WALLINGFORD – The Horse Environmental Awareness Program is now accepting applications for its 2004 Horse Farm of Environmental Distinction Award, which honors those horse owners who take pride in being good stewards of the land and good neighbors to those who share common water sources.

Timber Hill Farm on Huntingtown Road in Newtown – owned by Gary and Barbara Gaydosh – was the 2002 winner of the HEAP award.

HEAP is a coalition of federal, state and local agencies, organizations and individuals interested in educating horse people on the best management practices in order to protect the environment. There are some 50,000 horses in Connecticut (with about 10 horses per square mile, the highest density anywhere in the United States) and each of those horses eats about 20 pounds of hay and grain, drinks about 80 pounds of water every day, and produces about nine tons of manure each year.

Runoff from horse facilities of all sizes can carry soil and waste contaminants into watercourses, according to HEAP, creating a non-point source of pollution (from pesticide residues in organic matter and fecal organisms from animals wastes) which can affect natural aquatic communities and humans alike.

HEAP is coordinated by the state Department of Environmental Protection, the Connecticut Farm Bureau, the Connecticut Horse Council, the Connecticut Soil and Water Conservation Districts, the King’s Mark Resource Conservation and Development Area, the University of Connecticut Cooperative Extension Systems, and the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service.

The HEAP inspectors evaluate –

Manure Storage and Turn-Out Areas: Is clean water diverted by an appropriate combination of covering manure, roof gutters, walls/berms or swales, and water-tight container?

Compost Locations: Is it greater than 200 feet from surface water, greater than 200 feet from a private well, and greater than 500 feet from a public well?

Contaminated Run-Off Control: Vegetated buffer down gradient? Healthy pastures using rotation and/or rest periods? Horses fenced greater than 35 feet from water? Turn-out area cleaned at least bi-weekly?

Manure Utilization: Regularly removed for off-farm use? Field application rates does not exceed crop needs? Pasture manure regularly removed or harrowed?

Fly Breeding Ground: Manure removed from stalls and turn-out area at least weekly? Covered to control fly breeding?

Judges will inspect the farms and review the practices being implemented, thus providing a score on how the practices decrease or eliminated impacts to the environment. Winners of the HEAP award will receive an aluminum Horse Farm of Environmental Distinction sign which can be proudly displayed as the farm.

Those farms that do not receive a qualifying score for the award, though, will receive recommendations on how to improve the operations.

HEAP is a coalition of agencies, organizations and individuals focused on environmental education. It has no regulatory authority and its only interest is to protect the environment by educating horse owners on how to improve horse management practices.

Deadline for applications is April 1. To learn more, call 1-203-284-3663 or email carol.donzella@ct.usda.gov.