Date: March 26, 2020

Time: 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm

Register: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/6642891219543696652

Please join us on Thursday, March 26th at noon for a NFWF Project Spotlight, “Manure/Litter Matching Services: Building Markets and Connecting Farmers.”

Join NFWF, our grantees, and subject experts from the Virginia Poultry Federation, Penn State, and BMP, Inc. for a discussion of previous efforts to develop manure and litter matching services within and outside the Chesapeake Bay watershed.The discussion will include lessons learned from several NFWF funded projects as well as highlight the unique challenges and opportunities of implementing litter matching services in different geographies.

Animal manure and poultry litter are excellent, low cost fertilizers if used properly. Land application returns nutrients and organic matter to the soil, building soil fertility and quality. However, there are regions in the Chesapeake Bay watershed that have too much manure and litter compared to locally available crop nutrient requirements. To address this issue, each of the Bay states have implemented a variety of regulatory and voluntary programs to encourage manure/litter transport, and partners continue to seek new opportunities to build markets and facilitate connections between farmers with manure and farmers who need manure nutrients. In this webinar, Hobey Bauhan (Virginia Poultry Federation) will give an overview of previous efforts to develop a poultry litter matching service in Virginia and highlight the Virginia Poultry Federation’s role in supporting this effort. Jen Weld will present Penn State’s work to develop a manure and poultry litter matching service for Pennsylvania farmers.  Sheri Herron, Executive Director of BMP, Inc. will share her 20 years of experience developing markets and coordinating transportation to move litter out of the Illinois River Watershed or Arkansas and Oklahoma.

The projects being spotlighted include:

  • Strategic Initiative to Achieve Regional Phosphorus Balance in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed supported by US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Chesapeake Bay Program’s Innovative Nutrient and Sediment Reduction Grants Program. The project focused on achieving farm and regional nutrient (especially phosphorus) balance in high-density animal production areas by utilizing strategies including the expansion of markets for manure and manure co-products to facilitate cost-effective transport of excess nutrients.
  • Innovative Approaches to Manure/Litter Management supported by US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Chesapeake Bay Program’s Innovative Nutrient and Sediment Reduction Grants Programs. This project explored a comprehensive and innovative approach to managing excess manure and poultry litter in the Shenandoah Valley including the facilitation of manure transport in the North River watershed.

The presentation will be held as a webinar:

https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/6642891219543696652

We hope to see you there!

The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation’s Project Spotlight series is an effort to share lessons learned, challenges and opportunities in implementation through discussions with grantees who have recently completed a grant project. Grantees and project partners with expertise in a common topic join together to reflect on their experiences and answer audience questions.

The US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP) has a long‐standing partnership, through a cooperative agreement, with the National Fish and Wildlife (NFWF) to provide direct financial support to accomplish both:

‐ The Small Watershed Grant (SWG) program that promotes community‐based efforts to develop conservation strategies to protect and restore the diverse natural resources of the Chesapeake Bay.

‐ The Innovative Nutrient and Sediment Reduction (INSR) grant program that support efforts with the Chesapeake Bay watershed to accelerate nutrient and sediment reductions through collaborative and sustainable regional-scale partnerships and networks of practitioners that have a shared focus on restoring, protecting and improving the water quality in the Chesapeake Bay watershed.