Shiawassee Conservation District

This is not the first time we have written about filter strips and the amazing things they do to protect the water resources we all depend on. We have even held educational workshops and informational booths. We just can’t seem to stop boasting about all their environmental benefits, and it is for a good reason – they are an effective and affordable conservation practice. Filter strips are strips of permanently established herbaceous vegetation between a crop field and a waterbody, such as a stream, lake, or river. They “filter” water as it flows across them from the adjacent crop before entering the waterbody. They can be many different widths and planted to a wide variety of plants (grass, forbs, legumes). Each filter strip design depends on the site conditions, what pollutants it is filtering, and any additional goals of the landowner. The primary purpose of filter strips is to reduce sediment and other contaminants such as nutrients, pesticides, and manure in water runoff. They ha