Several months ago, I contacted the Pierce County Conservation District for some help and advise re: our property/farm. A woman I’ll simply refer to as “S” responded, as she was the PCCD’s Farm Planning and Ag Assistance Program Manager. S came out to our farm, took soil samples for testing, and she and I spoke about the possibility of restoring our creek (once a salmon-spawning creek but currently choked with invasive vegetation and blocked by a culvert) and re-planting native species. I also informed her of my plans to have sheep and other animals, and she pointed out some areas where she thought it would be best for them to live (ie, “heavy use” areas).
After that visit, I heard back from S twice; once with the results of our soil test, and again to invite my fiance and I to participate in a manure/compost bin workshop (which we did). There was no mention of creek restoration or any of the other things we spoke of, and after those two emails, I heard nothing from S for months.
At the beginning of the quarter I sent yet another email to S, only to have it immediately returned to me with an auto response, informing me that S was no longer working with PCCD. Okay then. As part of my ILC, I included a learning objective in which I planned to work with the Pierce County Conservation in order to utilize our land in the most responsible way possible (and to hopefully receive funding from them to complete necessary projects such as exclusionary fencing and planting a riparian buffer around the creek). I then emailed Rene Skaggs, who is the Farm Planning and Agricultural Assistance Program Director at the Conservation District. She had very little information about our farm and our needs, as apparently S had left few notes, so we chatted a bit and she mentioned that it sounded like our property might be considered wetland. If that was the case, it would be a huge wrench thrown into our long-term plans on the farm and I expressed my dismay. Rene and I scheduled a time for her to come visit us on Monday to take a closer look at our place so she could have a better idea of how/if the conservation district could help us.
Rene Monday morning, and my fiance and I took her on a walking tour of our place. It was raining, of course, and our Muck boots made squishing noises in the puddles of water and the mud in our fields. The creek was running high in its gully, brimming with rainwater and runoff, running merrily to its ultimate destination of Filucy Bay. After stomping around over blackberries and bracken and through the mud and puddles, Rene said she was “99% certain” that our land is wetland, but testing and subsequent verification would be necessary to say for sure. Again, having our property classified as a wetland area is a giant complication for our ultimate goals of a fiber and organic crop farm.
Since there’s been a span of more than 5 years since our land was last used for agricultural purposes, we will need to jump through a lot of hoops in order to create our dream farm on this property. Our first step in to contact a wetlands biologist and have them come out to survey our land and go over our proposed plans. What the biologist finds will ultimately decide our next course of action. I contacted a wetlands biologist and am waiting to hear back on when we can expect him to come out to our site. I’m also researching grassed waterways and other methods of water drainage that we might implement on our property. Beyond that, it’s mostly a sit and wait game… my fiance and I are somewhat prevented from doing any major work on our land, afraid that it will negatively impact the local watershed and/or our chances of getting funding from the PCCD.