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.
Author: Adam Leonberger
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: Chadwick Conway
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: Amanda Gumbert
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
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
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
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: DJ Scully
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
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: Lee Moser
Author: Traci Johnson
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: Tad Campbell
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: Samantha Anderson
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
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: Jamie Dockery
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
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
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: Brad Lee
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
