Linden Grange has received the Minnesota Water Quality Certification! Protecting and enhancing the land and water is part of our core values. This is particularly important because our grazing pastures and woodlands include a creek and border a small lake. With the help of our local Soil & Water Conservation District and Natural Resources Conservation Service, we have installed a waterline throughout the property that enables adaptive grazing practices and have completed installing high tensile fencing to exclude animals from the lake and most of the creek.
We have also received three endorsements that are additions to the water quality certification: Climate Smart, Soil Health, and Integrated Pest Management.
The Climate Smart endorsement recognizes farms that go above and beyond to implement practices that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and sequester carbon in soil and biomass. Some of the ways we are doing this is by not tilling our land and using adaptive grazing techniques.
Soil Health is the capacity of the soil to function as a vital living ecosystem. We want to maximize the presence of living roots, minimize disturbance to the soil, maximize soil cover, and maximize biodiversity.
With Integrated Pest Management we are preventing/mitigating any potential environmental risks associated with our pest management activities. And, of course, this helps our bee colonies!