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A full-service equestrian training and boarding facility serving north Santa Cruz County.
Want horse manure? They've got horse manure
John Broadwood built a concrete bunker to contain the manure from the horses at
his Glenwood Equestrian Center, and a gardener hauls it away every few weeks.
Ecology group fills a need, helps clean San Lorenzo River
By Brian Seals, Staff Writer
Got poop?
Some horse owners around the county do, and they are itching to get rid of it. Farmers, landscapers and even weekend gardeners are the likely takers, but backers of an exchange program are hoping rivers and creeks will benefit the most.
In an effort to make the San Lorenzo River watershed clearner, a couple of
agencies have teamed up to broker manure.
Really. Broker manure. That means getting the scoop from live-stock owners, in
this case horses, to gardeners at low cost or even free.
"We'd like to make a few more of those connections," said Kirsten Liske of
Ecology Action in Santa Cruz.While gardeners, er, reap the benfits,
Ecology Action and the Resource Conservation District are hoping this effort will mean less polutants
winding up in the river.
People like farmer Sherry Bryan of Del Sol Organics in Ben Lomond benefit
from this program. Bryan picks up manure from a Boulder Creek farmer to place on her fields during
the winter to help replenish nutrients. "It's not the poop, it's the biological process in the soil
that releases the nuitrients in the manure," Bryan said. She also is comforted by knowing who owns the
horses and what diet the horses are on, which can affect the quality of the manure. It also places her
in proximity to a source, saving her gas and travel time.
The bulk of the project is aimed at horse owners, encouraging them to
implement practices that safeguard waterway health on a voluntary basis without county government involvement.
Those livesock owners can get cost-sharing help to take steps to keep the water mostly clean before it
enters a stream, thereby preventing erosion.
John Broadwood of Glenwood Equestrian Center built a concrete bunker to hold
the manure generated by eighteen horses housed at the stable. Before, under previous owners, there was no
bunker and manure was stacked at the edge of a hill, an easy washdown. "The manure went down the hill,
across the street and onto the neighbor's property," Broadwood said. A gardener picks up manure there
every two to three weeks.
Broadwood plans to seed the hill with native vegetation aimed at filtering
water as it moves downhill. He revamped drainage behind his stables, installing six basins to catch
water that then travels through a 10-inch pipe to a sediment pond. Also, he put gutters on the barns.
The program offers a 60 percent cost share, but Broadwood said that wasn't what
motivated him. "The main thrust was to keep the land from eroding," he said.
Santa Cruz Sentinel, Nov. 6, 2002
Glenwood Equestrian Center 1751 Glenwood Dr. Scotts Valley, CA 95066 831.438.8432
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