Bob Dobson spends $1,500 a year on average, planting with a spade or a drill attachment on his tractor.
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Aside from a few patches of scrubby woodland, there were not many trees left. Dobson was determined to change that. He started by planting spruce and red pine near the barns to provide shade for the animals in the summer and shelter in the winter — and then he just kept going. After buying the farm, by the mid-1970s, Dobson had assembled his own herd of beef cattle. He noticed that the water in the stream that crossed his property was declining in quality and quantity. The banks had eroded and the elm trees nearby had died of Dutch elm disease. He planted a tree buffer along the stream and added solar-powered pumping systems. Some of the trees are now 30 or 40 feet tall.“Now the banks are more like a sponge,” he says.
John Pineau, the executive director of the Ontario Woodlot Association, which supports sustainable privately owned forests, agrees. About 70 per cent of the association’s members are farmers. The non-profit wants to run a project to demonstrate the benefits of “silvopasturing” — balancing trees, forage, and grazing animals amongst each other.This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.
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