CREP Corner

By Lee Ashford

“Grampa, I got a bite! It’s a BIG one!”

Billy pulled an 8-inch bass from the murky water, grinning proudly as he held up the fish for his grandfather to see.

“See, I told you it was a big one! Is this the biggest fish you ever saw?” he asked expectantly.

“Well, maybe not the biggest one I’ve ever seen, but it’s a good one, alright! Let’s put it back, so it can grow even bigger, okay?”

Billy looked the fish over one more time, then nodded. “Okay, Grampa. Maybe next time it’ll be really big!” Grampa helped him remove the hook, and carefully slipped the little bass back into the river.

“You know, Billy, for a long time there weren’t many fish in this river. It used to be really shallow, and there weren’t any trees growing here at all. Way back before you were born, I decided to build that fence behind us and plant all these trees, to help the river get better, so the fish could come back.”

“You’re fooling me, Grampa! You didn’t plant all these trees! There must be a million of them!”

“No fooling, Billy. I didn’t plant every tree by all by myself, but with some other people helping me I did. The river is really a lot nicer looking today than it was 10 or 15 years ago, too,” Grampa replied. “There was a lot of concern back then about the water. It seemed like every year more and more people wanted to use the water, and there just wasn’t enough of it to go around. The water was getting polluted, too, so people like me asked the government to come up with a program to help us clean up the water and help the rivers get better. That was something I’d been thinking about doing for a long time, and that program just helped me make up my mind. Of course, people are still concerned about water, and there are even more people now than there were then, but because of all the folks who helped to make the river better, the water’s cleaner than it used to be, and all the trees help keep it cooler, too, so the fish like it better.”

“Well, I’m sure glad you made the river better, Grampa. I like your river! I don’t think I’d like it much, if it didn’t have any trees. Hey, Grampa? Where did the deer go to get shade when there weren’t any trees?”

“We didn’t have many deer back then. Believe it or not, Billy, when the trees started growing good, the deer just seemed to show up out of nowhere! We have a lot more birds, now, too, which is a good thing, because lots of those birds eat mosquitoes!”

“I don’t like mosquitoes! I hope those birds eat a million of ‘em!”

Grampa chuckled. “So do I, Billy, so do I. But what do you say we get back to fishing, before Gramma calls us in for dinner?”

“Yeah, let’s catch another big one!”

 

Okay, I admit that’s a pretty corny scenario. The fact is, though, that CREP has been designed precisely to accomplish the sort of mental image you undoubtedly pictured while reading that bit of prose. Establishing a buffer of riparian vegetation, including willows and other trees, ultimately will help reduce pollution of your waterways, and will reduce erosion of your banks.

Healthy riparian vegetation removes sediment from the water, and eventually helps to narrow the stream channel. As the channel narrows, the water level actually rises, which raises the water table on the adjacent flood plain. The sagebrush which has been intruding on your land for the past 50 years will begin to be replaced by grasses, sedges and rushes. Grasses, sedges and rushes make much better livestock forage than does sagebrush.

Water temperature in the stream will lower, as the growing trees increase the amount of shade on the water. Fish and wildlife populations will respond in ways which may amaze you. Your noxious weed problem will begin to diminish, as dense riparian growth out-competes invasive weeds for water and light.

I have always believed that 99% of you choose to be farmers and ranchers – instead of accountants and clerks – because you appreciate and value the out-of-doors. You prefer to fight ornery cattle and broken tractors, than to fight traffic snarls and crowded elevators. I also have always believed that you have a strong tie to the land from which you derive your livelihood. In spite of the crazy allegations of the occasional radical element, you DO NOT want to pillage and plunder your land. You know that if you take care of it, it will take care of you.

Not everybody who reads this article will be eligible for CREP. It isn’t right for everybody, but it could be right for you. CREP is a program that provides financial help to fence and plant your riparian areas. If you have a degraded riparian area on your property that you want to improve, or you just want to find out more about CREP, call me at (541) 883-6932, extension 116. I can help you decide if it’s a program for you.