****************ECRWSS***** PRSRT. STD. U.S. POSTAGE PAID Elmwood, Illinois Permit No. 13 Thursday Carrier Route Presort September 9, 2021 The Weekly Post RURAL BOXHOLDER Vol. 9, No. 27 LOCAL P.O. BOXHOLDER Hot news tip? “We Cover The News of West-Central Illinois With A Passion” Want to advertise? Serving the fine communities of Brimfield, Dahinda, Douglas, Duncan, Edwards, Elmore, Elmwood, FREE! Call (309) 741-9790 Compliments of Farmington, Kickapoo, Laura, Monica, Oak Hill, Princeville, Williamsfield and Yates City Our Fine Advertisers! THE BIRDS ARE COMING Final festivals Events in Elmwood, Williamsfield By JEFF LAMPE 10 p.m. and Saturday 2-4 and For The Weekly Post 6-10 for $5 per session. There is a sense of finality Classic Arcades and Con- associated with outdoor sole Gaming is also the events held in September. theme of the Fall Festival Summer is ending. Fall is ap- parade, which is Saturday at proaching. The message: Get 12:30 p.m. outside and enjoy the good Following the Elmwood weather while it lasts. event, Williamsfield takes Two chances for that come center stage on Sunday, Sept. this weekend. 12, with its annual Ag Day First up is the Elmwood Festival from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Fall Festival, which opens in Doubet-Benjamin Park. today and runs through Satur- The event – billed as “food day (Sept. 9-11). The annual and farm fun” – features 25 carnival in Central Park re- turns after a one-year COVID free activities (including farm absence to again feature food, simulators, an ag olympics Canada geese fly overhead at Pyramid State Park in southern Illinois. Photo by Gretchen Steele. carnival rides, bingo and live course and a petting zoo) and music. Za Funk plays Friday games that start at 11 a.m., a from 8-10:30 p.m., while Sat- free pancake breakfast from Keep your eyes to the skies for fall migrants urday features big band 8-9:15 a.m. courtesy of By GRETCHEN STEELE watcher, a morning stroller, or a miraculous migrators. music from 1-3 p.m., Hind- WADCO, a scenic tractor For The Weekly Post hunter. From now through fall, we And so, just when I think I can’t sight from 4-7 p.m. and Mys- drive at 10:30 a.m. and a 1 It’s that time of year – nothing are greeted each morning with mi- take one more sultry, hot, humid tery Machine from 8-11 p.m. p.m. ice cream social. Ri- beats an early September morning grating birds of all sorts. day of summer, that first Sep- New this year is a classic beyes, pork burgers and hot in the field when it comes to birds. For me it’s all about the water- tember morning arrives bringing arcade at 112 E. Main St. of- dogs will also be grilled on Doesn’t matter if you are a bird fowl, the ducks and geese, those Continued on Page 9 fering gaming Friday from 6- site and sold. Bioreactor a tool for nutrient stewardship By CHRISTOPHER HEIMERMAN and national representatives and staff otherwise pollute tile drainage water, For The Illinois Press Association at the most recent of the IFB’s series and then streams, and then the Mis- WOODSTOCK – Corn and soy- of Nutrient Stewardship Field Days. sissippi River, and then the Gulf of bean farmer Michael Ganschow was Ganschow is a sixth-generation Mexico. You get the idea. an easy recruit for Lauren Lurkins, farmer in Bureau County, and his Once a pipe system directs drai- the Illinois Farm Bureau’s director of grandfather was among the first Illi- nage water through control structures environmental policy, as she was en- nois farmers to implement no-till and into the bioreactor, bacteria in couraging farmers to install wood- practices. the woodchips eat the nitrates from chip bioreactors on their farms. “Conservation has always been a fertilizers that go unused by crops, “I met Lauren in 2016, and less big part of what we do,” he said. and then convert those nitrates into than two years later, she’s showing A woodchip bioreactor might nitrogen gas that’s just as safe for the up at my farm with equipment, dig- sound like something straight out of environment as the 78 percent of ging a hole and filling it with wood- Marvel Comics. In reality, it’s essen- stable nitrogen in the air we breathe. Mike Evans demonstrates how volunteers can take water samples chips,” Ganschow said to a crowd of tially a trench filled with woodchips “It sounds like something out of from a woodchip bioreactor. Samples are frozen until they can be farmers, agriculture leaders and state that filter out nitrates that would Continued on Page 2 tested in a Champaign lab. Photo by Raelynn Parmely. Page 2 THE WEEKLY POST • September 9, 2021 www.illinoisweeklies.com BIOREACTOR: ‘A trench full of woodchips’ Continued from