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District Dispatch78 YEARS OF CONSERVATION Est. January 14, 1942

600 East HWY 12, Suite 1•Webster, SD 57274•(605) 345-4667 Sumer 2020

Volume 21, Issue 2

NRCS set to Address

Area Saline/Sodic Soil

Calendar of Events

July 18, Tree Walk

Aug 5-9, Achievement Days

Aug 7, Summer Plant Orders DUE!

Aug 10, District Board Meeting

Aug 18, ESDS School Starts

Aug 19, Waubay School Starts

Aug 20, Webster School Starts

Aug 31-Sep 2, Soil Health School

Sep 20-22, SDACD Convention

Winter desiccation injury has already been discussed in several recent Updates. This inju-ry occurs when we have warm spring days, but frozen or cold soils. During the warm days, conifers are transpiring, releasing water vapor to the atmosphere, through their needles but this foliage dries out as the water cannot be replaced quick enough from the cold soils.

Winter freeze injury occurs when water in the cells freezes. This often occurs in the fall. Woody plants go through a process in the fall called acclimation where the free water in cells is reduced and replaced with a natural antifreeze. While decreasing day lengths are

Why are all the evergreens “dying”? By Dr. John Ball

The Day County Recycling Team is going strong with support

from the Day County Conservation District. We have been

blessed with grant money from private donors within Day

County, The Day County Community Foundation, Day County

Commissions, and SD Department of Environment and Natural

Resources in Pierre, SD. There is another pending grant to help

fund education and advertising for the proper method of plas-

tic recycling. Plastic recycling is important no matter where you live. It helps the environment and

creates new economic opportunities. Plastics recycling keeps still-useful materials out of landfills

and encourages businesses to develop new and innovative products made from them. The plastics

we collect will be given to the Watertown Dependable Sanitation and transported to Minnesota to

make into carpet, car parts, clothing, and other useful products. See the do's and dont's of how to

recycle in our area on page 4.

District Lands Grants for Plastic Recycling

Webster, SD— August 1, 2010 — The NRCS

announced the Upper James River Salinity/Sodicity Conservation Implementation Strategy. The new conservation effort focuses on elimi-nating and preventing the formation of unpro-ductive saline/sodic areas in agricultural fields. “Aside from factors we cannot control, the ex-pansion of saline/sodic spots in our fields is the single biggest threat to area agriculture resulting in loss of income and future economic viability. Those areas are both economic and biological deserts” said Matthew Hubers, District Conser-vationist at NRCS.

Positive Customer Impact While many area producers have already adopt-ed individual conservation

See NRCS: 3

Zebra Muscle Found in

Day County Lake

I have been receiving numerous calls and pictures of dying ever-greens. Most of the callers (or texters) mention the tree looked fine last year and turned brown this spring. They want to know what to spray to save their trees. Vic, from Warne Chemical in Rapid City, is receiv-ing the same question. As Vic mentioned in our conversation, he could be selling a lot more pesticides but knows there are no treatments for winter injury.

We are seeing many evergreen pest problems this spring and they have all been discussed in the Update – Diplodia, Dothistroma, Pine wilt, Spruce needlecast among others. But the most common condi-tion cannot be traced to a pest but the weather. There are two primary causes for the winter injury, desiccation and freezing. While these are different disorders, the symptoms are similar. Pine foliage turns brown to tan starting at the tips often with distinct bands of discoloration along the needle. Pine foliage may turn shade of brown or even become bleached. Affected spruce needles may turn reddish brown to purple.

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See TREES: 3

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We Remember Trees

By Kaden Kwasnieski

I remember climbing on trees as a kid. When I was done, I would play in the leaves.

Trees, you hang so low that when the wind blows, you catch the snow. On empty prairies you stand strong.

We celebrate Arbor Day.

It’s a very special day. Trees are such and important resource. They give us clean air and shade

I remember climbing on trees as a kid

There is a pine tree. There is an apple tree.

There is a pear tree. Keep planting trees, it helps the earth. It helps animals that line in trees.

It is a safe home. I remember climbing trees as a kid.

District Run Down: Have the Day County Conservation District assist you in ALL your conservation goals. We do more than just plant trees (although we really like to plant trees)!

• Tree Planting • Tree Fabric • Tree Tube Installation • Seed Sales

• CRP • Pollinators • Cover Crops

• Seeding • No-Till Drill • Truax Grass Drill

• CRP and Tree Row Mowing • Tree Spade Services • Gopher Machine Rental

• Gopher Bait • Plantskydd Animal Repellant • Free Technical Advice!

