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Monte &
Peggy Swann cultivate 1,650 acres of rolling farmland in
Northumberland County on Virginia’s Northern Neck. Although
most of their income comes from grain production, they
manage more than 240 acres devoted to forestry. Well managed
cove forests interspersed among grain producing fields
protect watercourses prevent excess nutrients from entering
tributary systems and reduce loss of highly erodible soil.
The Swann
forest lands have been enrolled in the American Tree Farm
System since 1957, making it one of the older continuous
Tree Farms in Virginia. But the Swann family didn’t start
conservation only fifty years ago. They had been practicing
sustainable forestry for almost a century before they were
officially certified as a Tree Farm.
The home
farm has been in the Swann family for almost 150 years.
Generations of Swann’s have not only kept the land
productive but also enhanced the productive capacity of the
farm’s nutrients and soils. Monte Swann farms land across
from forests that once supported Peggy Swann’s family.
Peggy’s father ran a local saw mill operation. Some of the
timber he cut, especially rougher cuts from the poplar,
hickory and gum, were made into pallets and fruit boxes for
National Fruit Products.
The
Swanns are part of the local fabric of society, and this
generation of Swanns is committed to keeping the land
sustainable in the generations to come. The Swann farm is an
outstanding example of multiple productive use of the land,
which includes timber production, grain farming, scenic
management, wildlife habitat improvement and personal
recreational use. The topsoil on the Swann farms is a rich
mix of loams and clays, but some of the same characteristics
that make them so productive also make them fragile and
easily erodible.
Monte Swann practices no-till
agriculture, which doesn’t tear up the soil but leaves the
soil intact. It minimizes the need for pesticides and
herbicides while holding more sequestered carbon and
nutrients in the soil.
No-till
systems are also beneficial for water resources. These
systems have four to eight times greater water infiltration
rates than the tilled fields next door and they hold the
soils a lot better, something of crucial importance for the
loose soils of the Virginia Northern Neck. If all this was
not enough, notill leaves year-round cover and crop residue
on the fields to hold the soil and provide off-season
habitat for wildlife. Many experts believe notill systems
will help bring abundant quail back to the Virginia
countryside. Monte Swann goes one better for wildlife
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Above,
topsoil from the Swann farms is
productive but easily erodable; below, no-till
agriculture is practiced by the Swanns. |
habitat
by creating soft edges between his fields and forests and
planting quail-friendly plants such as Lespedeza. The
Northern Neck was one of the first areas of Virginia to be
settled after the founding of Jamestown. George Washington,
James Madison, James Monroe and Robert E. Lee were all born
here. But only recently has the region come under intense
development pressure. Its superb and beautiful natural
location, bounded by the Rappahannock and Potomac rivers and
the Chesapeake Bay, means that people attracted to
waterfront property love the Northern Neck. Its proximity to
the burgeoning Washington Metro area ensures that the
attractions do not go unnoticed. As neighbors sell to
developers and new subdivisions sprout like mushrooms around
him, maintaining his own land in its environmentally and
economically sustainable condition becomes more of a
challenge for Monte Swann.
Monte
Swann understands that his land is part of the greater whole
that is the Northern Neck. His land provides indispensable
ecological services. The water that soaks into the soil or
runs off the Swann land flows eventually into the Potomac
River and then into the Chesapeake Bay. Long established
stream management zones have been protecting water quality
for many years and continue to do so.
It is not
hard to see how Peggy and Monte Swann’s farm demonstrates
the ideals of conservation championed for many years by the
American Tree Farm System. Their lands provide abundant
habitat for wildlife, a place for outdoor recreation, and
protection for water resources, all while producing
agricultural and wood products to sustain the present and
build the future. The Virginia Tree Farm Committee and the
Virginia Forestry Association congratulate the Swann family
as Virginia’s 2009 Tree Farmers of the Year. |
