{"id":550,"date":"2026-02-15T17:54:42","date_gmt":"2026-02-15T22:54:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/vtsare\/?page_id=550"},"modified":"2026-02-15T17:55:54","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T22:55:54","slug":"success-stories","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/vtsare\/success-stories\/","title":{"rendered":"Success Stories"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sare.org\/publications\/case-studies-of-sare-grant-impacts\/impacts-of-silage-tarps-on-soil-arthropods-soil-properties-and-crop-yields\/\"><strong>Impacts of Silage Tarps on Soil Arthropods, Soil Properties and Crop Yields<\/strong><\/a><\/h3>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-551\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/vtsare\/files\/2026\/02\/Screenshot-2026-02-15-at-5.52.19\u202fPM-224x300.png\" alt=\"picture of tarping in vegetable beds\" width=\"224\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/vtsare\/files\/2026\/02\/Screenshot-2026-02-15-at-5.52.19\u202fPM-224x300.png 224w, https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/vtsare\/files\/2026\/02\/Screenshot-2026-02-15-at-5.52.19\u202fPM.png 368w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 224px) 100vw, 224px\" \/>This Graduate Student Grant project, conducted by Eva Kinnebrew, used Participatory Action Research approaches to examine the pros and cons of silage tarping on yield and the biodiversity of below-ground organisms.<\/p>\n<p>The project revealed that tarps dramatically reduced weed cover (around 30% weed cover in tarped plots versus 90% in control plots) and doubled crop yields. Kinnebrew\u2019s project also shined a light on the impacts of tarps on soil arthropods. Tarping caused an immediate decline in surface-active species, like ants and beetles, but these communities quickly recovered after tarps were removed. The effects of tarps on soil-dwelling species, like springtails and millipedes, were more subtle, with some evidence of a slow progressive decline in their biodiversity in the weeks after tarps were removed. Tarps\u2019 negative impacts were not as significant as Kinnebrew had anticipated, and these results may show some promise in the sustainability of this practice. However, Kinnebrew stresses the need for further research to understand tarps\u2019 effects more fully, especially in comparison to other practices and after many years of continuous tarp use.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Impacts of Silage Tarps on Soil Arthropods, Soil Properties and Crop Yields This Graduate Student Grant project, conducted by Eva Kinnebrew, used Participatory Action Research approaches to examine the pros and cons of silage tarping on yield and the biodiversity of below-ground organisms. The project revealed that tarps dramatically reduced weed cover (around 30% weed &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/vtsare\/success-stories\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Success Stories<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":243,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-550","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/vtsare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/550","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/vtsare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/vtsare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/vtsare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/243"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/vtsare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=550"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/vtsare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/550\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":553,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/vtsare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/550\/revisions\/553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/vtsare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}