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Indiana Association of Soil and Water Conservation Districts
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April 26, 2017 |
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Conservation Update
April 13, 2017 - April 26, 2017
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IASWCD News
River Friendly Farmer applications due June 16
Annually, each county Soil and Water Conservation District may nominate up to two farmers who do an outstanding job of protecting their rivers, lakes and streams through their every day
conservation management practices on the farm. Watershed orga
nizations also may nominate farmers for the award by submitting an application to a county SWCD. The winners of this award receive a metal sign to display on their properties letting others know about their efforts in keeping Indiana's waterways clean; as well as a ribbon and certificate. The River-Friendly Farmer Award Ceremony will take place at the Indiana State Fairgrounds on August 16, Farmer's Day. Farmers/Landowners and their families will be invited to attend as well as District staff and supervisors and ICP leaders. The RFF application and questions may be viewed on the
IASWCD website
.
To Sandy Voglewede (Adams County SWCD) and Becky Daugherty (Delaware County SWCD)
for their featured articles regarding Earth Day 2017 getting published in the Decatur Daily Democrat newspaper and the Star Press, respectively.
Pathway to Water Quality Update
PWQ is a conservation exhibit sponsored by the Indiana Conservation Partnership (ICP) at the Indiana State Fair. Every year, PWQ hosts approximately 60,000 visitors who visit this premiere conservation exhibit during the 17-day Indiana State Fair. Part of what makes the exhibit successful are all of the ICP staff who volunteer at Pathway. This year, volunteer sign-up for
staffing Pathway to Water Quality at the 2017 Indiana State Fair will open at 8 a.m. on Wednesday, June 1. The state fair will run from August 4-20.
If you would like to sign up as a group to volunteer for "a day at Pathway," you will need to fill all 9-11 positions total for that day. The advantage is you can sign up now!
To reserve your group day at Pathway, email Sara Peel at pathwaytowaterquality@gmail.com by May 26.
See more details here...
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NACD News
Celebrating NACD's 62nd Stewardship Week:
April 30 - May 7
Deadline Approaching: NACD URBAN AG GRANT PROPOSALS
This year, NACD will award grants to 20 urban or suburban districts through the Urban Agriculture Conservation Initiative to build technical capacity for agriculture conservation.
The deadline for 2017 proposals is
May 14
. For more information, go to
NACD's Urban and Community webpage.
Did you Know?
As part of a six-month series on district operations, the Did You Know? monthly feature in eResource will highlight chapters of the NACD District Outlook Task Force report: "Blueprint for Locally-Led Conservation - A Strategy for District Success and Sustainability" (available on the NACD website). This month's chapter tackles structure and governance.
A healthy conservation district structure requires a balanced approach to funding, governance, and authorities outlined in their state's statutes. District leadership should never be delegated. Each conservation district must assume the lead role in resource assessments and conservation delivery within the district, while regularly engaging additional partners in the locally-led process to identify, discuss, and assess resource needs of the district.
To read the rest of this chapter summary - which includes a list of recommendations for districts - head to NACD's blog.
NACD Summer Meeting
July 15-18 in Iowa
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ISDA News
SAVE THE DATE: Cropland Weed ID Training for Indiana Conservation Partnership Staff
- Friday, May 26 - Southeast Purdue Ag Center, Butlerville, IN Hosted by Jeff Hermesch, Extension Educator
- Thursday, June 1 - Throckmorton Purdue Ag Center, Lafayette, IN Hosted by Karen Mitchell, Extension Educator
- Thursday, June 15 - Southwest Purdue Ag Center, Vincennes, IN Hosted by Valerie Clingerman, Extension Educator
Leadership Training Institute (LTI)
"Leadership in Change" workshop
June 9
Jasper, IN
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USDA News
31st U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sworn In
(Washington, D.C., April 25, 2017) - Sonny Perdue was sworn in as the 31st U.S. Secretary of Agriculture by fellow Georgian and Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court Clarence Thomas in a brief ceremony at the Supreme Court building. The U.S. Senate confirmed Secretary Perdue by a vote of 87-to-11 on Monday evening. After Secretary Perdue took the oath of office, he addressed employees at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) before getting to work on his first day. Also, USDA launched his official Twitter handle: @SecretarySonny. Read more...
Library of Images & PowerPoint Presentations Available
USDA's Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) Program
has accumulated over
1,500 images of cover crops and soil health
. District's are free to download and disseminate these photos as part of their educational outreach efforts. In addition to SARE's
Cover Crop Image Library
, the program also offers educators and producers free, ready-made PowerPoint presentations on cover crop topics and soil health illustrations. F
or additional resources on cover crops from SARE,
click here
.
