstrate to
local farmers that perennial woody species make sense as Appalachian crops.
An article on this agroforestry research appears in the November issue of
ARS' Agricultural Research magazine. The story is also on the World Wide Web
at:
http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/nov98/silvio1198.htm
ARS is the chief scientific wing of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
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Scientific contacts: Charles M. Feldhake and Carol M. Schumann, ARS
Appalachian Soil and Water Conservation Research Laboratory, Beckley, W.Va.,
phone (304) 252-6426, fax (304) 256-2921, feldhake@asrr.arsusda.gov and
schumann@asrr.arsusda.gov.
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http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr/thelatest.htm.
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* ARS Information Staff, 5601 Sunnyside Ave., Room 1-2551, Beltsville MD
20705-5128, (301) 504-1617, fax 504-1648.