Composting Horse Manure to Protect Water Quality in the Winooski River Basin
The Winooski Natural Resources Conservation District (WNRCD) received an Ecosystem Restoration Program (ERP) Grant from the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation to develop a horse manure composting program. WNRCD worked with horse owners in our District (Chittenden County, Washington County and the towns of Orange, Williamstown, and Washington) to improve water quality conditions by preventing manure and manure runoff from entering local waterways. Even small horse farms can produce a significant quantity of manure; each day a mature horse can produce up to a cubic foot of manure. When horse manure is not managed properly it can leach nutrients and pathogens to surface and groundwater.
Understandably, horse manure is often piled in easily accessible and convenient locations on the landscape. However, a horse owner may be unaware of how snow melt and rain may interact with the pile to cause polluted runoff to enter local waterways. WNRCD visited twelve small horse farms to share information about Vermont’s Accepted Agricultural Practices (AAPs) [to be renamed Required Agricultural Practices (RAP's) in 2016] and to work with horse owners to find suitable locations to store and compost manure that are both environmentally friendly and convenient for the landowner. Composting manure breaks down soiled bedded material and animal waste to create an extremely valuable resource to be used again. The composting process also contains the manure and prevents nutrients from running off the landscape into local waterways.
Of the twelve farms visited, six small horse farmers agreed to participate in WNRCD’s program. WNRCD worked with the farmers and the Intervale Conservation Nursery to install fifteen bins capable of storing a grand total of 2,656 cubic feet of manure and bedding material! The six farmers signed stewardship agreements with WNRCD agreeing to use the bins for manure storage for the next ten years. These horse owners now have a better method for managing their manure, are preventing water quality impairments and are creating an important soil-building resource! WNRCD received a great deal of interest from horse owners in our District, we hope to continue to work with and reach out to the horse-owning community to protect water quality.
If you are interested in learning more about projects that you can conduct on your own property to protect water quality, please visit: www.winooskinrcd.org