Seasonal Bloom of Trees and Shrub

Are you following us on Facebook? You should! We’re showcasing the

bloom sequence of trees and shrubs across Day County. The archive of photos can be used to predict the

timing of next year’s bloom and what to look for next!

Check us out. Stay up-to-date on all conservation news and programs go-ing on in Day County!

Busy Spring Season The 2020 spring planting season is in the books! What a great, but “odd” season it was. I’m not sure if “odd” correctly en-compasses the year, but I don’t need to further elaborate. You all know what I’m talking about. I am very thankful for the favorable weather we did have, a TRE-MENDOUS crew to work with, and great producers to work for. This season we planted close to 17 acres of trees and 650 acres of grass/CRP/pollinators. We laid over 14 MILES of tree fabric and installed close to 650 tree tubes. We sold 850 landscape trees and offered over 10,000 conservation grade trees and shrubs to the citizens of Day County. A huge THANK YOU to you all for making this year a success. Thanks for supporting your conservation district!! Josh Wagner, District Manager

ARBOR DAY ESSAY Each year the conservation district host an Arbor Day essay contest for the Ene-my Swim Day School, Webster Area, and Waubay 6th Graders. This year’s winners were Kaden Kwasnieski (1st place) and Madison Block (2nd place). Kaden is the son of Tim Kwasnieski and Sarah Hamann. Madison is the daughter of Jim and Tammy Block.

2020 Seasonal Crew: Maria Anderson, Paul Peter-

son and Tyler Bornson. Not pictured, Kevin Siglin.

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practices to curtail the formation or expansion of saline/sodic areas, often the only way to reclaim and prevent these areas from ruining the eco-nomic viability of an operation is to utilize a suite of management practices. This conservation effort will provide cost share to help producers, whose land lies in the project area and is identi-fied as being highly affected or having the poten-tial to be affected by saline/sodic conditions, to implement a suite of practices. Required practic-es are monitoring of soil conditions (soil tests), a minimum three-crop rotation, reduced or no-till, cover crops, establishment of permanent cover where needed, as well as several other sup-porting practices if warranted. This conserva-tion effort will provide cost share which can be approximately $65.00/per acre/annually and higher, depending on practices applied. This conservation effort requires a minimum three-year commitment on enrolled acres.

Conservation Effort Availability This conservation effort is the NRCS’s approach to address locally identified resource concerns in targeted areas in conjunction with SD CORN, South Dakota Soil Health Coalition, Ducks Unlim-ited, Pheasants Forever, local Conservation Dis-tricts, and the Fish and Wildlife Service. For more information please contact your local NRCS office for an application and submit prior to October 1st.

NRCS Continued from 1

the trigger for this process to begin, a gradual drop in temperatures also ensures this pro-cess is completed by winter.

But a gradual drop in temperatures is not dependable characteristic in South Dakota, a land defined by extremes in weather. We had a relatively warm fall last year. Rapid City saw an October where the average maximum was 51F and the minimum a mild 26F. October 25th the high was 66F but about 6 am, October 30th, it dropped to -1oF. East-ern and Central South Dakota also expe-rience temperature fluctuation, though not quite the extreme as the western part of the state.

This abrupt change caught many trees,

including junipers, pines and spruce, not fully acclimated yet for winter. The freezing tem-peratures resulted in ice rupturing cells in the needles. These dead cells resulted in

needles with brown tips, banding, and green bases – symptoms that present with many conifer diseases. We can find black dots, fungal fruiting bodies, on these damaged needles but the fungus is not a pathogen, but Cladosporium, a mold fungus.

Trees affected by winter freeze or winter desiccation injury may lose many of their damaged needles and these trees will ap-pear sparse until new needles expands. These trees will also be more susceptible to pests due to their weakened condition.

This article appeared in the May 27, 2020 edition of “Pest Update,” a publica-tion by John Ball, Forest Health Special-ist SD Department of Agriculture, Exten-sion Forester SD Cooperative Extension. To follow along with “Pest Update” publi-cations go to www.sdda.sd.gov/conservation-forestry/forest-health/tree-pest-alerts/

Trees Continued from 1

Matthew Hubers District Conservationist NRCS 600 E HWY 12 Webster SD 57274 605-345-4661 Matthew.Hubers@usda.gov

Pines across the county and state are suffering from several

stressors including disease, excess moisture and winter damage.

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We are several months into the pandemic now. We are past the initial shock and moving into the “now what?” phase. That seems to be the ulti-mate question: now what?

Everyday we learn sometime new about the virus, we adapt, and we adjust. The country is starting to open up and restrictions have loos-ened at our field office here in town. Of course, that can all change at a minutes notice.