2017 CTIC-SARE-ASTA Cover Crop Survey
The link to the 2017 Cover Crop Survey is now live and sponsored by USDA's Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Agency (SARE), the Conservation Technology Information Center (CTIC) and the American Seed Trade Association (ASTA). Please distribute to farmers within your networks, and to others who can also distribute the link to farmers in their networks whether they use cover crops or not.
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USDA-NRCS News
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2017 NCSS National Conference, Boise, Idaho (June 25-29)
Call for Oral and Poster Presentations
The Science Committee for this year's biennial NCSS Conference invites abstracts for oral and poster presentations. Presenters have the option to submit abstracts for oral presentations or poster presentations only, or both. General and specific topics should relate to Soil Survey and/or Ecological Sites.
- Oral presentations will consist of 5 to 15 minute lightning round talks, 5 to 15 minutes in length, depending on the number of presentations
- Poster presentations will be held on Monday and Tuesday evenings. Poster size should be 4x4 feet or smaller.
- NOTE: All accepted oral and poster presenters are required to register and pay registration fees.
- Please send abstracts to jenny.sutherland@lin.usda.gov.
- Deadline for submitting abstracts is Friday, May 5, 2017. Clearly describe the work in 150 to 250 words. Include a descriptive title and list all authors and their affiliations (along with any other required information). During the first week of June, each primary presenter will be notified of the scheduled time for their presentation.
For more information about the conference,
click here.
NRCS Soil Health Update - April 2017
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Purdue Extension
Department of Forestry and Natural Resources (FNR),
Purdue University
Training: Native Warm Season Grass Establishment and Management
May 16 - West Lafayette, IN
May 18 - Farmland, IN
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Resources
Ron Culberson Articles
Author of Do It Well, Make It Fun
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Other News
Office of Lieutenant Governor -
Lt. Governor Crouch's Statement on the 2017 Legislativ
e Session
INDIANAPOLIS - "The 2017 session was a major success for Hoo
siers due to the leadership of Governor Holcomb and the collaborative
spirit
of
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| Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch |
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the four legislative caucuses. In the twelve sessions
I have been a part of; 8 as a state rep
resentative, 3 as Auditor of t
he State and now as Lt. Governor, I have never experienced such a civil and collaborative legislative session.
I am very proud of the successes seen by the Lt. Governor's Office and the five agencies within the Family of Business in supporting the 5 Pillars of our administration's Next Level Agenda."
Read more...
Purdue University -
New Head of Department of Agronomy Named
Dr. Ron Turco, Professor in Purdue's Department of Agronomy, will become the new Head of the Department of Agronomy on July 1. He succeeds Joe Anderson, who is returning to his faculty role after serving as department head since 2010. Ron received bachelor's degrees in soil science and in bacteriology from the University of Idaho and his PhD in soil microbiology from Washington State University. He joined the Purdue Department of Agronomy as an Assistant Professor in 1985, was promoted to Associate Professor in 1990, and to Professor in 1994. While at Purdue, Ron has served in a number of roles, including Founding Director of the Environmental Sciences and Engineering Institute, Director of the Indiana Water Resources Research Center, Director of the Purdue Water Community, and Assistant Dean for Agricultural and Environmental Research.
Indiana MS4 Annual Meeting
May 16 with a networking event the evening of May 15
Grazing for the Future Conference featuring Dr. Pol
August 17-18
Clifty Inn, Madison, IN
Ripley & Jefferson County SWCD's along with Historic Hoosier Hills are excited to announce the Grazing for the Future Conference agenda is complete and registration is open! Our featured speakers include reality TV Veterinarian, Dr. Pol from the National Geographic channel, Blaine Hitzfield, with Seven Sons Farms and Ben Bartlett, Holistic Management International.
For the month of April we are opening the Grazing for the Future conference
 registration for our partnership. Starting May 1st we will begin publicizing this to the general public. Our hope is that this will allow time for you to obtain supervisor/board approval. After all, our partnership is the key to our success here in Indiana, so why not allow you to register first. The registration link is active on this
Eventbrite link. It is also active for the public (just not advertised yet) so if you have a guest wanting to attend with you they can register at the same time. You can also register by filling out the
registration on the brochure and mailing a check to Historic Hoosier Hills at PO Box 407, Versailles, IN 47042. Full conference registration is $65 and includes dinner and breakfast. For the meal/evening only with Dr. Pol it is $40 and includes only the dinner. There are limited number of rooms available at Clifty Inn so book early!
See details...
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f Stewardship Week celebrations across the country. If you haven't made plans for Stewardship Week yet,
