Extension
It Starts With Us
Author: Jamie Dockery
Major Program: Water and Soil Quality and Conservation
Recent weather events and climate change have made most Americans increasingly aware of water quality issues. In Lexington MS4 regulations have emphasized these concerns. One of the major pollutants of stormwater is excess nutrients from homeowner fertilizer applications. The Fayette County horticulture program offers classes related to low input lawn care approaches that can serve to dramatically lessen fertilizer applications. Research has shown that turf grasses perform better with limi
Author: Roger "Darrell" Simpson
Major Program: Water and Soil Quality and Conservation
Although ponds are utilized for a livestock water source, there are some that want ponds for watershed purposes or specifically for recreational purposes such as fishing or swimming. A local excavation contractor referred three clientele to this agent for technical assistance as it relates to soil type, watershed area, topography and site location of the pond. This agent worked with Natural Resource Conservation Service Soil; Scientist Jerry McIntosh to provide that information
Author: David Hull
Major Program: Water and Soil Quality and Conservation
As a result of the passing of the Kentucky Agriculture Water Quality Act, anyone farming over ten acres in Kentucky is responsible for completing a Kentucky Agriculture Water Quality Plan. But until the completion of this plan became a requirement for receiving cost-share funds through the CAIP program, many landowners delayed making a plan or forgot about is altogether. But since the water quality plan has become a requirement for cost-share funding, the Gallatin County Extension Service has he
Author: Brian Jeffiers
Major Program: Water and Soil Quality and Conservation
As part of a unit on soil, a chemistry/biology teacher at a private school requested the CEA for ANR to do a presentation on the most important issues affecting soils in Kentucky. The agent presented a lesson on compaction, erosion, soil structure, and nutrient content. The lesson also included content on soil types and parent material. It concluded with a visit to the school's raised plant beds and discussion on root horizons, weed identification, and weed types. None of the 13 students, wh
Author: Chadwick Conway
Major Program: Water and Soil Quality and Conservation
The catastrophic flood of late July left the Knott County Agriculture Agent scrambling to find much-needed resources for his community. One area of need was the demand for grass seed for the increase in multiple slides, silt filled yards,pastures, and stream bank erosion. The grass seed was needed to suppress soil erosion and creek bank stabilization increased. Therefore, the agent reached out to the local soil conservation board of directors to see if they could assist with this need. The
Author: Kendal Bowman
Major Program: Water and Soil Quality and Conservation
Owen County Kentucky has 157,396 acres of reported farmland. That requires a lot of fences to be installed, maintained, and repaired around the county. Fences may be used to protect or divide property, to improve its appearance, to confine animals, or to exclude animals. Fencing is one of the best long-term investments you’ll make on your farm. A good fence should last anywhere from 25 to 50 years.It would be a safe to say, there has been a generation removed from the farm. A lot of beginn
Author: Dee Heimgartner
Major Program: Water and Soil Quality and Conservation
Rain water collection using rain barrels had been a question that ANR Agent Dee Heimgartner has fielded for a few years. To answer this question she partnered with the Four Rivers Basin coordinator to host a workshop with Crittenden County gardeners. The first class filled up with a waiting list including a few from the neighboring county. A second class was added to the schedule and included Livingston County ANR agent. A third class was hosted after a water conservation mandate was put in plac
Author: DJ Scully
Major Program: Water and Soil Quality and Conservation
The Kentucky Community Assessment indicated that Campbell County residents desire less illegal dumping and littering in their community. Many items that are illegally dumped are household hazardous wastes that cannot be disposed of in landfills. According to the EPA, the average household generates more than 20 pounds of these wastes per year. Products, such as paints, cleaners, oils, batteries, and pesticides contain hazardous ingredients that can catch fire, react, or explode
Author: DJ Scully
Major Program: Water and Soil Quality and Conservation
The average American family uses 320 gallons of water per day, about 30 percent of which is devoted to outdoor uses. More than half of that outdoor water is used for watering lawns and gardens. Nationwide, landscape irrigation is estimated to account for nearly one-third of all residential water use, totaling nearly 9 billion gallons per day. - EPARain barrels capture water from a roof and hold it for later use such as on lawns, gardens, and indoor plants. Collecting roof runoff in rain bar
Author: Dee Heimgartner
Major Program: Water and Soil Quality and Conservation
The City of Marion, KY faced a water crisis during the summer of 2022. The lake the city uses as a water source developed a hole in the levee forcing the levee to be breached. While city leaders worked on funding and physical fixes to the problem, Crittenden County Extension and Crittenden County Public Library teamed up to provide the education needed for community members to conserve water.Utilizing UK Extension publications a quick one page infographic was developed that gave a brief overview
Author: Lacey Kessell
Major Program: Water and Soil Quality and Conservation
