In this engaging episode of Main Street, we chat with Jeff Miller as he gives an exciting preview of the upcoming Backyard Conservation Workshop webinar, offering insights into sustainable gardening and eco-friendly practices. Tom Isern captivates listeners with his Plains Folk essay, 'A Pleasing Young Man,' and horticulturist Ron Smith then steps in with his expert advice, providing valuable tips for nurturing your holiday plants and keeping them vibrant throughout the festive season. To round off the show, Danielle Webster shares a heartwarming holiday memory, bringing a touch of nostalgia and cheer to our listeners.
Highlights of the interview with Jeffrey Miller on "Main Street" include:
Overview of the Webinar: Jeffrey Miller discusses the upcoming webinar on backyard conservation, focusing on the benefits to wildlife, soil, and water resources. He highlights the partnership with Dakota Legacy Initiative and talks about implementing conservation practices in backyards.
- Role of the Cass County Soil Conservation District: Miller explains the mission of the district, which is to inform, educate, and provide leadership in conservation stewardship, aiding citizens in protecting natural resources.
- Importance of Backyard Conservation: Emphasizing the value of every small contribution, Miller discusses how turf grass lawns are ecologically unproductive and how even small conservation projects can significantly attract and benefit wildlife like bees and butterflies.
- Practical Steps for Backyard Conservation: Suggestions include starting with small areas, choosing native plants, and considering the local ecology. Miller also talks about the advantages of native plants, such as needing less maintenance and providing food for native pollinators.
- Adapting to Local Conditions: Miller stresses the importance of selecting plants native to one's specific area, adapting conservation practices to different ecological regions in North Dakota.
- Mosquito Control and Conservation Efforts: Discussing the balance between mosquito control and conservation, Miller notes improvements in municipal approaches to minimize harm to beneficial insects.
- Financial Incentives and Support: The Cass County Soil Conservation District offers cost-sharing programs to help with the financial aspects of implementing conservation practices.
- Seasonal Planning and Implementation: Miller advises starting planning in winter and contacting the district for guidance and resources like a handbook for establishing pollinator plots.
- Community Examples and Impact: He cites examples of local parks and areas in Fargo incorporating native landscaping, highlighting the communal and maintenance benefits.
- Weed Management Strategies: Miller recommends using woven landscape fabric to reduce weed pressure without needing commercial herbicides.
- Future Projects and Tree Planting Programs: The interview concludes with a discussion of the district's tree planting programs and cost-sharing options for developing wildlife habitats and windbreaks.
Transcript - Jeffrey Miller, CCSCD
Main Street
Jeff, welcome back to Main Street. Hi, Craig.
Jeffrey Miller, CCSCD
I'm happy to be here.
Main Street
Let's talk about the webinar right out of the gate. What should we expect to learn in birds, bees, trees in your webinar?
Jeffrey Miller, CCSCD
We're really excited to be talking about this. So we've partnered with the Dakota Legacy Initiative out of Bismarck, and we're going to be talking about backyard conservation. And backyard conservation is basically the implementation of conservation practices in a backyard that can benefit wildlife, soil, and water resources.
So part of the webinar is we're going to talk about what is backyard conservation. We're going to talk about how to implement it on your property. We're going to even talk about a couple of case studies and how it's been successful.
And then we're also going to talk about what's available through local soil conservation districts.
Main Street
So you're the director of the Cass County Soil Conservation District. For those of us who don't really know everything that is done by your office, what do you do?
Jeffrey Miller, CCSCD
So the Cass County Soil Conservation District has the mission to inform, educate, and provide leadership in conservation stewardship of soil, water, and related natural resources. So that's kind of a long way of saying that we exist to help citizens of the county, whether it's large ranchers or small apartment dwellers, in conserving and protecting natural resources. Natural resources from soil, from water, from trees, from wildlife, from basically anything that's outside of our door.
Main Street
So why backyard conservation? To me, that's a small, small, small slice of the puzzle.
Jeffrey Miller, CCSCD
It is. It's a small slice of the puzzle, but in a, in a, in a rather urban area like Cass County, Cass County is a large farming community, but we also have Fargo and Fargo is one of the bigger cities in North Dakota. It's, it kind of goes back to that old adage of every little bit counts.
When you look at backyards in particular, they're generally turf grass and turf grass is almost a biological and ecological desert. There's very little productivity in a turf grass lawn.
Main Street
Jeff, I just spent last summer getting our lawn done. Now I feel bad.
