
Researchers, Farmers Team Up To Revive
Mississippi LakesBy Jill Lee March 2, 1999WASHINGTON, March 02--Mississippi's Deep Hollow Lake has cleaner
water and is home to more fish and other wildlife because researchers are
helping farmers find affordable ways to protect the environment, according to
U.S. Department of Agriculture scientists. The farmland around Deep Hollow Lake in Leflore County is in one of USDA's
"Management Systems Evaluation Areas" in seven states. Begun in 1990,
the MSEA program is designed to test and develop farming methods that will work
with nature to protect water quality. Part of MSEAs success is making farmers research partners in
finding out what works, said I. Miley Gonzalez, USDAs Under
Secretary for Research, Education, and Economics. When work began at Deep
Hollow Lake, water clarity was less than 2 inches and there were few plants or
algae. Today the lake has 14- to 20-inch clarity and abundant plant life. The
fish and other wildlife are increasing. MSEAs are cooperatively
managed by two USDA agencies--the Agricultural Research Service and the
Natural Resources Conservation
Service--and the U.S.
Geological Survey, in conjunction with collaborators with state and local
governments and industry. Each MSEA project is tailored to the particular needs
of the area's farmers and the environment. ARS scientists working on the Mississippi Delta MSEA are based at the
National
Sedimentation Laboratory, Oxford, Miss., and the
Jamie Whitten
Delta State Research Center in Stoneville, Miss. The Mississippi Delta MSEA focuses on erosion control and the prevention of
sediment and chemical runoff into lakes. In addition to Deep Hollow Lake, other
test sites in Mississippi are Beasley and Thighman lakes and the farmland
around them. The farmers agreed to try environmentally friendly land management
strategies so scientists could evaluate their effectiveness. Each lake has a different level of environmental protection, from minimal
conservation practices to a complete system of cutting-edge strategies for
controlling erosion and runoff. Beasley is the moderate-practice lake. Thighman
was planned for the minimal level, but conservation practices have proven so
cost-effective and beneficial at Deep Hollow and Beasley that farmers at
Thighman are trying them, too. Mississippi Delta MSEA researchers also are exploring use of strips of tall
grasses to keep valuable topsoil on the land and out of the lake, and to slow
down surface runoff. A story about the research appears in the March issue of ARS' Agricultural Research magazine
and on the World Wide Web at: http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/mar99/msea0399.htm Scientific contact: Charlie Cooper, research leader, ARS
Water
Quality/Ecological Processes Research Unit, 598 McElroy Dr., Oxford, MS
38655, phone (601) 232-2935, fax (601) 232-2915,
[email protected]. U.S. Department of Agriculture | |