Page 2
April, 2019
O
ld fencerows, tree bluffs, wetlands, and shelterbelts are a natural resource and are constantly undervalued.
already owns simply by removing trees or water and farming through it. And lastly, there is an area of reduced yield immediately adjacent to shelterbelts, ditches and tree bluffs. Yet despite this, there are data going back at least 50 years demonstrating the net positive effect on yield from these nonfarmed, natural areas and shelterbelts. (See figure). Recent work in northern Alberta showed that the presence of these uncultivated spaces within 750 metres of crop had a strong positive effect on canola yield. In fact, the yield benefit was more than enough to compensate for the opportunity cost of growing trees and shrubs rather than crops.
Natural land: Lost opportunity or valuable resource?
Rather than viewing these areas as unproductive, we hope that producers and landowners will recognize the value that these spaces provide to their own bottom line – generating more profit from fewer acres, and requiring fewer applications of costly pesticides. Before you clear and remove them, stop and consider their value to crop production. The desire to remove these areas is well understood. Many times, they’re in the way, especially isolated tree bluffs and wetlands. As equipment gets larger and wider, it becomes more difficult and less efficient to farm around these areas. As well, old shelterbelts and fencerows prevent consolidation of neighbouring properties when they’re acquired, and are difficult to manage as they mature. As farmland becomes more and more valuable, it is often more economical to farm more of the land a producer
This is part of a larger global body of literature which shows the same effect: in one British study, fields were randomly assigned to have no wild spaces, 4% of the field area planted to natural cover, and then a treatment of 8% natural cover. Like the Alberta study, the authors
The yield benefit was more than enough to compensate for the opportunity cost of growing trees and shrubs rather than crops.