Jeffrey Miller, CCSCD
And that's, I mean, that's the way it's been for years is, is, is we've kind of been told that a beautiful lawn is a short mowed turf grass lawn with, with no weeds. And I always use weeds in parentheses because a lot of what is considered weeds is actually very beneficial native plants. But it's funny because a lot of times I'll help somebody do a small conservation project and I'm not talking doing an entire lawn in native plants, but even a small 10 by 10 section.
And they'll call me later that summer and tell me how many bees and butterflies that they're seeing because again, a turf grass lawn has nothing of value for our native bees, butterflies, birds, anything like that. So when they do have that little bit of habitat, all of a sudden you start seeing bees and butterflies that you've probably never seen before. So it really is very beneficial for wildlife, especially small wildlife like insects and birds and stuff.
And, and I always think about it's got to be a mosaic. Obviously Fargo is not going to be one huge backyard habitat, but even if one house on every block has a small pollinator plot, that's going to be a mosaic of habitat for insects and butterflies and birds that migrate through every year.
Main Street
One concern that we've had as we develop our backyard, of course, grass is just a part of it, what our overall plan is, but okay. So we didn't have as many mosquitoes in our first summer here as we thought, well, that's probably because they're spraying. And is that going to impact any effort that I want to do in my backyard to promote what it is you're talking about?
Jeffrey Miller, CCSCD
So it certainly can, but to the benefit of the city of Fargo is a few years ago, they had an incident where a lot of monarch butterflies were harmed because of the mosquito spraying. And a lot of times what harms the spraying is not so much the spray that's being applied, but the time of day that it's being applied. And if they can apply the spray to when the insects are resting, it's generally much less harmful to the bees and butterflies and things like that.
And there is kind of a give and take, obviously we want to see these beneficial insects, but a lot of people have issues with mosquitoes and mosquitoes are vectors for disease. So the mosquitoes do have to be controlled to a point, but I think municipalities are learning a little more about how to, how to apply those, those chemicals in a less harmful manner.
Main Street
Let's dig a little deeper here, so to speak. Give us some idea of really what we can do in our backyard. If we want to just start and maybe do a little bit of something each year.
Jeffrey Miller, CCSCD
Yep. So that's exactly the way to do it. I just met with a church last, last week that wanted to do a big pollinator plot and that's fantastic, but pollinator plots require work and they can take a year to, to really develop.
So I always tell people, just pick a small spot and maybe even a small spot that is maybe hidden a little bit or an area that maybe you've struggled growing grass in the past or, or something like that, or even a plot that you can see from your kitchen window. So you can see the bees and butterflies, but, and then you just start small. Generally with a small backyard habitat, I like to encourage people to use plugs.
So plugs are just like when you go to one of the big box stores and buy marigolds in a plug form, but we're fortunate that we have a native plant greenhouse that exists in Enderlin, North Dakota, and that is owned by the United Prairie Foundation and they exist solely to propagate local ecotype native plants. Now that's not the only game in town. There's a native greenhouses in Minnesota that you can order.
So it doesn't really matter where you get it from. What the big important key is, is native plants. Give us some examples.
So native plants like swamp milkweed. So swamp milkweed is almost the perfect native form for butterflies and bees. We say milkweed, I love common milkweed.
Common milkweed is great, but common milkweed has a tendency to spread. Swamp milkweed does not. So swamp milkweed is one of the best.
And then you can have your black-eyed Susans. There's a variety of native wild sunflowers. I always tell people that any kind of beautiful flower that you like, you can find a native flower that looks very similar to it.
And the beauty of the native flowers is they provide food for native pollinators. A lot of our cultivars or our non-native flowers don't provide any food for our native bees and butterflies.
Main Street
So I have my backyard. It's sloped a little bit for drainage. All the new homes in our neighborhood are.
Is that a big deal? Can I still go to work here?
Jeffrey Miller, CCSCD
Yes, you can still go to work there. That wouldn't affect anything. And even in some places, if you have, especially I've noticed more in North Fargo, where there's actually some natural drainage points, you can also make what's called like a wet garden to where you could put plants that are actually going to absorb that runoff and make sure that that runoff doesn't get all the way to the storm gutter.
Because runoff usually carries some sort of urban contaminants. So if you can slow that runoff down and actually have it infiltrate the soil prior to hitting the street, that's a good thing for our river and our water quality.
Main Street
Give me an idea of those plants. We have exactly that. It tilts down to the rear end of our property.
Mushy mess down there a lot of the time.
Jeffrey Miller, CCSCD
Yep. So again, swamp milkweed is an awesome one. Big bluestem is kind of our native tall iconic grass that's going to soak it up.
