NACD LEADERS MEET IN THE LONE STAR STATE

On Sept. 4-6, nearly 100 conservation district leaders from Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas met in San Marcos, Texas, for the 2018 NACD South Central Region meeting. The meeting was hosted by the Association of Texas Soil and Water Conservation Districts (ATSWCD) and featured a day-long tour that focused on soil health management systems and water quality.


The meeting’s general session featured speakers including NRCS State Conservationist Salvador Salinas, NACD CEO Jeremy Peters and ATSWCD President Volney Hough. Tour stops included visits to several local farms in the area around Seguin, Texas, where soil health management systems discussions and rainfall simulations were led by NRCS Texas Soil Health Staff Alan Stahnke and Nathan Haile


The group also stopped at Texas State University’s College of Agriculture and Meadows Center for Water and the Environment and participants learned about the system of natural aquifers and springs in the San Marcos River watershed.


JOIN NACD IN ALAMO CITY

Registration for NACD’s 73rd Annual Meeting in San Antonio, Texas, is open! This year’s meeting will take place on Feb. 2-6, 2019 at the San Antonio Marriott Rivercenter in downtown San Antonio. With the theme “Mission Focused: Fulfilling Our Legacy,” the 2019 NACD Annual Meeting will celebrate the history of the tricentennial city, the conservation movement and the leaders who make natural resource conservation possible every day on every acre.

NACD is in the process of procuring an exciting lineup of speakers, including National Association of Farm Broadcasting (NAFB) President Lorrie Boyer.

From engaging speakers to informative breakout sessions to excursions throughout hill country, attendees will have a chance to learn about the rich history of the Alamo city and the Lone Star state as well as the unique natural resource concerns it faces.

Registering online saves attendees $15. Users can register online by signing onto their NACD account. Forgotten your password? Click “Forgot Password” to reset the password and check for an account.

Don’t forget to become a Friend of NACD and order a commemorative 2019 Annual Meeting t-shirt!



KENT CONSERVATION DISTRICT, MICHIGAN

Through the NACD Urban Agriculture Conservation grant project, the Kent Conservation District partnered with Urban Roots to develop partnerships, internship opportunities, and build relationships with higher education institutes.

Urban Roots is a community farm, market and education center located in southeast Grand Rapids, Mich., which focuses on building farm infrastructure, developing future programs, improving collaborative partnerships, and preparing for a successful growing season. Urban Roots developed numerous educational partnerships, seven internship opportunities, and grew multiple relationships with area institutes of higher education. In partnership with a local university, a group of environmental studies capstone students investigated ways to improve the social/ecological outcomes of the community farm and education center. These investigations helped overhaul the composting logistics, increased the farm’s food distribution apparatus, outfitted the mobile classroom, and increased capacity for engaging neighbors.


On the farm, Urban Roots planted over 10,000 square feet of bio-intensively managed beds, a healthy soil ecosystem that uses less water and promotes long-term soil fertility. In addition, the program started a bee colony to promote bee health and better pollination, saved seeds for the city of Grand Rapids, installed a simple greywater system in the wash/pack area, and launched the public learning garden and a self-harvest “sidewalk snack” learning garden.

Throughout the grant project, Urban Roots launched 16 collaborative and educational partnerships through the mobile classroom; hosted a 10-part free workshop series; ran new day camps with the local public museum; started a new collaborative partnership with faith communities on Grow/Eat/Learn with World Renew; taught refugee and immigrant teens in partnership with a local nonprofit teaching life skills, employment training and work experience; and held three open houses to engage the Grand Rapids community. Learn more about Kent Conservation District's work on NACD's website.


NCPP HOSTS NORTH CAROLINA LISTENING SESSION


On Aug. 20-23, over 150 conservation district employees gathered in Fayetteville, N.C., for employee meetings and trainings and to participate in a listening session held by the National Conservation Planning Partnership (NCPP).

NACD CEO Jeremy Peters represented the organization at the listening session and presented findings from a conservation planner and producer survey conducted by NCPP. Topics discussed during the listening session included the importance of utilizing conservation plans to address resource concerns such as soil health, water quality and quantity; the ability to incorporate economic information into conservation plans; as well as conservation planner workforce needs such as training and certification and access to technology. The listening session was the seventh in a series of eight listening sessions held this year by NCPP, and the last listening session is scheduled for Oct. 16 in Casper, Wyo.


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