A3O-Lancastar Firming, Saturday, May 6, 2000
Gettysburg FFA Will Use Grant
To Build Environmental Center
Part of the proposed sight for Gettysburg Area School’s environmental/earth center,
these grounds include wetlands, wooded area, and potential turfgrass areas for use in
environmental education.
JAYNE SEBRIGHT would want to include in the plots,” said Sollenberger. “I’m
Lancaster Farming Staff school’s environmental center,” hoping to have our turfgrass plots
GETTYSBURG (Adams Co.) said Sollenberger. “I already know there because the school may not
Ron Sollenberger, Gettysburg that two of the elementary teach- let us plow up any ground.”
Battlefield FFA Adviser and ers are avid bird watchers and in- Sollenberger expects the envi
teacher at the Gettysburg Area tegrate that interest into their cur- ronmental center to be an ongoing
High School, has wanted to devel- riculums. Perhaps the center will project. “The matching grant will
op an environmental center ever have a bird watching station.” be used to get the ball rolling,”
since he started teaching 26 years xhe environmental center will said Sollenberger. “I don’t expect
ago. be designed to work with both to ever really complete the project
Now, thanks to Pennsylvania’s classroom and extracurricular ac- because working with the center
Agricultural and Rural Youth tivities. “We plan to develop trails and adding new things is the way
Grant Program, Sollenberger will f or the cross country runners, and we can teach students about the
have that opportunity. we hope to establish turfgrass environment.”
Gettysburg Battlefield FFA was plots that can be used as golfing F° r Sollenberger, writing the
one of four youth programs to re- greens.” grant was an extensive project “I
ceive the highest dollar value of According to Sollenberger, the s Pf nt a bit of time on it,” he
matching grants about $lO,OOO Gettysburg Area School District The hardest thing was dig
dollars approved by the grant has been integrating environ- Bmg up the itemized cost figures
program. 31 youth organizations mental education into its curric- and being able to justify them,
received a total of $lOO,OOO in for the past ten years> but Once he completed the propos
matching and direct grants as part teachers never had a convenient al > Sollenberger showed it to both
of this year’s grant program, thestudents andschoolboard for
which was administered by the exper ience their a PP roval 30(186(11 (t t° Penn-
Pennsylvania Department of Agri- . <Lots of have environ . sylvania Department of Ag last
culture. mental centers hut the teachers Decem ber.
Gettysburg Area High School often don - t know about them be- fr °m the Pf™ 1 '
has more than 300 students en- they’re not integrated into FrtnraHnrf the staled H
roUed in agriculture classes, while the curri culum,” said Sollenberg
-40 students are members of the er « We want t 0 deve lop as many and F p A associations, the Penn-
Gettysburg Battlefield FFA. But differe nt ways for teachers and aSSSL t^plnn
Sollenberger hopes that the envi- students to use the center as possi- . Pnnnerative Fv’tendnn the
ronmental center developed with ui_ n a sieallv it will include anv- State Cooperative Extension, the
the help of the matching grant to Zwith foe e" i- Pennsylvania State Grange, the
will benefit many more students ronmen t ” Pennsylvania Council of Coopera
than just those involved in agri- c,.. '. ... ... fives, and the Pennsylvania Gen
culture Sollenberger andhis students e ral Assembly judged the appUca
.... . .. will be working with area orgara- J J 6
My intentions are to develop zations to develop the center. «T was rcallv snmriscH when I
an environmental center that w,U <Wve alread taoud with the
include as many different pro- •, was noimeo in reoruary mat our
grams in the school as possible,” S re SSTtoTlos£StefS was approved,” said Sol
said Snflenhereer “The center will . . . K,I1 ° „ 3 I v aJ loresl f r ” n lenberger. It IS One of those
be oriented primarily to high thingS where you are either ap ‘
school and elementary students.”
A move to a new hieh school lo- pan to involve the ? arn f c °mmis- you half of the money you asked
a move to a new nign scnooi io sion and the state i and man age- for _ it’s all nr nothina ’’
SSI u°p n the ment perSOn in the project ” The center will IxMhe largest
the environmental*center pn f Ct . Sod ? nber B er ev f r
“°ur old locadon was only 52
nn Fe tilf^o 3111011111 of S l3BB we are mowing “i have a lot of dreams about
one is tcres nne h.Tild- here ’” ““ Sollen . ber ger. “They how this center wiU be,” he said.
„ see a lot of potential for wildlife “We might not get permission to
.. , . o . . habitats in that grass.” do everything I want to do. But
The property includes a wooded j„ add i don t 0 the school prop- there are so many different as-
erty ’ a four - acre P ,ot at the coun- pects of environmental education
plenty of grass. Sollenberger plans new Resource Center has we can incorporate. If one thing
to develop turf grass plots, plant been designated for use by county won’t work, we can come up with
***** agriculture programs - something else to replace it. It is
nons, streampase management « Since weVe the closest school going to be as extensive of an envi
£ ST- -
used primarily to purchase £ Glickman Fills Vacancy On National Dairy Board
equipment needed for the environ
™ mdems'wtl'l the mi- WASHINGTON, D.C. Agri- Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, of 36 dairy farmers representing sign programs to strengthen the
ter during classes, after school, culture Secretary Dan Glickman and Texas. Hoff will serve the re- 13 regions of the contiguous U.S. dairy industry’s position in do
and as FFA projects.” ' recently announced the appoint- mainder of a 3-year term ending and administers a coordinated mestic and foreign markets. The
The first thing Sollenberger ment of Neil Hoff of Windhorst, Oct. 31, 2002. The vacancy was program of promotion, research, OCThmidSd 3
plans to do once he has the check Texas, to fill a vacancy in region 4 created by the resignation of John and nutrition education. weight an pro .
