Farmers sought to help block drifting snow

Smoke and heat have been front and center lately, but McHenry County transportation officials want to get a jump on winter and are recruiting farmers to help.

The county is doubling payment to $2,000 an acre and expanding options for an established but stalled Living Snow Fence Program using corn or other materials to block blowing and drifting snow.

Participating farmers can help keep county highways clear of snow by planting rows of corn or placing sweet sorghum, hay bales or other natural materials on the edge of their fields.

"It works," says Chris McKee, vice president of the McHenry County Farm Bureau, who for the past five years has left a strip of corn along a stretch of Kishwaukee Road west of Woodstock.

"We travel that road every day to the other farm to feed cattle," he added.

A typical cornrow snow fence is 1,100 feet long and 16 rows wide, covering about an acre, according to the McHenry County Division of Transportation.

Farmers keep the barriers up from Dec. 1 to March 1 and then can remove them or harvest the corn. Living snow fences reduce late-night calls for plow drivers, reduces cost and makes for safer travel, supporters say.

Typically, two to four farmers have been participating, said Ed Markison, maintenance superintendent for the McHenry County Division of Transportation. For the past season, three farmers were paid $4,500 for the program.

The payment has been increased to recruit as many farmers as possible, he added.

McHenry County averages 38 inches of snow a year, according to McHenry County Division of Transportation.

Markison said 6 to 7 miles of snow fence is installed in a typical season, but the window for getting into a field to do that is tight.

"Theoretically, in an ideal world we would like to see 38 to 40 miles of fence," he added.

This past season, McHenry County Farm Bureau President Dan Zillers left a strip of corn on the edge of his field on Harmony Road west of Huntley. He said there's a push to spread the word.

"We thought it was a really good thing, but there's been some communications hiccups - it's too late by the time everybody knows," he said.

Kane County has a living fence program but no participants, said Bill Edwards, maintenance superintendent for the Kane County Division of Transportation.

Many farmers decided it wasn't worth the cleanup effort, he said. Also, not as many farmers are local, tend to farm more ground and travel greater distances, making such a program less appealing, he said.

However, the department is revisiting the program to compare the cost of installing fences versus living fences. That could save money and allow for greater coverage by doing both, Edwards said.

The department also has made changes in its plowing operation, making some fencing unnecessary, he added.