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Contact
Information
Telephone
(845) 677-8011 ext 3
Fax
(845) 677-8354
Address
2715 Rt 44, Suite 3
Millbrook, NY 12545
E-mail
Info
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Agricultural
Environmental
Management
Welcome to
the age of proactive steps to non-point source pollution potential from
agriculture. We have submitted a 5 year strategy to assist all farms in
the county with their environmental concerns. The Agricultural Environmental
Management Program will be coming to your farm very soon. Please take
a moment to talk with the person and allow them to walk you through the steps of
AEM and how it can benefit your farm to be a part of this program.
Frequently asked questions regarding AEM-
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Why should I participate? By participating in the AEM county level
program, you are linked to a science based approach to solving environmental
problems that exist on farms throughout the state. New York State is
dedicating funds to help solve these problems through proactive measures as
well as remediation for issues of concern.
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Where does my
information go? The first step of AEM includes gathering basic
farm information on what is known as the Tier 1worksheet. If there are
no concerns that the farm feels in need of assistance with, that is as far
as your farm will go. The state will get what type of farm it is and
how many animal units (1000 lbs/AU) are living there. The state will
then locate this farm on their GIS map. No names are listed in the
state information.
- What happens if there are concerns on my farm?
The farm will move on to the next level of the AEM Program and a Tier 2
assessment of the farm will be conducted. This assessment is done with
a trained AEM Program technician. The technician will ask you a set of
questions on 19 pre identified resource concerns that most farms have.
Your farm, depending on the type of operation, may have 1 or it may have 19
of these concerns. These concerns are ranked 1-4 on a preset scale.
If there are concerns that rank a 3 or higher, these concerns usually
signify a need to use remediation.
- What do you mean by
remediation? The AEM Program can address concerns with a Tier 3A.
This allows the District to go back to the farm with a plan of action to
address the severest of those concerns. Although this plan is just a
plan, there is another step the District can pursue, known as a 3B that will
allow the District to compete for funding within the state to help assist
the farm financially in accomplishing their environmental goals.
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Will participating in the program obligate me to “fix” my environmental
concerns that are identified as a 3 or 4? Absolutely not.
While there are reasons to fix those concerns, there are also reasons that
the concern will never be as severe of an impact to the environment that
something else non-ag related may be. From the identification of the
concern, there are some basic changes in management for the concern
addressed. An example of this is if you have a fuel storage area that
is not completely enclosed and up on concrete, but you live near a large
lake, where there is a marina that dispenses fuel on the water, your concern
with a fuel storage area will never pose as great a threat to the public
waters as the marina may. When we weigh what the state will spend
money on, we have to say, where is the most bang for the buck? Sure,
fixing the fuel storage area is worth it for the farm (especially if your
own well is impacted), but the state has a higher responsibility to meet the
needs of many.
- How do I rate? Glad you asked. We send
a summary explaining the concerns and suggestions for remediation to each
farm we visit. Environmental stewardship efforts are documented in
this summary. This information is strictly confidential and cannot be
foiled. The District will tabulate the data gathered from all farms
assessed and do a follow up report to those farms with the results.
While no farm will be identified by name, all farms will be identified by
type of operation.
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