Kentucky has over 91,000 miles of rivers and streams and more than 225,000 acres of ponds, lakes, and reservoirs. These water resources not only play a vital role in Kentucky’s drinking water systems, but also are imperative to our agriculture industry. Each day in Kentucky, 81 million gallons of surface water and 4 million gallons of groundwater are withdrawn for agricultural use. In addition, these resources are a source of recreation for
Author: Robert Smith
Major Program: Water and Soil Quality and Conservation
The City of Bardstown is growing and the growing pains come in many forms. The city has recently been designated a Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System (MS4) community. This means that the city now has to comply with the rules outlined by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Bardstown is considered a small (phase II) MS4 community and Phase II regulation requires small MS4s in U.S. Census Bureau-defined urbanized areas, as well as MS4s designated by the permitting author
Author: Lindsay Heyvaert
Major Program: Water and Soil Quality and Conservation
A few months back, Dr. Tope assigned the Kentucky State University West Regional Center the task of being a water quality testing facility. I adopted the assignment and have made great strides with the program alongside Dr. Tope and his partners. After running almost 100 samples, obtaining 15 consistent producers, and reaching 6 counties, the KSU West Regional Center Water Quality Lab has been quite successful! Within the western region, that counties that have been reached are Edmonson, Todd, C
Author: Brad Lee
Major Program: Water and Soil Quality and Conservation
Twenty-nine edge-of-field water quality monitoring stations have been developed to measure continuous nutrient and sediment runoff within row-crop agricultural fields across western Kentucky through a partnership of nine landowners, the Kentucky Soybean Promotion Board, the Kentucky Agricultural Development Board, the USDA NRCS, Kentucky Geological Survey and the College of Agriculture Food and Environment at the University of Kentucky. As of December 2022, we had completed the baseline cr
Author: Brad Lee
Major Program: Water and Soil Quality and Conservation
Dog excrement, which contains 4.0% nitrogen and 3.1% phosphorus, is one of the primary sources of nutrient runoff that can lead eutrophication of Kentucky’s urban waterways. We developed an outreach program, supported by the Lexington Fayette Urban County Government, to bring awareness to this important issue. As a part of this educational effort, we investigated the impact of signage reminding dog park users to pick up after their pets. A baseline was established by geor
Author: Brad Lee
Major Program: Water and Soil Quality and Conservation
Rain barrels are a great way to get the public involved and raise awareness for water conservation and management around the home. We, my program and Dr. Annette Heisdorffer, Horticulture Agent at the Daviess County Cooperative Extension Office), have partnered with the Owensboro Regional Water Resource Agency for 8 years to develop a rain barrel workshop for Owensboro residents and surrounding communities. After five consecutive annual workshops pre-pandemic, this workshop resumed o
Author: Lee Moser
Major Program: Water and Soil Quality and Conservation
Dr. Amanda Gumbert and Lee Moser partnered with a local Fayette County, Kentucky citizen watershed group, Friends of Wolf Run, to document various stream improvement projects around the watershed. The project focused on five sites throughout the watershed. Video was captured at each of the sites with high resolution drone and traditional video camera footage, along with interviews from key stewards at each of the sites. The video products and associated interviews were produced to inform citizen
Author: Lee Moser
Major Program: Water and Soil Quality and Conservation
Lee Moser partnered with teachers at Elkhorn Middle School to develop and deliver an interactive presentation titled “Climate Change Impacts and Water in Kentucky” to 6-8 graders on topics related to climate change and water resources in Kentucky. The talk was designed to meet the needs of the next generation science standards related to systems thinking and climate change. The initial talk focused on current and projected future water quality and quantity related issues across Kentu
Author: Lee Moser
Major Program: Water and Soil Quality and Conservation
UK Extension specialists partnered with Loretto Motherhouse Farm during summer of 2022 to host an in-person field day and create videos highlighting stewardship practices used on the farm. The Good Ideas Conservation Field Day was held at Motherhouse Farms in Nerinx, KY. The Motherhouse farm manager, Cody Rakes, serves on the farmer advisory board for a multi-state project focused on farmer engagement in watershed protection and conservation efforts. He has been a strong advocate for stewar
Author: Amanda Gumbert
Major Program: Water and Soil Quality and Conservation
University of Kentucky Extension specialists in Agriculture and Natural Resources Extension and Forestry and Natural Resources partnered with KY Woodland Owners Association, KY Department of Fish & Wildlife Resources, KY Division of Forestry, and Bullitt County Conservation District to offer a landowner workshop focused on introducing land stewardship practices. The workshop was targeted to new landowners or landowners just getting started in management activities. As these audiences ar
Author: Samantha Anderson
Major Program: Water and Soil Quality and Conservation
According to the United States Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service, planting trees provides a multitude of benefit to local ecosystems. These benefits include protecting soil from rill and sheet erosion, protecting water quality by filtering excess nutrients and chemicals from surface runoff, increasing infiltration rates, and providing long term wildlife habitats. In partnership with the McCracken County Soil Conservation District, McCracken County Agent for Agricul
