Defenders Magazine

On the Ground: Serving Wildlife With Potatoes

© Richard Day / Daybreak Imagery

Potato farmer Nick Somers is looking to grow something different on part of his 3,000 acres of farmland in central Wisconsin. But he's not going to plow up any land to do it. That's because his new crop has two legs and wings and depends on natural habitat: the prairie chicken.

"My grandparents told stories about prairie chickens being so prolific out here that they were all over the place-- but I haven't seen one in years," says the third-generation farmer, looking out over several acres of cropland that he is converting back to prairie. "If we can bring the prairie chicken back-- that, to me, would be neat."

Somers is part of a group of about a dozen Wisconsin potato farmers who have joined with state university scientists and national conservation groups in an ambitious effort to manage their farms to benefit not only prairie chickens, but a wide variety of wild animals and plants. The program, called Healthy Grown, is relatively small in scale now, but experts say it has national implications.

"Healthy Grown is one of the best examples of farmers, scientists and conservationists working together for broad environmental goals," says Gretchen Daily, an associate professor at Stanford University and an expert in sustainable agriculture. "It's a model that, if adopted across the country, could have huge benefits for both wildlife and people."

The program has its roots in a pesticide scare. In the early 1980s, Somers recalls, a widely used chemical called aldicarb was discovered in the groundwater of central Wisconsin, a region of small towns and large farms where some 83,000 acres are planted in potatoes. "It was shocking to us," Somers recalls. Use of the pesticide was halted in the area, and the growers started to search for safer ways to fight crop-killing bugs.

They got in touch with experts at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, about two hours south of Somers' farm. There, scientists such as Deana Sexson introduced the farmers to integrated pest management-- using crop rotation, natural predators and other methods to help fight pests. "By the late 90s, we were using a lot less chemicals than other people were," says Somers.

In 1996, Somers attended a conference in California, where he spoke about what he and his fellow central Wisconsin farmers were doing to reduce pesticides. Representatives from the World Wildlife Fund were at the meeting, talking about environmentally friendly farming practices. "We found out we had similar interests, so we started talking," Somers recalls.

With support from World Wildlife and later, Defenders of Wildlife and the Wisconsin-based International Crane Foundation, as well as the help of other experts at the University of Wisconsin, the program has expanded beyond reducing pesticide use. Participating farmers are now developing plans to protect a variety of habitats and species on their land, as well as improve the quality of the soil, water and air-- with an eye on regional and national conservation priorities.

For about 500 acres of Nick Somers' farmland, that means seeding and nurturing native prairie and wetland plants, as well as cutting and burning off shrubs and trees that have encroached on the area.

According to University of Wisconsin ecologist Ted Anchor, who is helping Somers with the effort, this will eventually create habitat for not only prairie chickens, but for many other birds-- including sedge wrens, marsh hawks, red-headed woodpeckers, Cooper's hawks, short-eared owls, Henslow's sparrows and bobolinks-- as well as a variety of small mammals and a host of insects, including the endangered Karner blue butterfly. And perhaps it will provide a home for rare whooping cranes, which come to central Wisconsin every spring to breed.

In exchange for helping these wild creatures, Somers and others whose farms pass muster (as certified by an independent board of experts) get to display the Healthy Grown label on bags of their potatoes. Officials with the Wisconsin Potato and Vegetable Growers Association are helping the farmers sell their product to supermarkets across the eastern half of the country, in hopes that consumers will buy a wildlife-friendly potato.

"We know the organic segment of the market is growing," says Angela Hemauer, director of promotions for the growers' group. "And 'organic' is based solely on reducing pesticides. Healthy Grown takes it a step further."

For the farmers involved in the project, however, the rewards go beyond simply creating a new way to market their crop. "The benefit to me is to go out and see wildlife and see nature," says Somers. "For those of us that grew up on the land, I feel like I have a responsibility to keep it in a natural state."