(La Porte, IN) - Indiana is a leader nationwide in being friendly to Mother Nature through best land management practices.

 

Helping Indiana achieve noticeable results for the environment is LaPorte County, which ranks third statewide in the number of acres used for cover crops.  That’s according to Trevor Laureys, Director in the Division of Soil Conservation for the Indiana State Department of Agriculture.

 

Laureys, a 2010 graduate of New Prairie High School, was the featured speaker February 23 at the annual meeting of the LaPorte County Soil and Water Conservation District Board. He said Indiana at 52,000 acres is ranked behind only Texas and Iowa in the amount of acres used for cover crops the last two-years.

 

Laureys felt Indiana would be highest if the rankings were based on percentage of land having cover crops since the other two states are physically much larger.

 

“With a little bit of math, I think we would be number one,” he said.

 

He said LaPorte County is a major player in the state’s ranking considering 21-percent of its row crops have cover or slightly double the percentage statewide.

 

“LaPorte County is kicking butt,” he said.

 

Laureys said the amount of cover crops like winter wheat planted during the off season can also reflect the amount of participation in other best land management practices such as no-till or reduced-till farming.

 

“Cover crops is kind of a good indicator for what’s going on with conservation in an area,” he said.  

 

Laureys said there were more than 31,000 conservation practices statewide in 2021.

 

As a result, Laureys said 1.6 million tons of sediment was kept from entering Indiana’s lakes and streams that year or enough to reach the height of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco if stacked on a football field. He said keeping that much sediment out of bodies of water also prevented 3.5 million pounds of nitrogen and 1.7 million pounds of phosphorus from entering the state’s lakes and streams.

 

Too much nitrogen and phosphorus from nutrient rich sources like fertilizer applied to the soil can result in lakes becoming too polluted from storm run-off and developing algae blooms, which can be harmful to exposed humans and animals.

 

Laureys also revealed LaPorte County’s share of the sediment kept out of Indiana’s lakes and streams came to about 5,000 tons.

 

Slightly more than 20,000 pounds of the nitrogen and phosphorus kept out of waterways statewide came from LaPorte County, which drains into Lake Michigan and the Kankakee River, he said,

 

Laureys also revealed 12.5 percent of the conservation practices in the 10 counties beside the Kankakee River are out of LaPorte County.

 

“You’re carrying more than your share,” he said

 

Laureys reported 64-percent of the land in LaPorte County is used for agriculture while the average size of a farm here is 336 acres.

 

In comparison, he said the average size of a farm statewide is about 100 acres less.

 

“LaPorte County has some big farms,” he said.