Washington College Magazine
Alumni Snapshots: Goodwill Planting
Tall order: By planting native grasses, Kevin Colbeck '90 helps farmers implement conservation measures that also provide good hunting.
Maryland's Wildlife Conservationist of the Year has made it his business to save the bay.
Kevin Colbeck '90, a lifelong hunter drawn to the natural landscape of Maryland's Eastern Shore, is proof positive of that old adage: 'Do what you love and the money will come." Motivated to improve the habitat for quail, Colbeck was advised to plant warm-weather grasses. Two years later, he had a beautiful stand of grasses, lots of birds nesting and flying, and a business plan. In assuring the future for hunters on one small plot, he had stumbled upon a new conservation approach that farmers, hunters and landowners have since adopted to preserve the balance between man and nature.
In addition to improving wildlife habitat, planting native grasses has a significant impact on water quality. "I tell people to envision these stands of grasses as sponges, absorbing excess pesticides and herbicides," Colbeck says. "A lot of people talk about saving the bay without really doing anything about it; every day that I'm on the tractor planting grasses I'm doing something for the Chesapeake Bay that has proven results."
The Wildlife and Heritage Service of Maryland Department of Natural Resources recognized his efforts last October by naming Colbeck the Wildlife Conservationist of the Year. In 1997, Maryland became the first state to establish a Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP). The 100,000-acre program is designed to protect the water quality of the Chesapeake Bay by reducing nutrient loading. Colbeck's business, SMGC, provides planting services to farmers adopting conservation practices that improve water quality, erosion control and wildlife habitat. In exchange for turning over certain acreage from crop production into buffer zones or wildlife habitat, farmers are paid a stipend.
"Farmers are the ultimate businessmen," says Colbeck. "If you make it worth their while, they're going to do it."
His clients "are either high-end landowners who don't have the equipment to plant grasses, or they're large-scale farmers who don't want to take the time to put a few acres of grasses in," he explains.
Colbeck estimates he has planted more than 3,000 acres in wildlife habitat between Maryland and Pennsylvania. The plots range in size from 15 or 20 acres to 500 acres. Customers down in Dorchester County are putting in 200 acres at a time, he notes.
The warm-season grasses—big and little bluestem, switchgrass, deertongue and gamma—take two or three years to get established, but the results are well worth the wait. "These are bunch grasses with a canopy," Colbeck explains. "The idea is that the critters—quail and rabbits and baby turkeys—can whip through them and be protected from predators."
A former All-American lacrosse player and a history major who grew up in Baltimore, Colbeck says he had never been on a tractor until he came to Washington College. But he had spent plenty of time in goose pits and duck blinds on Maryland's Eastern Shore—and admits with a chuckle that he may have spent a bit too much time in camouflage during the fall of his sophomore year.
"Until you hunt, you have no idea why anyone would want to leave a warm bed and sit out in the pre-dawn cold," says Colbeck, whose appreciation for hunting has grown beyond bagging the greatest number of ducks or geese. "I can't express the beauty of sitting in a marsh in the middle of Dorchester County and seeing an amazing sunrise. It's just you against the elements, battling the mud and the tides, and then sometimes the birds fly, and sometimes they don't."
After graduation, Colbeck ran his own guide business for a while but now is focusing solely on planting. With seeds for some warm-season grasses running as much as $50 per pound, Colbeck is also producing seeds locally.
He planted about 60 acres and harvested it this past year. "By dumb luck, I happened to hit on something that could be used for biofuels," he says. "But it will probably be 15 or 20 years," he predicts, before the technology catches up with the concept.
Until then, Colbeck will continue to do his part to protect what he loves and then bask in the rewards of a fine hunt. "It's the ultimate game to fool Mother Nature."
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