Agricultural Management
The
Barbed Wire Post
(548KB pdf) quarterly newsletter: linking Boulder County Parks and Open
Space and Our Agricultural Tenants. Read the Spring 2009 issue today!
 Boulder County's Parks and Open Space Agricultural
Resources Division has two essential elements for a successful agricultural
program: sound land management and a large pool of competent operators
willing to lease open-space agricultural
properties. They oversee 120 leases with 75 tenants. Staff time is spent
negotiating lease terms and tracking rent and crop production, as well as:
- Evaluating and exercising water
rights, lining and maintaining irrigation
ditches and reservoirs on County Open Space
- Installing center-pivot irrigation systems to cut water use in half
and reduce soil erosion by 95%
- Fencing cropland and riparian areas to reduce damage from grazing
livestock
- Re-vegetating lands taken out of production and converting marginal
cropland back to grassland
- Mapping properties using GIS
to track and compare farm yields and efficiencies
- Combating noxious weeds
on open space and throughout the County.
The Agricultural Resources Division also works cooperatively with the Colorado
State University Extension Office on agricultural issues,
master
gardening, beekeeping, composting, food preserving, and small
acreage management.
For more information, contact the Boulder County Parks and Open Space
Agricultural Resources Manager Luke Stromquist at 303-678-6234, or
lstromquist@bouldercounty.org.
You can also contact the Natural
Resources Conservation Service, a division of the U.S. Department of
Agriculture for additional information.
Both the
Ditch and
Reservoir Map and the Directory are also available in hardcopy for purchase at the Boulder County Parks and Open Space
Office in Longmont. Call 303-678-6200 for details.
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