Composting is Nature's Technique to Replenish Farm Topsoil.

Every year, agricultural topsoil is lost through run-off and is depleted from farming. However, Nature already has an answer... if we will just listen to thousands of years of farming wisdom.

Composting naturally converts woody debris, leaves, branches, etc. into rich topsoil and topsoil supplement -- perfect for growing plants and nursery trees. Anyone who's walked in an old forest has seen Nature's wisdom and Nature's ideal recycling techniques.

LESS artificial fertilizer is used when natural compost is applied to rejuvenate farm growing soil. The run-off of chemical fertilizers into streams is the #1 environmental threat to waterways. The bacterial "blooms" fueled by artificial chemical fertilizers stimulate the growth of algae. Excessive algae sucks up the oxygen, killing fish. A tremendous quantity of algae quickly silts over and plugs up lakes and ponds, causing their death. Bacteriological explosions caused by artificial fertilizers also stimulate growth of germs.

But we can AVOID all this. That problem is totally unnecessary, if we simply turn to NATURAL methods INSTEAD.

To AVOID chemicals, we nourish the soil with natural compost. This natural technique dramatically lowers or avoids the NEED for artificial fertilizers and chemicals. Compost rejuvenates the soil Nature's way -- from recycling of wood, brush and leaves. This is how forests have been nourished naturally since the dawn of time, for millions of years.

Ticonderoga Farms grows Christmas trees and landscaping nursery trees, using the rich soil from natural compost. For decades, Ticonderoga Farms has enriched its growing soil by natural composting of wood, leaves, and grass. This improves the agricultural soil of our region. We sell you your Christmas tree. But who will compost the tree after? What do you think happens to all those Christmas trees in January?

 Your Christmas tree should -come home- in January!

 

Loudoun County's bureaucracy is trying to coerce a -- $3 million -- bond from a Christmas tree farm. Nearly every other government on Earth promotes composting as the best environmental policy.

Unlike big construction companies, this Christmas tree farm doesn't have the ability to pick up the phone and get a bank to post this money for us. We'd have to put up $3 million in 'real money' (cash) to compost.

Please note: This is only for woody debris. We've already given up hope on composting your leaves and grass from your yard. We simply want to compost just wood... branches, tree stumps, brush, etc. This is the very safest of safe natural wood.... (not even boards... just natural trees and brush). So, what's the problem? (Note: sometimes people talk about composting other things. But that's something different. We're only talking here about tree branches, logs, roots, brush, and Christmas trees. )

How do County bureacrats explain a $3 million bond ? They can't. The law does not authorize the staff to develop their own "closure cost estimate." The law requires a qualified engineer to decide. SCS Engineering has set the bond at only $593,000 (which is still excessive, based on ridiculous assumptions from the County about scraping up all the composting wood and carting it away, which no one would ever want to do.)

Instead, County staff demand that Ticonderoga Farms must remove all the woody debris from the land in only 6 months if the compost site (not the farm) ever "closes." WHY remove all the wood? No reason is ever given. Nobody can explain it. If the wood is left alone -- where it is -- it will become natural topsoil, as Nature's Best. We want the wood. So, why should it be removed if the owner of the land wants it? [Note: We are not talking about any foreign objects in the wood. That always must be removed, immediately. No -- We're talking about the wood itself.]

So, the $3 million calculation is the cost of removing all the wood in trucks... and in only 6 months. But why 6 months? Who knows? No reason is ever given. Nobody can explain it.

In doing this, Loudoun County is contradicting State law and most nations and U.S. policy. The County imposed new technical gimmicks over the last two years that make composting impossible. Maybe it's an accident. But the result is disastrous on the environment.

 

Why Does County Staff Ignore the Law ?

The Board of Supervisors passed Waivers that modify the Chapter 1080 ordinance. These Waivers compel the County staff to allow Ticonderoga farms 5 years of processing and then 6 more months of 'closure.' Strangely, we'd still have to remove all the wood in trucks after 5 years! We still don't know why.... and they don't either. "It's just because...."

But at least the Waivers give us 5 years and 6 months to compost the wood into natural topsoil. Therefore, at the end of this period, there is very little left to be hauled away in trucks. (We had asked for 7-10 years, after which nothing would remain of the original wood, but they said only 5. Why? Again, nobody knows.) The maximum cost is $593,000 -- as determined by engineers approved by the County for this purpose.

