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| NFWF Grant Project in Full Swing |
You are here: Newsletters > September 2003 > NFWF Grant Project in Full Swing
ERRI looking for volunteers to help with grant work
By Linda Veblen
The major work on the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation Grant will begin this fall with installation of 2.25 miles of fencing! The purpose of the $25,000 Challenge Grant is to conserve Piney Creek, a trout-breeding stream that bounds the western edge of Rendezvous Farm, ERRI's headquarters, by providing sediment filters in the form of restored pastureland.
Through the gracious donation of Suburban Sales, Inc. we now have a John Deere 1020 tractor with front-end loader to assist us with the pasture management portion of the grant. This project will convert the current three pastures into six pastures plus two sacrifice areas, and create two new pastures from an existing fallow field, thus allowing certain pastures to rest during rotation of the horses to other pastures. The sacrifice area will be a place where horses will be fed, watered and kept during inclement weather.
The fencing to be installed will be a five-strand horse-wire (coated high-tensile wire), with one electrified strand. The installation also will include 12 new tubular steel gates, 700 new posts and a Solar-charged electric fencing unit. The sacrifice areas will contain feeding posts so that each of the pasture-boarded horses can be fed grain daily.
This project is a huge undertaking for ERRI. NFWF will provide the funds for the purchase of the fencing, however ERRI must provide for the installation. A contractor will install the posts. ERRI volunteers will be responsible for stringing the five strands of coated wire, removing and disposing of the old wooden fencing, and construction of a manure storage facility. We desperately need able bodies to help with this work!
We will be installing fencing on weekends through November 2003. The project must be completed by mid December 2003. We ask that anyone able to help, commit one workday on either Saturday or Sunday through November. We could also use anyone with a 4-wheel drive truck to help remove old fencing and also possibly help transport materials to the dump.
Please contact Linda Veblen, 443-992-3833 to arrange a time to help. If you can't donate your time and energy, please consider a tax-deductible cash contribution to ERRI, earmarked for NFWF grant. This project not only benefits the horses of ERRI, but the Chesapeake Bay as well. Here is your chance to make a tremendous difference in the future health of this region.