Page 1 ogy. frozen and sent to Chris- near the Quad Cities, and a ‘Iron Man,’ but really it’s a “Our farmers are always tianson for analysis since third corn and soybean trench full of woodchips asking three questions: May 1. farmer, Brian Corkill, with a little bit of plumb- How much does it cost. The bioreactor converted whose Henry County farm ing,” said Laura Christian- How hard is it to maintain about 80 of the 150 pounds splits the distance between son, assistant professor it? And does it work?” of nitrate into nitrogen gas Peoria and Moline. with the University of Illi- Lurkins said. – roughly 53 percent. Whereas Ganschow and nois’ Department of Crop First things first, it cost “It’s working, and it’s Kirwan had plenty of in- Sciences, which monitors nearly $10,000 to build the working well,” Christian- side knowledge because of 15 of the 50 or so bioreac- McHenry County bioreac- son said, adding that the their close work with the tors around the state. tor, and there will be state’s bioreactors on aver- bureau, Corkill began the The McHenry County another investment 10 or age remove about 25 per- process the way Christian- Conservation District, in 15 years down the road, cent of nitrates. son recommended all partnership with the local when the woodchips need Most other sites followed farmers do: He reached out and state Farm Bureaus, replacing – or recharging, the federal government’s to his local NRCS office. installed a 30-by-30-foot as Christianson calls it. rectangular blueprint for a The bioreactor was the bioreactor last summer just But does it work? Abso- bioreactor, which local next logical step for Cor- north of Woodstock, where lutely, according to the Natural Resource Conser- kill, given his commitment nearly 100 people gathered water samples MCCD vol- vation Service offices use to stewardship through no- o learn about the technol- unteers had collected, when they help farmers de- till farming, cover crops, sign their trenches. and only fertilizing as Christianson and her much as necessary. team, weighing myriad Reick asked the panel factors at the McHenry how many woodchip County site, custom-de- bioreactors would be signed a square trench that needed to reach the na- works like a dream. tion’s conservation goals. The bioreactors are rel- Christianson said it will atively new technology, so take 60,000 bioreactors it’s being rapidly devel- and better stewardship ac- oped through experimenta- ross the board to turn the tion. Ganschow’s trench, tide. for instance, is wide open. “We need every practice, Most others are sealed and wide use of every with a plastic sheet and practice,” she said. “But it then graded, so you might starts one bioreactor at a not know you’re standing time.” on top of it. This story was distributed He was joined on a panel through a cooperative project Tuesday by Jeff Kirwan, between the Illinois Farm Bu- an IFB Board member reau and the Illinois Press As- who’s considering install- sociation. For more food and ing a second bioreactor at farming news, visit FarmWee- his Mercer County farm kNow.com. CONSUMER ALERT #KeepMyBankingPrivate Join Princeville State Bank in telling Congress that your privacy is worth protecting. banklocally.org/privacy We Cover The News of West-Central Illinois With A Passion www.illinoisweeklies.com THE WEEKLY POST • September 9, 2021 Page 3 THE WEEK AHEAD Upcoming Events • Fall Festival – Elmwood’s annual Fall Festival opens today, Sept. 9, and runs through Saturday, Sept. 11, in Central Park with food, carnival rides and live music. The parade is Sept. 11 at 12:30 p.m. • Free movie – Farmington Council of Churches will show a free movie in Reed Park on Saturday, Sept. 11, at 8 p.m. Snacks and drinks for donation. • Ag Day – Williamsfield’s Ag Day Festival is Sun- day, Sept. 12, from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Doubet-Ben- jamin Park, featuring a free pancake breakfast, games for kids, farm displays and more. Amazing Animal Babies’’ and teach how This Week’s Events • Outdoor Service – Maquon United to write a haiku on Sept. 16 at Salem NEW LIST! 5421 N. EDEN RD., ELMWOODPENDING! - $259,900 Township Library. Methodist Church has Church in the Park 9125 PHILANDER CHASE, at Maquon Village Park on Sunday, Sept. • Craft day – Make crafts at Salem Town- BRIMFIELD - FABULOUS 12, at 10:30 a.m. Bring lawnchairs. ship Library Thursday, Sept. 16, 9 a.m. to 4BD home, over 1 acre lot 4 p.m. Call (309) 358-1678 to register. w/fire pitPENDING! & garden shed. • Songbag series – Carol Jean & Jera Large updated master present unique sound of country, blues, Future Events suite, great room has rock and pop at 2 p.m.