These Waivers were legally passed by the Board of Supervisors to modify the Chapter 1080 Ordinance. The Waivers are the law. Yet, the Waivers are being ignored by the bureaucracy. Why is unclear.

As a result, it would cost $3 million for the absurd step of hauling away the composting branches and trees… Therefore, Ticonderoga Farms must post $3 million - or stop composting. This is impossible.

With the financial problems of farms, Ticonderoga Farms may be forced to close… and sell to developers. And past behavior worries the farm that the County will "trump up" a misleading violation to grab the bond money. So, the Christmas tree farm will probably never get this money back, and must pay a $3 million penalty just for the privilege of doing what the State, by legislation, encourages. (The State set up special provisions to encourage composting by farms. But Loudoun is trampling on State law and ignoring it.)

The heart of the problem with composting in Loudoun County is inappropriately requiring "clean up" in only 6 months in the unlikely event that the compost site on Ticonderoga Farms were to "close." Wood composts to rich, fertile soil in 7-10 years using nature's own best procedures. So, the best thing: Let it finish! Leave it alone.

This would ensure no development by houses on the land for 7-10 years! This would be an automatic "conservation easement" -- 100% FREE to the government, because no houses could be built there for 7-10 years (and longer, because houses cannot be built on soft topsoil, so building up the topsoil makes the land less desireable for development).

But the County insists that Ticonderoga remove this natural wood in only 6 months. This would require scraping up the wood (in the middle of composting), trucking it away on our crowded roads to a "facility" --which could do nothing but stamp the paperwork and then send it back to the farm where it came from!

 

This County policy encourages instead the burning of wood debris and trash, which dirties Northern Virginia's air for our children, elderly, and everyone. Large quantities of woody debris are generated in Loudoun County every week, from clearing fields of trees and tree stumps for farmers, building roads and houses, trimming tree branches, and removing dead trees. When there's a storm -- downing trees -- where do you suppose those trees and tree branches must go? Also, tons of grass cutting and leaves result from lawn care and home maintenance. In the Fall, where do all those leaves go to?

Yet -- strangely -- the County ordinance requires a $3 million penalty bond from farms to compost this woody debris (which reduces burning). But the rules continue to allow unlimited open-air burning of wood and leaves for a fee of only $100. So, Loudoun is like a third-world country where trash is burned.

When developers burn this debris, who knows what else they throw on the fire? The evidence goes up in smoke? And who benefis? This policy reduces costs for developers, which fuels more and faster development... the very thing the Board of Supervisors say their against, along with all of Louodun's leadership.

 

Landfills are meant for genuine waste -- not wood or leaves. Yet landfills are filling up and closing all across the U.S. Such landfills are very expensive. They should be handling only organic garbage, chemicals, junk, and serious waste. But space is running out: Crisis! Consider: Where will your Christmas tree "go" in January, when Christmas is over?

A lot of what is over-crowding landfills is the wrong stuff -- leaves, grass, tree branches, and stumps. Those shouldn't be in there! So, composting saves the government money. The most expensive way to handle this debris is to put it in complex landfills. Tens of millions have been thrown at the County landfill and tens of millions more are needed. Should our schools and highways be getting your hard-earned dollars instead? Loudoun has stopped accepting woody materials in its own landfill at present. But now that the farm has been prevented from recycling this material, what will happen when there is no place for it to go? (Note that a "landfill" is a technical term. It must have a special liner to handle dangerous waste and hold it over a long period of time, and a special cover. Places for storing dirt or wood and leaves are never "landfills.").

 

All the big true landfills are far from Loudoun. Surprisingly, using landfills means far more truck traffic on our roads (and pollution of fumes) as trucks travel much further, sometimes even as far as Richmond. So, our roads are being clogged by much longer trips to fill up expensive private and government landfills with large quantities of things that don't belong there. All this is caused by stopping farms from accepting leaves and wood debris to compost and create rich topsoil. As a result, many people burn their wood debris, polluting the environment for our children, because they cannot take it to any farm in Loudoun for composting.

 What do you think? NOTE: We are not re-opening our leaf site. We are modestly trying only to compost woody debris... which no one can imagine will cause any problem.

Your Christmas tree should come home after Christmas in January!