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Research Update


Buffering against farmland conflict


Evergreens have been effective in keeping pesticide spray under better control. By Judie Steeves


W


hether it’s drifting pesticide sprays, dust, odours or visuals, farm operations can create conflict with neighbours, but a new study is looking at vegetative buffers to reduce such issues and improve relations in the neighbourhood. With funding from the federal- provincial Growing Forward 2 program, biologist Fiona Steele of Diamond Head Consulting has been working to determine the effectiveness of various types of buffers for the past few years, both in the Lower Mainland and in the Okanagan. Commonly, the borders between a conventional farm and an organic farm are where conflicts arise, as organic certification requires the use of different methods of


controlling pests and diseases than using chemical sprays. Contamination from an adjacent conventional operation can jeopardize that organic certification.


In 2014, the project moved into the


Okanagan, where Aura Rose, proprietor of the House of Rose Winery and vineyard in


Kelowna, was chosen as one of the subjects, along with a hog farm and an organic orchard. At first, Steele recalls, they experimented with water to see how far spray drifted. “We found that an existing row of 10-year-old firs did a great job, and captured the drift, so I feel confident these vegetative buffers will work,” she comments. For


reducing pesticide drift, she focused on evergreens with dense canopies like


Fiona Steele JUDIE STEEVES


Aura Rose shows how young trees being grown as buffer plants are protected from browsing deer with wire fencing.


The pilot project was initiated by the provincial ministry of agriculture in 2011, beginning with five demonstration sites in the Fraser Valley, mainly for poultry farms.


“The idea is to provide a tool for farmers to help reduce pesticide drift, dust or odours,”explains Steele. Volunteer farms were selected, where the costs of purchasing and installing vegetative buffers was covered, and the farmers were expected to maintain them and monitor their effectiveness, along with Steele, and provide feedback. As well, Steele says they are building a Best Management Practices guide and material to be added to the ministry of agriculture website, in a section on buffering.


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Lawson’s columnar cypress (Chamaecyparis lawsonii ‘glauca’), the species used at the House of Rose; Excelsa cedar (Thuja plicata ‘elcelsa’); Swedish poplar (Poplar tremula ‘erecta’) and the native white clematis (clematis ligusticifolia). The latter would be grown on a fence.


The difficulty in the Okanagan is finding species that are not host plants for orchard pests, nor invasive plants, yet were compact enough that not too much farmland was taken up with buffers. The native Douglas fir and ponderosa pine are not dense enough, and they take up a lot of space.


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