Currently, staff only is allowed in the building. Any correspondence must happen by phone or email. Face-to-face outdoor appointments can be made by calling 345-4661.

The conservation district is busy planning for next season’s work. If you need assistance, out-door, onsite meetings work GREAT! We’d be happy to come out and visit future tree sites or other conservation practices.

Keep in touch. We have not slowed down on the work we do, just adjusted how we do what we do. Life goes on and so does conservation.

COVID-19 Update

Plastic Recycling Do's: Bottles with a neck smaller than the

base (as milk jugs, plastic pop bottles, dish soap and shampoo bottles). Remove caps and lids; throw them in the trash.

DON'T!

· Do not recycle ice cream buckets, styrofoam cups and butter or yogurt containers. · Do not recycle hazardous chemical, antifreeze, oil, pesticide, herbicide or fertilizer containers.

Zebra Mussels Con-firmed in Pickerel Lake

Pierre, S.D. – The South Dakota Department of Game, Fish and Parks (GFP) has confirmed the presence of adult zebra mussels in Pickerel Lake in Day County. “A suspected adult zebra mussel was found at the west boat ramp in Pickerel State Park early this morning by Dennis Skadsen, the (Day County Conservation District) project manager for the Northeast Glacial Lakes Watershed Improvement and Protection Pro-ject, while working on a project for Game, Fish and Parks," said GFP region fisheries supervisor, Mark Ermer. "After confirming it to be a zebra mussel, Dennis Skadsen, con-ducted additional sampling and mussels were sampled near the East Pickerel Lake State Park boat ramp and the old fish hatch-ery site. We currently do not know the level of infestation, but crews will be sampling the lake next week." Pickerel Lake is now con-sidered “infested” for zebra mussels.

This is the first documented zebra mussel in the northeast, glacial lakes region. Pick-erel Lake is now classified as infested with zebra mussels. The (GFP) Commission can designate wa-ters infested with zebra mussels as con-tainment waters. Specific decontamination requirements exist for boats kept in these waters continuously for three or more days, or that cannot have all water drained from them. “Cabin owners with watercraft on docks and slips and other boaters that fall into these categories need to learn how to properly decontaminate their boats to slow the spread of zebra mussels,” said Ermer. This discovery makes it even more im-portant for boaters to follow the Aquatic Invasive Species rules. Every time they leave the water, all boaters and anglers should: • Clean watercraft and trailers of all aquatic

plants and mud • Drain all water by removing all drains, plugs, bailers, or valves that retain water. Be sure to completely drain your lower unit of any water by lowering completely. • Dispose of unwanted bait in trash or fish cleaning stations when leaving the water Completely draining a boat is the first step in making sure invasive species are not trans-ferred to other waters. For more information on zebra mussels, other aquatic invasive species, and how to properly decontaminate your watercraft, visit sdleastwanted.com.

Visit www.sdsoilhealthcoalition.org and

click on the Events tab or contact Cindy

Zenk, SDSHC Coordinator at 605-280-4190

for more information!

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PERENNIAL SALE!

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Nonprofit , Presorted

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U.S. Postage PAID

Huron, SD

Permit No. 180

600 East HWY 12, Suite 1 Webster, SD 57274

(605) 345-4667

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District Dispatch78 YEARS OF CONSERVATION Est. January 14, 1942

Board of Supervisors

Mark Brandlee, Chairman

Joel Butler

Todd Kaufman

Frank James

Steve Sigdestad

District Staff

Josh Wagner, District Manager

Dennis Skadsen, Project Coordinator

NRCS Staff

Jim Dylla, Resource Unit Conservationist

Matt Hubers, District Conservationist

Amanda Stoebner, Soil Conservationist

Cory Zirbel, Soil Conservationist

Cody Warner, Easement Specialist

Partners

Angie Wolf, LUSA

Cindy Zenk, SD Soil Health Coalition

Catherine Beall, Pheasants Forever

September 4-6, 2019

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NOW is the time to be plan-ning your 2021 tree plantings. Sites need to be properly prepared this sum-mer/fall. Contact the office ASAP to get on the list for next season. Cost-share funding available: • CRP. • GF&P Woody Habitat. • Commission Grant. • Self funding always avail-

able.

Shelterbelt Maintainence

Schedule

• Control weeds between rows (mowing) and fabric holes (hand pulling)

• Plant cover/grass between rows

• Check fabric for loose ends. Consider removal after 5 years.

• Straighten tree tubes • Water! • Check for deer and animal

browsing. Spray Plantskydd repellent to deter.