This Friday, March 11 there will be a workshop on manure management that has serious implications for the health of the Bay.
A critical piece of Gov. O’Malley’s new bay cleanup plan is revising the rules that determine when farmers can apply manure to their land. The public should be able to provide input in this important process, but so far no specific public input method has been proposed.
Friday’s workshop is a one-day event intended for a small group of experts. The state should create a formal process on an extended timeline to incorporate public feedback.
I would encourage you to look into this workshop and critical process. You can contact me at 410-467-0439 (office), 301-442-0134 (cell), or by email at tlanders@environmentmaryland.org.
Background
Environment Maryland believes the current manure application rules are flawed, and as a result, manure has been over-applied to our soils for years. Over-application has led to phosphorus-saturation in soils, increasing the potential for phosphorus runoff in ground and surface waters. Scientists and nonprofits have demonstrated the need to revise these rules; here are some examples:
In the state’s Phase I Watershed Implementation Plan, Gov. O’Malley wisely called for a revision of the “Phosphorus Site Index” or “P-Index,” which is the test farmers have been using to determine whether to apply manure to their land.
Friday’s meeting is a technical workshop at the University of Maryland, College Park. Prior to the workshop, a small group of scientists crafted proposed revisions. The stated purpose of Friday’s workshop is to review those proposals, but attendees are supposed to come prepared with technical expertise. The workshop is not open to the public, as far as I understand. Registration beforehand was required, and registration has since closed.
Here is the latest announcement from the workshop organizer, Dr. Frank Coale, about the workshop:
Thank you for registering for the Maryland Phosphorus Site Index Workshop. A total of 57 people have registered for the workshop. Registration is now closed. We have reached the capacity of the conference room. It will be quite cozy.
Phosphorus Site Index Workshop
March 11, 2011
9 am – 12:30 pm
Maryland 4-H Center, Conference Room
8020 Greenmead Drive, College Park, MD 20740
As mentioned in the original announcement (attached), we are planning an interactive technical discussion that will help guide the development of a revised Maryland P Site Index. We are hoping for a lively discussion. If you have data pertaining to particular elements of the current P Site Index that you would like to share with the Workshop attendees, please let me know. I'll gladly build time into the agenda for you to present your data. However, plan on keeping your presentations brief and to the point, i.e. plan on presenting "data chunks". We are assuming that the Workshop participants will be familiar with the current P Site Index and the basic science behind the components of the Index. [emphasis added] In this Workshop, we want to emphasize new data and new insights and do not want to spend a lot of time repeating fundamental background information.
Send me information by Tuesday, March 8, regarding what topics you wish to present and how much time you think you'll need to get your bottom line message delivered. Feel free to offer to present more than one "data chunk" if you wish to speak about a couple different elements of the P Site Index. Please bring your presentation(s) on a flash drive formatted as PowerPoint (.ppt) files.
Contact me with any questions,
Frank Coale
TENTATIVE AGENDA:
· Overview of the current Maryland PSI
· Workgroup Input: Strengths and weaknesses of the current PSI
· Statewide performance evaluation of the current PSI
· Workgroup Input: Critique of PSI performance evaluation
· Proposed revisions for Maryland PSI-2
· Workgroup Input: Critique of proposed revisions for PSI-2
· Wrap-up and PSI-2 development actions
2 comments:
Yes, much of the soil on the Eastern Shore is high in phosphorus. It was also high in phosphorus before chickens were grown here. It was high in phosphorus before people were here. And they think a silly symposium is going to change this?
I find it disturbing that the source of this letter is Environment Maryland. It appears that since they don't like the results of a science based discussion that it should be a open forum for any unqualified person with a opinion to comment. The fact that some Delmarva soils have high P contents may or may not be the result of manure application. I have sampled several soils in old growth forests that are in the 500+ FIV (100 is considered optimum), these soils have never had manure. When scientific research is performed a control is used to determine if any change is a result of the treatment or a background effect that would have happened anyway. To simply say that manure is the source of all soil phosphorus without researching the background levels prior to application is not science.
This is just an attempt to rally the enviros to continue to push to ignore science and promote the "everything farmers do must be bad" mentality.
Hey Environment Maryland if you really want to save the bay - stop pooping.
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