Hall and Wight are in the process of proposing such a task force to the EPA. They want to take advantage of United States satellite capability to study the effects of windbreaks around the United States and Canada.

Right now, only the Netherlands has mandated that its farmers use windbreaks. The English and Australian governments are starting to promote the idea.

In the United States, the NRCS runs a program that assists farmers in planting and maintaining windbreaks.

The Ohio NRCS office recommends plants like the eastern white pine, Norway spruce, or pin oak, among others. It also asks that farmers supplement windbreaks with flowering shrubs such as silky dogwood that provide habitat for wildlife.

For about 20 cents per foot, farmers in northwest Ohio can call on NRCS specialists to plant windbreak seedlings and maintain them for two years. At that cost, the typical 2000-foot stretch of windbreak runs about $400 -- which the agency says is comparable to what farmers would spend to do the job on their own.

'"/>

Contact: Franklin R. Hall
Hall.1@osu.edu
330-263-3726
Ohio State University
15-Nov-1999

Page: 1 2 3 4
Related biology news :

1. Experimental drug shown to block mutant protein causing blood disease
2. Anti-cancer compound in vegetables found to block late-stage breast-cancer cell growth
3. Researchers show how to assemble building blocks for nanotechnology
4. RNA could form building blocks for nanomachines
5. Sex pheromone blocked in bug
6. A pathway to blocking autoimmunity
7. Researchers in UGA Vet School discover a mechanism that blocks replication of a retrovirus
8. Gene therapy alternative to calcium channel blockers
9. Molecule that blocks key bacterial enzyme may lead to new antibiotics
10. UNC scientists block cellular enzyme activity involved in cancer progression
11. Friendly bacteria block HIV infection