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Geologist to speak at annual FPP meeting March 14; Local nonprofit dedicated to saving farmland
ANN MARIE CAIN PHOTO Belvidere Republican
Members of the Farmland Projection Project, including (left to right) Laurel and Jack Ratcliffe, chair Richard Gadke, Ken Ramsay and Trina Haerterich share the desire to maintain and preserve farmland in Boone County, while still allowing for growth among its communities. The organization is holding its annual meeting on March 14, with keynote speaker Jason Thomason, Ph.D., a geologist who will talk about his research on finding water sources in Boone County.
Talk to Richard Gadke for just a few minutes and it is apparent he is passionate about preserving farm/agricultural land in Boone County, where he has lived since 1979.
Gadke is the chair of the Farmland Protection Project (FPP), a group of likeminded who want to preserve farming/agricultural properties, while still allowing for growth among the communities that make up Boone County.
In relating how the FPP came into existence, Gadke narrated that he grew up on a farm in Long Grove. He remembers how that community was “adamant about how it was going to grow,” with a philosophy of “growing from the center out.”
“I brought that with me when my wife and I moved to Boone County,” Gadke, a farmer, recalled.
He continued, saying he didn’t want to see a “checkerboard” of housing developments among farming properties, and he found out that there were “a lot of citizens who felt the same way [and] not just farmers.”
Fast forward to 1999, and Gadke outlined how “The county decided it was time to update the Comprehensive Plan,” adding, “It was a very big community discussion; everyone [in the communities] had their own ideas of what Boone County’s future should look like.”
Gadke said his concern was maintaining the agricultural history of the area, “the value of agriculture in Boone County,” and in response to the discussions the FPP was formed in 2000.
“Our goal was to develop a system of preserving farmland,” he said, called “conservation easement.”
Which means, he described, a measure where if a property is sold, “farmland will remain agriculture-related [but] completely voluntary on the part of the landowner.”
“The county would make sure the agreement is followed,” he added.
For the members of the FPP, “The initial hope is more landowners will consider putting conservation easements on their properties as well,” Gadke commented.
Gadke emphasized that the FPP is “not anti-growth; we are for smart growth; growth from the center of the community out.”
The FPP is holding its annual meeting on Thursday, March 14, and the keynote speaker is Jason Thomason, Ph.D., geologist and head of the Earth Characterization Center with the Illinois State Geological Survey/Prairie Research Institute in Champaign, through the University of Illinois.
“We have all seen the muddy flood waters affecting California, we remember the very dry summer of 2023 and lack of snow this winter. How does this affect the aquifer below us?” posed Gadke. “There is a big concern about groundwater and that is his area of expertise.”
Thomason highlighted that “I’ll be speaking about our project in Boone County, where we are studying the 3D geology of the county to map the water resources in the county. Boone County residents and cities are generally 100 percent dependent on well water for drinking-water supplies, so we are trying to map the rocks and sediments below ground to as much as 500 feet deep.”
“We use federal funds from the United States Geological Survey to collect new data such as drill cores and other field observations,” he continued. “We also use a method called geophysics, which creates 2-D images of the subsurface and helps us interpret the location of water resources (aquifers) below ground.”
“With those data, we can use computer software to build 3D digital models of the geology and aquifers, and help planners, decision makers and residents with managing and protecting their water resources,” the geologist added.
That is, Thomason summed up, his research is looking at “the water resources in Boone County.”
The meeting, which is free and open to the public, starts at 7 p.m., in the Boone County Fairgrounds Administration Building, 8847 Route 76, Gate 2, Belvidere.
For more information about the Farmland Protection Project, contact Gadke at 815-713-9938.
Contact Farmland Protection Project via email at [email protected] or by mail at PO Box 5, Belvidere, IL 61008.
