TRAVERSE CITY -- Bruce Holland-Moritz is hoping to get more bang for his buck.
The Traverse City resident is looking into a federal program that would pay him to plant native grasses and wildflowers on his 100-acre farm in Benzie County, a move that potentially could help maintain his organic certification.
"We are a certified organic farm. As part of that, one of our requirements for certification is to increase biodiversity and plant habitat for beneficial insects and pollinators," Holland-Moritz said of his farm south of Elberta. "I have been doing similar kinds of things for quite a few years in my landscaping business. Planting wildflower meadows for homeowners ... golf courses and vineyards."
Holland-Moritz inquired about the U.S. Department of Agriculture's native pollinator program Tuesday. The USDA is working with the state department of agriculture to enroll 2,500 aces of farmland in coastal counties where farmers would be paid to plant native foliage, which in turn would increase the diversity and abundance of native bees, birds, insects and other bugs that pollinate.
"There is just an interest in going back to native plant species and going back to the way it was when we first got in this area," said Greg Shy, county executive director for the USDA in Traverse City. "They have to enroll in the program with the (USDA's) farm service agency. It is pretty much a first-come first-served program."
Shy said farmers will be paid a one-time payment of $100 per acre and $84 per year throughout the length of their 10- or 15-year contract. The cost-share program also will reimburse farmers for up to 90 percent of the total costs to plant native grasses, wildflowers and hedges.
"These areas have to be at least 100-foot-wide and a minimal of two acres in size. They have to have been cropped for 1996 through 2001 or in an orchard planting," he said.
Holland-Moritz is still contemplating how the program's requirements would fit with his organic operation, such as the size and location of plant plots, but previously has seen the benefits of planting wildflowers at his farm.
"We tend to not have on the organic farm some of the problems of commercial operations because we have enough of the good guys, the good bugs, that they take care of some of the problems for us," he said.
For more information on the native pollinator program call the Traverse City USDA office at 941-0951.
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