A new year is an excellent time to ask the Maysville Mason County Comprehensive Plan steering committee to adopt the theme to grow rural investment & profits.
This $60 million a year loss was even after farmers compensated by increasing their acres of corn and soybeans. The USDA reports that Mason County row crop acres harvested rose from 39,820 in 1992 to 55,889 in 2017. Mason County is subjecting an additional 16,000 acres to row crop erosion yearly.
These extra acres are mostly corn and soybeans. USDA studies show that no-till soybeans cause over twelve times more erosion than corn.
No crop year before 2001 had more than 1,200 acres of soybeans harvested in our county. In 2021 Mason County harvested 11,100 acres of soybeans. USDA tests indicate those soybean acres will lose over 945,000 tons of topsoil each year.
Our comprehensive plan needs a strategy that grows rural investment & profits. While also conserving local topsoil, reducing chemical pollution, improving local water quality, not requiring long-term transportation infrastructure improvements, and placing minimal loads on existing public services.
Participating in Joint Planning Commission’s web survey (by clicking this link) is a way to ask that the next comprehensive plan addresses the theme, “Grow Rural Investments & Profits”. Successfully solving this theme will dramatically improve Mason County’s prospects.