Why Support a Soil and Water
Conservation District - Advantages
I
Single Focus:
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The 60-year
mission of the SWCD is soil and water conservation, management and/or
prevention of all forms of soil erosion: sheet, rill, ephemeral and gully. Good natural resource management begins with
good soil management. Good soil
management begins with keeping it in place every time it rains. The obvious result is good quality surface
water. It follows naturally that the
County’s surface and groundwater plan reflects the same goals as the District’s
work plan.
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Annual goals
stated in tangible land application of specific practices to improve water
quality and reduce erosion.
II
Uniquely
structured:
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Elected Board
reflects natural resource concerns of County residents and adopts natural
resource management to changing land use practices.
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Non-regulatory:
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Landowners freely
cooperate, expanding and exercising their own commitment to stewardship.
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Proven more
productive than regulatory coercion.
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Provides County
an attractive “carrot” option to solve natural resource concerns with
landowners and residents.
III
Staff on the land
with land owners:
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Motivated: Pay
and performance ratings tied to measurable on land practice application with
landowners.
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Staff regularly
in field in touch with landowners discussing natural resource concerns and in
tune to their needs. An “in the field”
asset.
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District mission
and structure leaves staff free of other “in house”
job demands, clear to focus on application of natural resource management
practices.
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Staff currently
devotes many hours to assist County staff with in field reviews.
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Staff conducts
several hundred annual field visits with different landowners to review and
correct natural resource problems.
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Staff is uniquely
qualified under USDA job approval authorities to provide engineering assistance
for correcting resource problems. This
arrangement is done under license agreements set up with the state society of
Professional Engineers.
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All staff has 4
year Natural Resource management degrees from either
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Staff has
obtained necessary certifications and training to meet changing face of the
County i.e. Certified Professional Erosion and Sediment Control Specialists,
Wetland Delineation Certification, Crop Advisor Certification.
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MPCA, BWSR, USDA,
USFWS, MNDNR provide standards and specs for implementation of natural resource
management practices to the District.
The agencies recognize the technical competence of the SWCD staff.
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SWCDs, state-wide,
share data on resource protection and initiate new treatment techniques
continually testing and improving land treatment solutions to gain more cost
effective means of improving water quality. for example:
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Rock inlets for
tile replacing surface inlets.
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Bio-engineering,
i.e. Fogarty, Francis, Nytes.
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Filter strips -
200 miles applied since 1996.
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Plant materials
testing for enhanced conservation practice performance is coordinated with the
USDA plant materials center.
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Private suppliers
provide material specs, handbooks, and even samples of their products relevant
to land applied natural resource protection practices.
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Staff brings
experience and an array of technical resources to bear on the many resource
problems reviewed each year with County residents.
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Staff is
technically accountable to the standards used.
Annual inspections are made of applied practices to ensure continued
quality.
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Most natural
resource problems are not eye popping 100ft gullies. Most are combination of sheet and rill
erosion and ephemeral and real gully erosion too small to warrant the attention
of engineers or consultants, yet, by numbers alone add up to significant
sediment sources severely damaging water quality. The District, by mission, structure and
expertise are positioned to address these multiple problems:
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They have the
design standards.
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They are on site.
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They have the
technical ability and landowner confidence to successfully address these problems.
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This adds up to
cost effective water plan implementation.
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The SWCD staff
are the only staff with the knowledge, skills and ability to work effectively
with, and apply to County lands:
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waterways
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stream bank
protection (both bio and non bio)
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gully head
control
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wetland
restoration
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terraces
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w/s basins
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feedlot pollution
control
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manure
application plans
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conservation crop rotation systems for sheet erosion control.
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SWCD staff has
been on most farms in the county long before they become development proposals;
this is a unique bank of site specific knowledge.
V
Unique
opportunities
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Knowing the land
owners, knowing the land, knowing the solutions, and experience applying the
solutions makes the SWCD staff uniquely and exceptionally qualified to apply
practices and to create opportunities.
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Cost share
dollars available to landowners ($2,000,000.00 spent last 5 years on erosion
and sediment control in the
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Able to
coordinate resources from outside the County to on the ground implementation of
the Plan:
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Engineering time
from USDA.
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Engineering funds
from NonPoint Engineering Assistance Program.
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Cost share funds
from USDA, State of
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Outside staff
time, e.g.: P.F., Hog producers, land
owners, MN Extension, Dairy association, USDA, USFWS, MNDNR Depts. Forestry,
Waters, Wildlife, MPCA, BWSR, Township boards, SWCD board, and dedicated
landowners passing the word. Some of this time is professional, but much is
voluntary, that is the advantage of a non-regulatory program for main-line Plan
implementation.
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Vehicles,
maintenance and fuel from USDA.
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Office supplies
from USDA.
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A call list of
clients from USDA. FSA works annually
with about 800 landowners and operators required to meet minimal conservation
standard.
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SWCD staff has
leveraged their knowledge of the county by conducting several Natural Resource
inventories which have provided the County and others with detailed resource
information unavailable from any other source at any where near the same
cost: In all cases, outside assistance
was leveraged to complete these inventories
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Wetlands and
drained basins.
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Gully status in
the Minnesota River Bluffs.
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Bank erosion status
of our streams and ditches.
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Waterway and
terrace needs on cropland.
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HEL crop land.
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Extent and impact
of changing farm practices.
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Status of all
feedlots.
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Soil survey.