4 I The Lovell Chronicle I March 11,2010
www. LovellChronicle.com
How do we escape
the burning
conundrum?
Local officials and citizens are certainly on the
horns of a dilemma as they wrestle with the vexing
problem of what to do about yard waste in town
now that the DEQ has put the kibosh on open
burning in Lovell.
It is not a certainty that the DEQ Air Qual-
ity Division will no longer grant a setback Waiv-
er for spring burning, but the handwriting is on
the wall. It took weeks of pleading by the Town
of Lovell and petitions by local citizens before the
DEQ grudgingly granted two weekends of burning
last fall, agreeing that the town had no chance to
make other arrangements.
So what is the town to do? It is unlikely that
the state will give in to local pressure. The DEQ
is run by unelected agency officials who really
don't have to answer to anybody, though it seems
mighty odd that two complaints about smoke in
town - legitimate though they may be - trumped
hundreds of citizen signatures stating that they de-
sire open burning for their community.
Some people insist on blaming the Town of
Lovell, as if municipal officials had decided unilat-
erally to stop the burning last fall, but that's simply
not the case. The DEQ refused to grant the set-
back waiver requested by the town.
Some folk s want the town to repeal its no-
burning ordinance in defiance of the state and al-
low burning anytime, anywhere, but then the DEQ
would likely send agents to town to dole out large
fines, and that wouldn't make anybody happy.
Strangely, other towns appear to be able to
burn without even obtaining a setback waiver, but
then nobody ever said all is fair in love and, well,
.government. : ,,:i !,:
That leaves the Town of Lovell in a tough spot,
and wondering what to do as an alternative to
burning. In that light, the town has called a meet-
ing for tonight (Thursday, March 11) at 7 p.m. at
the community center to talk about alternatives to
burning, including composting, and ways to help
people who don't have the means to haul yard
waste to a central location.
Town Administrator Bart Grant has contacted
most, if not all, of the town governments in the
region to see how they handle yard waste, and he
will explain the various methods at tonight's meet-
ing. The town is also counting on citizens to come
up with some innovative ideas on how to deal with
the situation.
Lovell has always had great pride in its well-
maintained and manicured yards and gardens. The
DEQ has put people in a bind, and folks are going
to have to figure a way out. Here's hoping for a big
turnout at tonight's meeting.
--David Peck
2009 MEMBER
2008 AWARD-WINNING NEWSPAPER
Postmaster: Send address changes to:
The Lovell Chronicle, USPS 321-060
234 E. Main, Lovell, Wyoming 82431
(307) 548-2217
Published every Thursday
Periodical postage paid at Lovell,
Wyoming
Editor and Publisher: David Peck
News Editor: Brad Devereaux
Staff: Gladys McNeil, Pat Parmer, Dorothy Nelson,
Erin Henson, Marwyn Layne,
Kymbre Moorehead, Teressa Ennis, Jason Zeller.
Look for new ways to deal with pests
The Big Horn Basin Ag Ambassadors
are reminded to gather up at the Washak-
ie Learning Center at noon this Thursday,
March 11. Want to learn more about the
Ag Ambassador program? Join us Thurs-
day or call 307-347-3431 and we'll razzle
and dazzle you about the program. We
don't have membership fees, initiations or
tedious meetings. All you need is an inter-
est in agriculture. Our mission is basically
dedicated to bringing information and ed-
ucation to the farm and ranch families of
the Big Horn Basin, which will help them
achieve their business and family goals.
Many ag producers are putting to-
gether their business plans for the coming year,
many of you are visiting with your ag retailers about
product choice to deal with anticipated weed and in-
sect problems in the coming year. Whether you are
a rancher or farmer, dealing with pest problems is a
critical component of any management scheme. So,
where am I going with this, you ask?
Well, I encourage you to consider mixing it up
when it comes to dealing with these pest problems.
It's easy to get into a rut so to speak of applying the
same pesticide product we used last year to deal
with an anticipated weed problem, fly infestation,
internal parasites of livestock, etc. If we continue to
throw the same chemistry at a given pest problem
year after year after year, pesticide resistance will
follow, guaranteed. This will hold true with the ge-
netically modified crops, as well.
Ear tags to control flies on cattle are a good ex-
ample. Producers are encouraged to use an ear tag
Jim Gill
Ag Chat
to suppress flies treated with an organo-
phosphate one or two years and then
switch to a tag treated with pyrethrum or
other recommended chemistry in an al-
ternating year. This significantly helps to
break that chain of genetic resistance the
flies are developing to continue feeding on
your cows, horses, etc. Again, ask your re-
tailer how best to mix it up, so to speak.
Stay out of that rut.
Many growers like to maintain long-
term alfalfa production. When the plant
density of existing alfalfa stands declines
to a point where alfalfa production is no
longer profitable, renovation becomes de-
sirable. Unfortunately, seeding alfalfa into prior
stands is not successful.
Spiking thin alfalfa stands by re-seeding does
not work primarily due to what is known as auto-
toxicity. Alfalfa releases a Water-soluble chemical
that inhibits or delays germination and growth of
new alfalfa seedlings and plants. It is difficult to pre-
dict when this process is most likely to occur. It is
more common in older stands. Alfalfa leaves have
the highest concentration of the chemical. Since the
chemical is water-soluble, soil type and moisture in-
fluence how concentrated the chemical might be in
a site. Density of the existing stand and length of
time since destroying the existing stand also influ-
ence the concentration.