A lot of the native grasses, because we are in right here in Fargo in what was the tall grass prairie. So prior to settlement, if you would have looked out on the back of a horse, it would have been a pretty marshy area here. And we would have had a lot of big bluestem and prairie cord grass and the swamp milkweed and a bunch of other forbs too.
But you would have this mosaic of wet areas where you had your wet species and dry areas where you had more like little bluestem and things like that. And you know, nature kind of figures out where it should go. And you could even in a low area, you can even put some shrubs like red osier dogwood and fall cindigo and things like that.
So the sky is kind of the limit. And what I generally do is when a person is interested, is I've created a kind of a handbook with all the species. And I always give that to a prospective homeowner or customer and kind of let them look through it and figure out what they want, because everybody has a different idea of what they want.
The beauty of the natives is that there is so many to choose from that you can kind of pick what really fits your life.
Main Street
Jeffrey, this doesn't just work in Eastern North Dakota. Every corner of the state can benefit from this idea. Give us some examples of maybe where it's a little more arid in our part of the state, things we ought to be thinking about.
Jeffrey Miller, CCSCD
And that's a great point. Bismarck is different than Fargo and Williston is different than Bismarck. So basically, the best thing to do is kind of figure out what is native in your area.
If you get out towards the Badlands, you see a lot of little bluestem. You're not going to see any big bluestem in Dickinson. It just isn't going to grow there.
So you want to really mimic what you're seeing in the natural environment. So if you go out to the Badlands and look at those plant communities, you're going to see plants. To me, one of the more iconic plants of the Badlands is the yucca plant.
You see yuccas all over the place. There is not any reason that you can't incorporate yucca into a backyard habitat. Even beyond the benefits to the soil, the water, and the animals, the backyard conservation, it actually is going to reduce the work of the landowner.
And that's a big thing because some of the wetter years, people are mowing a lot of grass. And if you have a native habitat, you don't have to do anything. You can just enjoy your plants growing and have a little more free time to do things other than mow grass.
Main Street
One of the things I've thought about as well is, of course, we planted grass and guess what else we put in the ground? Winkler system. Yep.
I got to redo that now to take advantage of these.
Jeffrey Miller, CCSCD
Nope. You wouldn't have to at all. You can almost treat it like grass.
The first year actually watering, it would probably help if we had a dry year. But once they're established and those roots get down in the ground. So the big advantage of natives over turfgrass is turfgrass has a very shallow rooting system.
You can go out there with a shovel and flip it over and see the roots. Where native plants, they have a root system that goes down twice as tall or more as the plant itself. So even on a dry year, a big bluestem has roots that might go down 10, 12 feet.
You don't have to water that at all. So yeah, you wouldn't need to change anything in your yard from an infrastructure standpoint to really benefit from natives.
Main Street
Let's dig into this idea that one backyard can really make a difference. More examples.
Jeffrey Miller, CCSCD
We've been very fortunate that Fargo Parks, West Fargo have kind of started to really buy into the idea of native plants. So one great example is the North Fargo softball complex up there. My middle daughter plays softball, so I'm there quite a bit.
They've worked with the United Prairie Foundation to actually install a lot of native landscaping. And this was the first year they did it, so it didn't look nearly spectacular as it's going to the next year. And what happens with that is it's going to benefit the plant communities up there because that's kind of an isolated area.
And it's also going to reduce the Fargo Parks maintenance budget. I don't have to tell you that every year gas prices go up, labor goes up, all that stuff goes up. And now they're going to actually be able to reduce that by having those native plants.
And the other benefit of that is now that area gets visited by a lot of people and they're going to see that. They're going to see these beautiful native plants and maybe get an idea to do that on their own.
Main Street
Jeffrey, didn't you tell me just a little while ago that these areas do take some work. So what do you mean by maintenance savings?
Jeffrey Miller, CCSCD
They won't be required to fertilize. They won't be required to mow. They won't be required to water.
All that stuff that a turf grass lawn requires. Another big thing is the spring. A lot of turf grasses are either fescue or Kentucky bluegrass, and they're sprayed pretty heavily to keep out weeds, weeds with air quotes.
So it's going to be a lot less of that. So they could focus on other, other places. So that first year, the maintenance or the implementation effort is high.
And that's why I always tell people to select small areas. But once it's established, that maintenance almost disappears.
Main Street
One of the things I'm also worried about is where we live in particular, and this might be just germane to us, but next lot over is an undeveloped lot. And there are, there are a couple of lots side by side and they're not going to be developed anytime soon. So guess what grows there?
And guess what the builder doesn't take care of very well. What should I think about if I'm developing this? And also I got a weed patch next door.
