Who We Are:  The Clay County Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD) is a subdivision of State Government.  It is a public body which exercise public powers.  It is governed by five supervisors, each a resident of the County, three elected and two appointed.  Its staff members are considered to be employees of the county.  The district receives its statutory authority from Indiana District Law (Indiana Code IC 14-32).

Function: To provide information about soil, water and related natural resource conservation; identify and prioritize local soil and water resource concerns; and connect land users to sources of education, technical and financial assistance to implement conservation practices and technologies. 

We Serve: Clay County landowners, operators, taxpayers and citizens, including industry, business and governmental agencies.

Why: to accomplish our soil and water goals of protecting our natural resources for future generations and improve our quality of life. 

Our Mission: To conserve and improve all natural resources to preserve the quality of life for the people of Clay County, for present and future generations, by using the best technologies and practices available through technical, educational and financial assistance.  

Critical Natural Resource Issues:

  1. Water Quality
  2. Soil Quality/Health
  3. Improve Land Use through education and promotion of conservation BMP's (Best Management Practices)

Critical Geographic Areas of Concern:  All natural resource concerns apply to all of Clay County.

Clay County SWCD hosted and partnered on a wide variety of conservation related activities in 2012.  Our theme of: CONSERVATION TODAY, CLEAN WATER & HEALTHY SOIL TOMMORROW is evident through these events.  Take a look:

2012 Annual Conference: This event takes place annually and is a good opportunity for supervisors, associate supervisors and staff to learn various current, trending information about our natural resources.  This also gives them a chance to network with other natural resource professionals and focus for the coming year on our goal of preserving our natural resources.

2012 Annual Meeting: This event also takes place annually.  It is scheduled for the third Thursday in Februrary.  It takes place at the local Clay County 4-H Fairgrounds.  It is open to the public, so its a great opportunity for all people young and old, farmer to city dweller to business professional to new resident in the community to come and learn about who we are, what we do and how they become involved in our mission.

2012 Contractor Breakfast: This event takes place the first part of March. Local contractors are invited to hear about local Best Management Practices and any changes from previous years.  Agency staff bring the latest updates.  Latest products avaialable that are conservation minded are also introduced.

2012 Soil Health-Cover Crop Bus Tour: This was a unique opportunity to see various farms in the county that have supported the Soil Health Kick we are all on.  It was a great opportunity for education and getting to know various people in our community and seeing first had conservation at work on the ground and how it protects our natural resources.

2012 Ag Day: This is a day when we partner with the various other agencies throughout our community to bring education to all of our local 4th graders about where the food that makes a pizza comes from.  They get to see what all goes into one of their favorite foods, A-Z, hands on through demonstrations, activities and lots of visual media and of course the best part of all is they get to enjoy some pizza. 

2012 Envirothon: This is a wonderful opportunity for local high school students to study about our natural resources, be better stewards of the land and then compete with surrounding counties on various natural resource related topics such as soil, water, forestry, watersheds, wildlife, etc.  The winning regional team goes on to compete at state and if that is won there is also a national competition. 

2012 Farm Tour: This is a unique opportunity for local citizens to take a bus tour which is two days and one night to various natural resource related stops.  They find out some of the latest trending problems affecting our natural resources, have a chance to see businesses who try to lessen their carbon footprint on the earth.  The goal of the trip is to make sure they learned or experienced something related to natural resources that they never knew about before or saw before or did before.

 

2012 Clay County 4-H Fair: This is a great opportunity for us as a district to reach out to the community and make them aware of our mission and what resources are available to them. It also gives us a chance to meet other businesses, some new and some old.  Annually CCSWCD has a booth at this event with various natural resource related information, activities/educational information for our youth and upcoming CCSWCD events.

2012 Well Testing: This program has been a huge success in our county.  We do a cost share program with local Clay County citizens to help them become aware of what is in their drinking water.  We provide information on what to do if their well is contaminated.  As well as information on how to become good stewards of the land, so as to help protect one of our most precious natural resources: WATER.

2012 Rainbarrel/Composter Sales: This is also a newer program in our district, but is catching on quite well.  We have been partnering with a company whose mission is to keep 55 gallon food grade barrels out of land filll, their company's name, "UPCYCLE".  They inturn take these 55 gallon food grade barrels and turn them into rainbarrels and composters.  In an effort to conserve water and make the soil healthy we as a district bring these rainbarrels and composters to interested citizens in our community at a greatly reduced cost. 

2012 Pathway to Water Quality: This is a great opportunity for supervisors, associate supervisors and staff to volunteer at the Indiana State Fair Pathway to Water Quality station.  This gives people from all over the state an opportunity to learn about our precious natural resources.

2012 IDEA Conference: This is a wonderful conference that gives staff the opportunity to learn new technology, information and BMP's being used statewide.  They in turn have the opportunity to incorporate things learned from the conference for the county and use them in the upcoming year.

2012 Nature Bowl: This event is for all of our local 7th graders.  This event is a small snapshot of the Indiana Envirothon.  It gives Jr. High students an opportunity practice what they will be doing in high school at the Envirothon.  These 7th graders divide into teams and listen to various natural resource related topics.  They then take a short quiz and the quizzes are scored.  The team with the highest score is then presented with an award. The presenters stations are located outside so this gives students a chance to be outside all day and enjoy our wonderful natural resources.

2012 Clay County Nature Walk /Creek Stomp: This is an event where CCSWCD partners with Clay County 4-H and Purdue Extension Office and other various local agencies to bring information about our natural resources to all those in our community.  There is a vary wide variety of topics and they are vary from year to year.  Our station is called the "Creek Stomp" we bring citizens down to the local creek and teach them that water quality can be determined by the types of bugs or "macroinvertabrates" found in the creek.  Parents and kids alike tend to learn something new and just can't get enough of wading in the creek, using a kick net to obtain their sample and using a magnifying glass and tweezers to find the macroinvertabrates. They are vary excited when they identify their sample and look on the poster to see if the water is polluted or not. This is a very fun and educational event.