Farm Factor - Robert Atchison with the Kansas Forestry Service - January 24, 2017

(Jamie) Welcome to Farm Factor! First Kyle and Robert Atchison discuss how forestry in Kansas is more aptly named “agroforestry”.
(Kyle Bauer) Hi, this is Kyle Bauer visiting with Robert Atchison he is with the Kansas Forestry Service. Bob, explain to the viewers who the Kansas Forestry Service is. (Robert Atchison) We're a state agency that's housed within the department of, well actually within the College of Agriculture at Kansas State University. We provide public service to the people of the state in a variety of ways. The particular area that I work in is within our rule forestry program. We're working with farmers and ranchers throughout the state and other landowners to help them manage their woodlands and their shelterbelts, and provide professional forestry advice in the way they do that. (Kyle) I know this isn't the first time you heard it, but you're thinking about Kansas and forest it's an oxymoron. (Robert) Right yes, it's an interesting place to practice forestry and a lot of what we do here is what you'll describe as agroforestry. Where we're using trees and shrubs integrated into modern agricultural systems so that we get both conservation benefits as well as production benefits for our farmers and ranchers. (Kyle) Truly by doing that you provide on both ends, both getting stuff planned, planted and harvested. (Robert) Yes, we do it from start to finish. We try to always provide our professional knowledge and match that with what the objectives are of the particular landowners. Some may just be interested in wildlife; some in the northeast and the eastern part of the state may be interested in timber harvest. A lot of people are interested in recreation and so we can actually manage our woodlands and our shelterbelts based upon whatever that particular desire and interest of that landowner is. A lot of times they'll be multiple interests and objectives that a landowner will have. (Kyle) You have a few times there's fees but most of this the fee is minimal. (Robert) Yes, we don't charge for our services. We also work on behalf of the Natural Resource Conservation Service as a kind of a technical service provider. What that enables us to do is to funnel financial assistance to help farmers and ranchers, and landowners who might want to plant trees or establish a shelterbelt or do water quality work by establishing trees along a stream side. (Kyle) One last thing quickly, you grow and sell a lot of trees every year. (Robert) We do, around 300 to 400, 000 depending upon the year. Those trees go throughout the state to plant new shelterbelts and more and more we're seeing trees that are going along our rivers and our streams to try to stabilize the stream banks because of the significant water issues we have in this state. Where we want to stabilize the stream banks keep the soil there and not in our reservoirs where we're losing water capacity. (Kyle) We're visiting with Robert Atchison. He is with the Kansas Forestry Service. This is Kyle Bauer reporting, back to you Jamie.
(Jamie) Thanks, Kyle! Folks come back after these messages for this week’s Kansas Soybean Update.