Author: Tad Campbell
Major Program: Water and Soil Quality and Conservation
Conserving water resources is a growing attribute to livestock farms in the area. The Mason County Extension Agriculture program and Mason County Soil Conservation hosted a field day for local producers to increase awareness of water conservation and utilization of no-till drills for pasture renovation. The host farm has developed a water collection system above ground to water livestock from rainwater to ease the costs of municipal water. The water is collected in tanks and g
Author: Amanda Gumbert
Major Program: Water and Soil Quality and Conservation
UK Extension specialists partnered with Loretto Motherhouse Farm during summer of 2022 to host an in-person field day and create videos highlighting stewardship practices used on the farm. The Good Ideas Conservation Field Day was held at Motherhouse Farms in Nerinx, KY. The Motherhouse farm manager, Cody Rakes, serves on the farmer advisory board for a multi-state project focused on farmer engagement in watershed protection and conservation efforts. He has been a strong advocate for stewar
Author: Amanda Gumbert
Major Program: Water and Soil Quality and Conservation
Kentucky’s landscape is 48% forested, with the vast majority (88%) owned by private landowners. Forests are an important part of the landscape and provide essential ecosystem services such as carbon dioxide uptake, oxygen production, soil nutrient cycling, and wildlife habitat. Further, they play a key role in watershed protection by providing high infiltration rates, reducing precipitation runoff, and regulating surface water temperatures. On a crisp sunny day in October University of Ken
Author: Traci Johnson
Major Program: Water and Soil Quality and Conservation
The Oldham County Extension Office gets many questions about ponds from spring through late summer. Questions range from fixing a structural issue to fish stocking to aquatic weed control and other general management issues. To help residents understand resources available, Oldham County’s Agriculture & Natural Resources Agent partnered with other agencies to offer Pond Management Field Days in July 2022 and May 2023. Planning partners for these programs included the
Author: DJ Scully
Major Program: Water and Soil Quality and Conservation
Jill Booth, 4th grade teacher at Johnson Elementary School (Fort Thomas, KY), requested assistance in developing a recycling program at her school. The driving question is how to educate students of Johnson Elementary about the importance of recycling, reusing, and reducing the amount of solid waste produced and motivate them to participate.The Campbell County Extension Agent for Natural Resources and Environmental Management provided educational sessions on composting and recycling on November
Author: DJ Scully
Major Program: Water and Soil Quality and Conservation
The Campbell County Extension Agent for Natural Resources and Environmental Management is focused on increasing composting opportunities to county residents based upon the data gathering from community needs assessments and advisory council meetings. On September 10, 2022, he taught 4 educational sessions about how to compost and provided free compost bins to 200 households. Since 2020, 800 Campbell County households have learned how to compost through the efforts of the Extension Service. The a
Author: Amanda Gumbert
Major Program: Water and Soil Quality and Conservation
Hinkston Creek has been identified as a high nutrient-yielding watershed by Kentucky’s 2021 Nutrient Reduction Strategy. Many farmers in the watershed are part-time operators with limited time and resources, and some are new to utilizing conservation practices. University of Kentucky Extension specialists partnered with the Harrison County Extension ANR agent and Bluegrass Greensource to deliver a farmer-led watershed leadership training to promote farmer engagement in the watershed. The T
Author: Amanda Gumbert
Major Program: Water and Soil Quality and Conservation
Vegetated buffers filter runoff water and help protect streambanks and pond edges from erosion. Though widely accepted and recommend by conservation professionals, vegetated buffers still generate many questions from landowners and lakeside residents. The Oldham County Extension Office gets many questions about ponds from spring through late summer. Questions range from fixing a structural issue to fish stocking to aquatic weed control and other general management issues. To help residents
Author: Adam Leonberger
Major Program: Water and Soil Quality and Conservation
According to the EPA, nonpoint source (NPS) pollution is the leading remaining cause of water quality problems. NPS pollution is caused by rainfall or snow melt moving over and through the ground. As the runoff moves, it picks up and carries away natural and human-made pollutants, finally depositing them into lakes, rivers, wetlands, coastal waters and ground waters, where they cause harmful effects on drinking water supplies, recreation, fisheries and wildlife. Excess fertilizers, herbicides an
Author: Edwin Ritchey
Major Program: Water and Soil Quality and Conservation
During the COVID 19 epidemic we successfully navigated the regulations and restrictions to continue to offer KATS trainings. We were successful going back to the previous format for the KATS trainings with good participation after COVID 19 restrictions were relaxed. During this reporting period we had 131 participants in the KATS program. The completed surveys (approximately 50% return rate) represented 361,743 acres and a net value to their operations of $5,770,470.
