By Kathy Dixon
Just one year after Virginia’s Resource Management Plan (RMP) program was implemented, the plans are rolling in. The program to help implement and track farmers’ conservation efforts began July 1, 2014. Organizers’ initial goal was to have 274 plans written by October 2015; as of 12 of June, 230 plans had been entered into the plan development computer module.
“We’ve made lots of progress,” said Barbara McGarry, Department of Conservation and Recreation resource management program specialist. “The reception has been better than we thought it would be.” She attributed some of that success to farmers already engaging in the conservation practices required by the plans.
For example, Keith Horsley and his father, Clem Horsely, work to protect the nearby York River and other tributaries of the Chesapeake Bay by planting cover crops on their Gloucester County grain farm. After the cover crops are harvested, they drill corn, soybeans or wheat directly into the stubble without tilling the soil. The Horsleys’ Holly Springs Farm was one of seven farms that were part of the RMP pilot program.
Representatives of the RMP program visited the Horsleys’ farm to see what conservation practices they would need to implement in order to comply with an RMP. “We were in compliance with all the regs and didn’t have to implement anything new,” Keith Horsley said. On Dec. 5, 2014, Holly Springs Farm was recognized by Gov. Terry McAuliffe as the first Virginia farm to fully implement the RMP requirements.
Source: This article first appeared in the Virginia Farm Bureau News magazine August 2015 issue. It is partly reproduced here with permission from the Virginia Farm Bureau Federation.