To Restore Hellbender Habitat, a Biologist Visits the Farmers' Market
Mike Knoerr is a Private Lands Biologist for the Hellbender WLFW Initiative
On a Saturday morning when the weather is nice, you’re likely to find Mike Knoerr at the farmers’ market. He may be strolling past the booths and checking out what each producer is selling, or chatting with a vendor who has a moment of down time. “I always especially keep an eye out for producers who are selling beef.” As a Private Lands Biologist for the Hellbender Working Lands for Wildlife (WLFW) Initiative, Mike knows that the sediment and nutrient deposition caused by cows wading into streams for water are among the most important drivers of hellbender habitat degradation. He has also learned over many years of working with farmers in Western North Carolina that most of them would just as soon have a safer source of water for their cows and not lose their land to stream bank erosion.
“Reaching new producers in our highest priority watersheds is one of the most difficult parts of the job,” Mike says. “I love visiting my local farmers’ market and several years ago it dawned on me that there is really nowhere else I can go where I could find that many farmers all together in one place. And they’re a captive audience!” So Mike began driving out to towns near important hellbender habitat areas to visit their Saturday farmers’ markets. There he would walk among the booths and introduce himself to vendors, explaining that he worked for a program that offers financial and technical assistance to farmers willing to implement practices that improve water quality and restore hellbender habitat. He likes to focus on the practices that he thinks will be most appealing to the farmers; alternative watering sources for cattle, stream bank restoration, and for produce growers, practices that help keep soil from running off of their fields. “People always seem to be in a good mood at farmers’ markets and they’re usually very chatty.”
Mike quickly realized that the producers who sell their goods at farmers’ markets are usually farming on a relatively small scale and are often newer to farming compared to the owners of larger commercial operations. He says he has spoken to many producers who weren’t aware that there are federally funded conservation programs designed to help them farm sustainably. “There’s a certain kind of idealism that you notice among producers at farmers’ markets. Maybe it's because many of them are still somewhat new to the business. They have a conservation ethos and they want to do right by the land. They’re excited when they learn about these programs and about the hellbender initiative.”
Mike reckons that in the three or so years he’s been visiting farmers’ markets across the region (not including the two years he had to take off during the pandemic), his outreach has led to 50 or so in-depth conversations with producers about land management needs. Around 15 of those led to him being invited to conduct a site visit, where he was able to provide technical guidance to the landowner. Five of those visits resulted in the landowner submitting an application for financial assistance through the NRCS WLFW hellbender initiative. If 15 site visits doesn’t sound like a lot, Mike says, consider the alternative. “I have a higher likelihood of reaching a landowner who invites me out for a site visit in one hour at a farmers’ market than I would have in several days of driving around the watershed and knocking on doors. And sure, it’s working on a Saturday, but who doesn’t like visiting a farmers’ market on the weekend? I always head home afterwards with lots of good things to eat.”
