Funds may help protect Flathead Lake

By LAURA BEHENNA

Bigfork Eagle

Orchardists along Flathead Lake have an opportunity to improve management their soil, chemical and water management, thanks to funding from the Natural Resources Conservation Service, part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Larry Robertson, a soil scientist at the Natural Resources Conservation Service office in Ronan, is developing a proposal for funding from the NRCS Environmental Quality Incentives Program. His idea is to protect Flathead Lake's water quality by helping fruit growers improve their use of irrigation water, pesticides and fertilizers, which tend to seep into the lake through the gravelly soil along the shore.

Participating growers may get upgraded irrigation equipment, predator fencing to keep bears out, mulching equipment to help reduce pesticide use, assessments of their irrigation and pesticide needs, and other improvements depending on their needs, Robertson said. The funding will be flexible so that growers with special needs can receive help, he said.

"We can do a lot to assess all orchard growers, not just cherry growers," he said.

He's working on collecting a variety of funding sources to share the costs of the projects so that growers wouldn't have to pay more than 25 percent of the costs of improvements, he added. 2006 was a hard economic year for orchardists, making many reluctant to invest in improvements they're not sure will pay off, he said.

More than 40 producers have already signed up for the program, mostly at the southern end of the lake, and Robertson is seeking more growers from north of Yellow Bay. Interested growers may contact Robertson at 406-676-2811, extension 108, or e-mail him at larry.robertson@mt.usda.gov.

Robertson said he's applying for at least three years of funding for contracted work and equipment installation. Growers' requests for projects on their properties will be put in priority order, therefore not all needs can be met in the first year of the program, which will be 2008, he said.

There are about 235 orchards around the lake, Robertson said. Most are small, with 58 percent less than two acres in size and 37 percent less than one acre. The initiative "could feasibly cover about 20 to 60 acres per year," he said.

The Flathead Basin Commission is concerned about how overuse of pesticides and fertilizers could be contaminating groundwater and surface water, spokesman Mark Holston said. Robertson discussed his proposal with the commission in April, "and we thought it made a lot of sense," Holston said.