from the matching grant program on the National Dairy Promotion B. Stacks of Damascus, Ark. The board was established by duced in the contiguous 48 states
is to send out a wish list to ele- and Research Board. The National Dairy Promotion the Dairy Production Stabilization and is marketed commercially by
mentary and high school teachers. Region 4 includes Arkansas, and Research Board is composed Act of 1983. It is authorized to de- dairy farmers.
“I am asking them what they
Don’t Disrespect The
Soil That Feeds You
COLUMBUS, Ohio The
quantity and quality of the
world’s soil will not meet future
food demands if the population
continues to grow at its current
rate and efforts are not taken to
improve soil conditions, said an
Ohio State University soil scien
tist.
“I tell my students that ‘ln soil,
we trust,” said Rattan Lai, a pro
fessor of soil science in Ohio State
University’s School of Natural
Resources. “It’s time that we as a
community give proper respect to
what we call dirt.”
A specialist in soil degradation
and carbon sequestration (keeping
carbon in place in the soil), Lai ar
gues that two key 21st century
concerns global food security
caused by a rapid increase in
world population and increases in
atmospheric greenhouse gases
are linked to soil quality, especial
ly in relation to soil carbon.
The increase of atmospheric
carbon dioxide is occurring at the
rate of 3.3 billion metric tons per
year. In addition to fossil fiiel
combustion, the increase is caused
by soil cultivation, biomass burn
ing and deforestation. Even more
gaseous emissions including
methane and nitrous oxide —’ are
caused by further declines in soil
quality from erosion and nutrient
imbalance, Lai said.
Before the 19705, more carbon
was emitted into the atmosphere
from soil and agricultural activity
than from fossil fuel combustion.
Now, agricultural activities are re
sponsible for about 25 percent of
global emissions.
Lai has worked with colleagues
around the world to assess the po
tential for agricultural practices
that would improve soil quality
and, at the same time, reduce
emissions of carbon dioxide into
the air.
He recommends a variety of ag
ricultural practices, including
conservation tillage, precision
farming and growing cover crops,
to keep carbon in the soil, thus
improving soil productivity and
reducing the release of carbon
into the air. He estimates judi
cious land use and soil manage
ment techniques could resequester
60 percent to 70 percent of the
historic carbon loss of 80 billion to
100 billion metric tons of carbon.
In the United States alone, car
bon sequestration could affect 212
million metric tons of carbon per
year, or about 12 percent of the
total carbon emissions. Through a
global program of soil manage
ment, “the potential of soil resto
ration is enough to nullify the an
nual increase in atmospheric
concentration of carbon dioxide,”
Lai said.
Increasing soil carbon also has
other societal benefits: resisting
erosion, reducing the transport of
pollution-laden sediment into
water, decreasing downstream
flooding and lowering the release
of particulate matter into the at
mosphere thus, decreasing the
risks of global warming.
“It’s truly a win-win strategy,”
Lai said.
However, the use of cropland to
reduce atmospheric carbon levels
is not a permanent solution to the
problem. Soil can only hold so
much carbon, and with appropri
ate agricultural practices it will be
filled within 25 to 50 years, Lai
said. Soil carbon also can be easily
lost back into the atmosphere.
One mistake, such as plowing
once after years of no-till can de
stroy 20 years of work.
“This isn’t a substitute to find
ing alternatives to fossil fuel
usage,” he said. “What it does is
provide us an opportunity to se
quester carbon in agricultural
soils for the next 25 to SO years
while we find viable alternatives
to fossil fuels. This is not ‘the’ an
swer, but it is an important tem
porary solution.”
Though the water and air quali
ty concerns are high priorities, Lai
emphasized that world hunger
already a problem for 790 million
people globally will intensify if
agricultural productivity is not
improved.
“There are not many troubles
in the world more alarming than
those caused by an empty stom
ach,” Lai said.
The combination of the best
soils with the best management
practices will produce optimum
yields and spare marginal land for
nature conservancy, he said.
Concerns about food availabili
ty are particularly high in devel
oping countries, where almost
97.5 percent of the estimated an
nual population increase of 73
million people is expected to
occur, Lai said. Malnourishment
in these areas is intensified in
cases where crops and animals are
raised on degraded soils missing
many nutrients among them,
zinc, copper and iron.
Lai’s collaboration with other
scientists in a national, multi-in
stitutional research effort to quan
tify the potential of soil carbon se
questration has led to the
publication of 12 books.
To learn more about carbon’s
impact on soil quality and the use
of cropland to reduce the threat of
global warming, interested people
should call Lai at (614) 292-9096,
e-mail him (Lal.l@osu.edu), or
check their local libraries for a
book Lai and several other au
thors have written on the subject
titled, “The Potential of U.S. Cro
pland to Sequester Carbon and
Mitigate the Greenhouse Effect.”
The U.S. Department of Agricul
ture commissioned the study.