The best advice I can give is to rotate an old
stand of alfalfa with oats or other crops. This allows
the leaching away of the autotoxin, so one can re-
plant back to alfalfa at a later date.
Keep those trees alive
Lack of moisture may be on many
of your minds right now. Looking at
where we are in the towns here in Big
Horn County, Greybull is the driest; we
are sitting at 32 percent of normal for
the water year. The water year starts
the first of October and ends the end
of September. Lovell is the second dri-
est town with 54 percent of normal,
Shell and Basin are around 70 percent
of normal, Deaver is at 86 percent and
Emblem is at 95 percent of normal for
the water year. What does this mean as
far as yard plants go? I would be most-
ly concerned about watering my large
trees and shrubs in town. That is more
important since towns have less mois-
ture this watering year.
First, you will want to deep water
all your trees. My trees are starting to bud already
Dallen R.
Smith
BHC Extension
Agent
UPCOMING EVENTS
On March 18 at 7 p.m. there will be
a meeting to discuss current livestock is-
sues. Also, Steve Paisley, the Livestock
Specialist from the University of Wyo-
ming, will be coming to demonstrate how
to use CowBytes, afeedlot balancing ra-
tion that he highly recommended for the
use in feedlots.
National Ag week is March 14-20. Take
the opportunity to thank an Ag Producer
you know that week. National Ag Day is
March 20, so our annual Ag Days will be
from 9 a.m. to noon on Friday, March 19,
for all third and fourth grade students at
the Big Horn County Fairgrounds in Ba-
sin. There will be several stations offered
such as egg incubation, cracked corn, how
to plant, all about piglets, water quality,
animal by products and organic growing.
since we are having such warm days. The way to
deep water a tree is to run a garden hose to the
tree and turn.it on very low so that the. hose is just
barely running. Let the hose,run 12 to 24 hours
depending on the size of tree. If water is flowing
all over the yard, you have the hose turned on to
high. You want the water to soak in at the base of
the tree.
Watering this way will get water down to the
roots of the tree; this will also make your tree a
deeper-rooted tree. Deep-rooted trees are healthi-
er, they withstand wind without blowing over and
they can go through dry spells better. I recom-
mend watering mature trees every two weeks and
small trees should get watered every week. You
could also water your bushes, but I would be less
concerned with them at this time.
This is a great learning tool for our community. I
hope that many will take advantage. ........ :
University of Wyoming Copative,Extenion
Big Horn County is putting on an Fnterprise Budget
Workshop for farmers and ranchers. John Hewett
will be coming from Laramie to give a short presen-
tation and work sessions on computers doing the
actual enterprise budgets. There will be 10 laptops
available, but you are welcome to bring your own,
as well. The workshop will be held from 10 a.m. to
p.m., Wednesday, March 31, at the Big Horn County
Weed and Pest building just west of Greybull. Call
the office to get signed up.
The 10 computers will be on a first come, first
served basis. If you would have any questions, call
the Extension Office at 307-765-2868 or Dallen's cell
at 307-272-9317.
Pillars that hold up freedom
BY GENIELLE BROWN
In Clark Jensen' new book, 'T¢olves in Sheep's
Clothing: Liberalism, Formula for Failure," he out-
lines the three pillars of freedom as faith, capital-
ism and constitution. For faith, he quotes Benjamin
Franklin: "Here is my creed. I believe in one God the
Creator of the universe. That he governs it by his
Providence. That he ought to be worshiped. That the
most acceptable service we render to him is in doing
good to his other children. That the soul of man is
immortal, and will be treated with justice in another
life respecting its conduct in this. These I take to be
the fundamental points in all sound religion." Then
Clark presents this plea: "It is time for good people
who believe in God to work together politically.
For the second pillar he discusses Murray Roth-
bards statement: "Free market capitalism is a net-
work of free and voluntary exchanges in which pro-
ducers work, produce, and exchange their products
for the products of others through prices voluntarily
arrived at." The practice of exchanging something of
value from one person for something of equal value
from another. Clark states: "As far as fiscal conserva-
tism is concerned...we can't ask government to leave
us alone fiscally and at the same time ask them for
assistance." I agree. Taxes are high because the aid
must come from somewhere. The American people
have always been a charity giving people, but not
when government will take care of us instead.
In the chapter on pillar number three, he ex-
plains the separation of powers, checks and balanc-
es of power and limited government, which the Con-
stitution gave us. Then he sums it up with "Nothing
about liberalism works in real life. It is a wonder it
has gained so much traction, because everywhere it
has been tried, it has failed ... truth and goodness
are always opposed ... it is no mystery that some-
thing as amazing as our Constitution is under at-
tack constantly."
It was fun to read something from one of our
own, raised in our local area and having the gump-
tion to write and promote his beliefs. Pillars hold up
a building. TheSe pillars hold up freedom. Anywhere
total socialism has been tried eventually turns out
to be tyranny and totalitarianism. Study history and
you will see that!
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