Tabitha Dotson
by guest author Jen Grant
When Hurricane Helene hit Jonesborough and the Nolichucky River late last September, Tabitha Dotson of Dotson Farm had just sold her cattle for the year to allow the pastures time to rest. Her timing proved immensely fortunate. She didn’t lose any livestock as the river rose out of its bed, flooded her pastures, and eventually deposited sediment, flotsam, and thousands of tomatoes from a farm upstream.
The farm’s riverbanks, including over 1200 feet of Nolichucky River frontage, didn’t fare as well. The flooding washed away land and grass, reshaping the banks and leaving them exposed to further erosion. Now, Tabitha is working to replenish lost vegetation to protect the health of the banks and the river.
“Respecting the river and the waterways and doing the best thing for our grass has always been important to us,” says Tabitha.
This month, Dotson Farm hosted ARCD for a Stream Bank Repair workshop led by ARCD Executive Director Andy Brown where we learned how to assess banks for planting, choose plant varieties, and install them in a stream bed to create a conservation riparian buffer and prevent erosion, reduce the effects of floods, and trap nutrients in the soil. The group planted native species of black willow, white willow, elderberry, river cane [pictured with Tabitha above], and flower seeds along a section of the bank and covered them with a protective straw and coir mat. For more information on planting a riparian buffer, https://www.arborday.org/tree-resources/how-plant-conservation-buffers-streams
Dotson Farm sees other benefits from responsible land stewardship besides conservation. Tabitha raises cattle for wholesale using rotational grazing methods that yield impressive results. She recalls of her Holstein calves (a dairy variety) that she raised last year: “They put on over two pounds a day. That’s really good even for a beef cow.”
Tabitha also produces free-range chicken eggs from multiple breeds of chickens and loves raising chickens for eggs because of the relationship it builds with customers.
“People see pictures of your farm, you tell them the benefits of the eggs, and they sell themselves because people get hooked.”
Tabitha was named Washington County Farm Conservationist of the Year in 2016 by the TN Association of Conservation Districts for her conservation efforts on the farm in maintaining a riparian buffer and protecting the waterways that border her farm.
“We had sheep and goats at the time, and we never let them near the river.”
She has assisted with workshops for ARCD’s Beginning Farmer program on rotational grazing as well as on financial farming topics. https://arcd.org/2017/03/14/march-field-school-small-livestock-rotational-grazing/
You can find Dotson Farm eggs at the Boone Street Market or for sale from the farm and follow them on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/DotsonFarm/
We look forward to working with Tabitha and more farmers to rebuilding the features they need most addressed on their farmland.
[Thank You Jen Grant, volunteer writer, for composing this piece and interview!]
