Giving back to the land to protect and improve water quality is the main mission behind the Reinvest in Minnesota (RIM) Reserve Program.

Mike Harber, of rural Blooming Prairie, is enrolled in the RIM Program. The Harber family has been on their farm since the turn of the 20th Century. His grandfather, Earl Harber came to Minnesota from West Virginia around 1915, to stay with relatives. Earl's son, Bob, still lives on the farm in a separate house from his son, Mike.

The farm site looks like a small village as Mike's sister, Nancy, lives in another house on the property. The Cedar River and woods are to the east of the home site that sits on a tranquil gravel road.

"I started out farming with my dad. We started out with 120 acres on this farm and we rented land. I remember when we milked cows by hand and we farmed with a team of horses," Harber said. "After the horses, we farmed with small tractors, we still have one small tractor. It's a way of life and we have earned a respective living farming."

Three generations of Harbers have worked this land on the Cedar River. Mike's younger brother, Tom, bought a neighboring home site on a farm that the Harbers had rented for years. A portion of this farmland is what the Harbers have enrolled in the RIM program.

"The farm used to belong to Ray Bray. He was a very gentle man. He had Shorthorn cattle and he pastured around the wet spots on his farm. The drier areas he farmed. He had fences all over with little gates going to the fields and pasture. We had to take all this out. We sold over two and half tons of barbed wire with all the fencing we removed. It took us a while to get all that fencing out," Harber said.

The Harbers approached the Soil and Water Conservation Office in Mower County to enroll in the RIM program. The program reimburses landowners for enrolling their land in a permanent conservation easement and then provides assistance to restore the area to grass, trees, or wetlands. Other benefits of the program include reduced soil erosion, and sedimentation, enhanced fish and wildlife habitat, a flood control and ground water recharge.

The Harbers are still in the process of restoring the wetlands with the RIM program. There are guidelines they follow such as tiling 200 feet away from the wetlands. In all, 40 acres are in the RIM program. There was a one-time payment that went directly to the former owner of the property.

"We had rented this land a long time from the Brays. We used to cross 15 acres of the Bray's farm to get to some of our fields. We are glad to have the land," Mike said.

There is a tremendous amount of work going into restoring the wetlands. They are making dykes called birms, which is mounding dirt up to contain water into a certain area. The Harbers will be planting native prairie grasses for wildlife and to keep dirt from washing away.

"The Soil and Conservation Office will reimburse me for the seed. We will be planting brome and winter rye. Once it gets established we will cut it back the first season and then it will come back in twice as thick," Mike said.

This past summer, 20 acres of yellow Lazy Susan flowers were in bloom on the RIM site. The Harbers have noticed more deer congregating to this area. There is plenty of wildlife because they live near the river and woods. They see owls, coyote, fox, possums, raccoons, and badgers.

"We are not people who come in an area and tear everything down and start all over. My brother repaired the old Bray barn. We maintain our livestock. We use minimal sprays on our crops. I milk cows and keep close tabs on the health of my herd," Mike said.

Mike and his wife, Dolores, raised five children on their farm. She works at the Austin Medical Center. They know that none of their children will take over the farm. Mike said he takes farming one day at a time. His

74-year-old father works beside him every day. He is not sentimental about the past.

"We have kept up with the times. We don't have a milking parlor. This would allow us to milk seven or eight cows at a time. They are expensive to put in. I keep in shape farming the way I do," Mike said.

The Harbers are proud of their well-kept up farm. They keep up with the maintenance of their buildings by painting and residing when necessary and do what repair work they can on their machinery.

"Being in the RIM program has made the land on the former Bray property more feasible for us to use. It was so wild and hard to get through the property with all the fences before. This is a long-term project and we can not farm on it for 30 years. This is giving something back to the land," Mike said.

Sheila Donnelly can be reached at 434-2233 or by e-mail at newsroom@austindailyherald.com