A story and video about the property - Brown County Land Conservation, NRCS, Pheasants Forever, and UW Extension Madison.
A presentation shown for Green Bay Conservation Partners -Fall Roundtable 2019
"Background of Beginning Farmer
Patti Schevers is the 4th generation of Schevers Farm in Oneida outside of Green Bay. The property has been in her family since 1914 when her Dutch immigrant great-grandparents purchased it upon their arrival in the USA. The original homestead is 113 acres, all still intact with Patti owning 5 acres, 10 acres owned by her aunt and the remaining acreage is in a Land Trust via her mom. She is leading a variety of conservation initiatives on the land as well as operating a 3 site tent campground (glamping) on her parcel.
Patti’s Story
“I am the new 'renter' and the land has been transitioning to me as the manager for the past year. My goal, with support and agreement from my mother, sister, aunt is to transition the entire property into native grasses, pollinator habitat, wildlife corridors and pond scrapes for waterfowl. The reasoning is to utilize our little 'block' of land to be a place for our family to enjoy and nature to flourish for us and generations to come.
Until 1997, when my father passed, this was a diversified farm first with a dairy, rotational crops (hay, oats, wheat, corn, soy, veggie crops) then converted to beef and some cash crops along with vegetables crops to supplement farm income. My grandparents were also wonderful stewards of the land and had massive food gardens for the family of 10, white pine tree plantings for windbreaks and lumber, an orchard and grazed the cows on the entire acreage rotationally.
Since 1997, my mom not knowing what to do with the land and having a career of her own, decided to rent it to a local farmer who has had it in corn and soy for the past 21 years.
On a side note: The original farm deed was in my great-grandmother's name after my great-grandfather passed in 1922, then transitioned to her son (my grandfather) and my father until 1997 when it returned to woman management by my mother. I take full pride in being the next generation of female management to steer this property into a completely different future, especially as a new mom myself.
The land is primarily farmland with a 5 acre parcel along the highway that is still wooded. The land has historical tiling and also newer tile lines as it is a bit lower than the neighboring land to the west so water naturally drains through our land right in the middle.
My fiancé and I have been working with the NRCS since early 2019 to transition our property into a 'conservation farm'. We first started with a small EQIP program in 2019 for a windbreak in my 5 acres around our house. After that, I knew I wanted to convert the land back to nature. Working with NRCS we found a way to use 3 different federal conservation programs to plant the entire 90 acres to natural cover. These programs are Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP), Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) and Conservation Reserve Program (CRP). Each program can help to address the resource concern of wildlife habitat. Of the plantings, 15 acres are planned for native trees & shrubs, with the remainder in grasses and wildflowers. Also through EQIP we are installing 3 wetland ponds in poorly drained areas on the land to further improve wildlife habitat. If everything goes as planned we will have the entire acreage out of row crop and seeded to wildlife habitat by spring of 2021! NRCS has helped us navigate all the programs, and reach out to contractors and find equipment to make this all happen. It is a big undertaking but we couldn’t be more excited! We hope to one day open our restored land for people to come enjoy and visit and learn!"
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