Environmental Service Payments?

Am I seeing a pattern here? I hope so.

• In the September issue of Amber Waves, the publication
of the USDA Economic Research Service
(http://www.ers.usda.gov/AmberWaves) an article titled
“Creating Markets for Environmental Stewardship” the
author Marc Ribaudo covers several issues important to
the concept of Productive Conservation. In the article
ribaudo argues that when farmers make their production
choices, market commodities win out.
• The 2008 election is over and voters in Minnesota
and around the nation have spoken. On the ballot in
Minnesota this election was the Clean Water, Land
and Legacy Amendment. The passing of this
amendment demonstrates the leadership role Minnesota
has taken nationally in conservation of natural
resources. This shows Minnesota residents
value their environment, and are willing to pay to
protect, preserve and restore the natural resources
they value. The dedicated funding from this amendment
will allow significant progress to be made improving
the quality of Minnesota’s natural environment.
• "Periodic guest blogger at env-econ and full-time blogger at aguanomics, David Zetland, does a nice job of summarizing the case for placing dollar values on environmental assets. I have a couple of things to add and a small quibble.
We are used to paying for oil, coal, fish and other things "out there" in Nature -- either because someone owns the rights to those resources or its costs money to get them from "the commons."

Contrast our attitudes towards resources with our attitudes to the environment, which we are accustomed to "consume" for free.

As the environment is threatened and becomes more scarce, perhaps we have to think of it as a resource -- and one that is worth paying for."
(Environmental Economics blog)

How to recycle a house

In the summer of 2007 my wife and I began the process of looking at houses to move onto our farm. We had decided on moving an existing house mainly due to economic reasons and our aesthetic tastes did not dictate building new. Most homes we looked at were the typical 2-3 bedroom ramblers in varying states of repair. There was one particular one that caught our eye was fairly plain on the outside, but the original late 40's interior woodwork almost convinced me.

Luckily we passed on that one because a few weeks later a friend called me with a hot tip. There was a farmer just 5 miles away who was building a new house on his farm. Due to the zoning laws in our county, the old house had go. It actually was a friend of my friend's dad, who happened to go to high school with my uncle. Well, anyway I called him and he invited us over to look at the house. The 9 foot ceilings and generous footprint of the house immediately struck us. We were sold and we reached a verbal agreement for the house that day.

Between delays building his house and our struggle with the power company to schedule the 5 mile move, we were not able to get our house on site until the end of May the following year. Because of the height of the house they had to drop at least 10 power lines along the route. We were finally able to schedule a date to move, and we were able to find an excavator who was able to dig a hole for the basement of a 1,400 sq foot house on 4 days notice. Needless to say I was quite relieved.

The house arrived at our farm at 4:00 am, slowly creeping down the alfalfa field that runs the length of our half-mile long driveway. At some point the peak of the roof got snagged by a branch on our walnut tree, but other than a few small cracks in the plaster, that was the only damage inflicted to the early 1900’s farm house in the move.

Once on site, the house was backed into the hole and suspended about 12 feet above the bottom of the hole to allow the forms for the basement walls to be set. After the basement walls were cured, the house was lowered onto the foundation with the help of a hydraulic pump powered by a 5 hp gas engine.

The next big project was to lay the heat exchange loops in the trench we had dug extending 385 feet out from the house. After the run up of energy prices during late 2007 and early 2008, the economics of installing a geothermal heat pump were looking extremely good. We did much research online and settled on a local contractor with 25 + years experience installing geothermal heat pump systems. Seven 800 foot loops of ¾ inch tubing were laid in the bottom of the trench and secured with wire staples to prevent them from moving during the back filling process.

Now the house was set and the heat exchange loops installed so the back filling could begin. There were still a lot of smaller projects involved to get the house ready for winter, but working evenings and weekends since the middle of June has gotten us a well built house with 2800 sq feet of living space and a full basement with 9 foot ceilings. All for less than the cost of building a new home of half the size, and saving a great farm house from demolition. As for the old house, we plan on deconstructing it in spring, salvaging as much of the domestic hardwood ion the framing as possible. The old house was constructed with brick in fill between the exterior wall studs, and we plan on recycling these into sidewalks and a patio. We will even be recycling the 1950’s era aluminum siding for use on a small garage.