Jeffrey Miller, CCSCD
So on, especially for a small pollinator plot, the secret weapon really is landscape fabric, woven landscape fabric. It's the same fabric that we put down on our tree rows every spring. And what that woven landscape fabric does is it reduces weed pressure, but it allows water to infiltrate through.
If you roll out that, that woven landscape fabric, you pin it down and you just cut holes, the size of your plugs, you're going to really reduce the amount of exposed dirt that weeds can grow in. And it makes it easier to, if you do get a weed or two growing here, just to simply pluck it. The woven landscape fabric is something that I always call the secret weapon because at our small farm, I have a half acre garden.
I garden with the woven landscape fabric to reduce weed pressure because weeds love nothing more than exposed dirt. So if you went out there and you tilled it up and then you planted plugs in there, all that exposed dirt is going to be a vacuum for weed seeds. So that, that woven landscape fabric works great to reduce weeds and it reduce, and it eliminates the need for commercial herbicides.
Main Street
Talking with Jeffrey Miller, he's the director of the Cass County Soil Conservation District. They're hosting a webinar at noon on Tuesday. You can still sign up, go to their website.
It's called Birds, Bees, and Trees, an Intro into Backyard Conservation. All right, it's winter time, but I'm planning now for my very first steps for what I'm going to do to implement this in the spring. What are those first steps?
Jeffrey Miller, CCSCD
Well, the very first step you should make is giving us a call. Go to our website, give us a call, and we can walk you through every single step of it. This time of year, especially this winter in particular, it's a great time to go out and walk your site because we don't have snow on the ground right now yet.
We can walk and give you an idea of where you want it to be located. And then in the wintertime, when we do have some time, I'll give that prospective homeowner our, our handbook, which is kind of the soup to nuts about getting this pollinator plot ready. If you wait till spring, everything starts to get busy.
It's harder to really do it. So right now is the planting season. It's the perfect time to plan.
The beautiful thing about Cass County in particular is that we have cost share available for this stuff, right? Nothing is cheap. You just had your lawn put in.
It probably wasn't cheap. And we offer cost share of 75% of the cost of the plants and the infrastructure. So if you buy some landscape fabric and you buy a thousand dollars worth of plants, we cost you 75% of that.
We do that because that's how strongly we believe in getting this stuff on the ground. And the Cass County Soil Conservation District, just like every other soil conservation district in the state, does get mill levy funds. So everybody that pays, that is a taxpayer in the county, pays a little bit towards the Cass County Soil Conservation District.
Because of that, I want to make sure that everybody has an opportunity to get their money's worth out of that tax. So we offer this cost share to really take that burden off of a homeowner of spending a lot of money to implement these practices, because there's always a financial burden. And whether you're a big farmer or a small homeowner, we want to take some of that burden off of your shoulders.
Main Street
That's an amazing thing to know. Jeffrey, I think I shared this with you before. When we were in Wyoming, we wanted a hedgerow.
So we went to our local conservation district and they said, sure, here's a whole bundle of like 50 caragana. Go to town. And it was like next to nothing.
It was great. Similar programs here?
Jeffrey Miller, CCSCD
We do. Yep. So right now through probably April, we have what I call our online tree store where you can go and order conservation grade trees.
So conservation grade trees are kind of interesting. I bet you when you got that bundle of caragana, you looked at that and said, these are just little stick, little roots, little tiny sticks. And it was great.
Yeah. We knew what they would become and it worked. And that's the key is that deciduous trees and shrubs grow really, really fast.
So you plant this little stick in the spring and it leaves out and you're going to have a tree or shrub in a few years. And yes, we sell them at a very reduced rate. I think they're a dollar 50 or a dollar 65 a tree and they come in bundles of five.
And it's a really easy way for somebody to put a bunch of trees on the landscape in a very easy and inexpensive manner. And we do have tree planting programs and shrub planting programs. And some of them actually have cost share as well.
So if you're a landowner that wants to build some wildlife habitat or wants to build some field windbreaks or something, we have cost share programs for that as well. And that's kind of a common thread is cost share programs, because we want to share the costs, not pay the entire cost, but share it and really get those really beneficial practices on the landscape.
Main Street
And always the best advice is the best time to do this was 20 years ago. The next best time to do it is right. Is right now.
Put the trees in the ground now. Jeffrey Miller, he's the director of the Cass County Soil Conservation District. They're hosting a webinar at noon tomorrow, Tuesday, December 19th.
There's still time to sign up. The webinar is titled Birds, Bees and Trees, an Intro into Backyard Conservation. Thanks for the conversation.
Jeffrey Miller, CCSCD
Thank you much, Craig. I appreciate it.
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