A24—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, May 15,1982
BY GINGER SECRIST MYERS
Staff Correspondent
BENDERSVILLE - Soil con
servation has no better friend than
Robert C. Lott, 72, owner and
operator of Bear Mountain Or
chards in Adams Co. States Lott,
“I love the earth and I couldn’t hve
in a community without being a
part of it.”
For over three decades Robert
Lott has served the land and his
community on conservation
boards from the local district to a
national directorship.
This year Lott will complete his
second three-year term as a
national director to the National
Association of Conservation
Districts. Lott is one of twenty-one
national directors serving
nationwide and represents the
twelve-state Northeast region.
Lott’s involvement with con
servation originated out of nec
cessity. Gazing toward the main
highway he remembers, “I came
up that road out there 46 years ago
with |lB dollars in my pocket and
|5OO in debts. I saw this
farm for sale and decided I wanted
to grow fruit here.
“I was 26 years old at the tune
and must have been too dumb to
know better. This place was
considered to be one of the worst
wornout farms in the county. It had
two and a half miles of fences that
need to be cleared and gullies that
were 150-feet wide. I don’t think I
lives his testimonial that the water and land are the most
important resource. Shown here with the trickle irrigation
system in his orchards, Lott irrigates year round at ground
level to conserve water.
Lott’s home was built in 1801 and the main floor. Lott added eighteen feet of fill
has been completely restored since the days in front of the beautiful stone structure,
when gullies channelled runoff water through
At 72, Bob Lott still serves the soil
would be involved in our natural
resources today if I hadn’t walked
into such a worn-out situation. ’’ j.
needed to be cleared and gullies C
that were 150-feet wide. I don’t
think I would be involved in our
natural resources today if I hadn’t
walked into such a worn-out
situation.”
Bear Mountain Orchards is
hardly a wom-out farm today.
Lott, his wife and his two sons and
two daughters produce eight kinds
of fruit on 400 acres and have an
additional 400 acres of farmland
and woodland.
Wrestling back the soil from
nature included contouring 150
acres of the orchards, building
nine ponds on the farm which are
used for trickle
collecting runoff water and pipmg
it into the ponds, and putting sod
strips in all the acreage. Recalling
the farm’s original condition Lott
chuckled, “I had to build up the
ground in the front of the house 18
feet. The gullies around the house
were so bad, we had water running
throughout the house.”
Lott considers himself a prac
tical conservationist. He ex
plained, “Thirty years ago if you
said you were a conservationist,
everyone looked at you a little
funny. Then in the 1970 s people
went overboard and you were
almost embarrassed to be called a
conservationist.
Now we’re swinging back to
Contours of fruit trees wrap around 150 gullies in this plum orchard were so big that a
acres of Bear Mountain’s orchards to save the tractor trailer could have driven into one.
land from erosion. Lott remembers when the
Contour strips are still used on Bear the orchard some of the longest ditches in
Mountain Orchards steep hillside to control the county,
erosion. Diversion ditches also were added to
center, but it is the farmer who sees brewing are the problems i anc } anc j water. Stated Lott “The
pays for those extremes. All the created by absentee landlords, whole natural resource base
legislation that was passed during pointing out that no one wants to i an d and water —is what keeps us
that tune cost us money. The take responsibility for land that he alive. Not one by itself, but the two
restrictions on spray materials is doesn’t own. He also predicted together. We must do a better job
what the environmentalists water will come a greater issue in 0 f educating our younger
wanted, but farmers pay the bills the Northeast, taking its cues from generation that land and water are
for it. Look at the gypsy moth the experiences of the West and o ur two most valuable resources.”
situation now and how much that Midwest. He continued, “Here in Adams
will cost us. Lott said his greatest concern is
“Everyone wants to be involved
in the conservation movement, but
I’m not sure 'they’re willing to pay
the bill.”
Some of the key concerns Lott
educating the public on the value of
Lott's land is so well terraced that even the roads are in steps.
Here he points out one of the collection troughs he has in
his orchard roads. These collect run off and prevent soil from
eroding.
(Turn to Page A 29)