The Steuben County Soil and Water Conservation District’s (SWCD) motto is “Everyone Makes a Healthy Watershed;” educating the public that everyone can make a difference in their watershed.
We have substantially utilized the Lake and River Enhancement (LARE) program to provide financial assistance for agricultural Best Management Practices (BMPs) since our first LARE Watershed Land Treatment (WLT) project in the Turkey Creek Watershed in 2001. By 2007, we expanded our LARE program to include three watersheds (Pigeon Creek, Turkey Creek, and Ball Lake) and were the only District in the state to have three active LARE WLT grants at the same time. These LARE funds enabled us to work with landowners in these watersheds to develop conservation plans and implement BMPs on their farms.
Word of available LARE funds spread quickly over the next few years, to the point that many times we would build up a waiting list of participants by the time new LARE grants were announced. The 2010 freeze of LARE funds hit our District hard, causing some agricultural projects to go unfunded. When a minimal amount of funding was released in 2011, we were able to fund only a few projects, causing landowners’ faith in the program to dwindle, greatly reducing the momentum we had worked hard to build since 2007. LARE is up and running again for the time being; while we still struggle with putting the energy back into this program, we are confident we will succeed in restoring its strength in our District agricultural program.
Fortunately, we are a versatile District, actively seeking funding from a variety of sources and were able to continue working with our landowners on agricultural issues with funding from our IDEM 319 grants in the Pigeon Creek Watershed and Clean Water Indiana Grants. We continued building strong partnerships in the county, also working on our urban storm water conservation program with the City of Angola/Trine University MS4, Steuben County Lakes Council, and Purdue Extension through the 319 grant.
Due to the LARE funding freeze, we began looking at other funding options. The District applied and won the National Conservation Foundation Award to implement our “RISE Up to Reduce Your Stormwater” program, which expanded our successful rain barrel program started through our IDEM grant. Our goal was to expand the program throughout the rest of the County’s urban and lake areas. By building 200 rain barrels through the Rehabilitation and Industrial Services Enterprises (RISE), a non-traditional partner of conservation, who enables disabled individuals to work at their fullest potential, the program exploded as we worked with many additional partners including the City of Angola, Steuben County Lakes Council, Habitat for Humanity and other local organizations. By the end of 2011, RISE had constructed 272 barrels, with plans to incorporate the program into “RISE Creations” a new self-made product line.
The partnerships formed through these grants has not only financially supported our District, but strengthened our community by bringing it together to promote the wiser use of Steuben County’s natural resources.
We have substantially utilized the Lake and River Enhancement (LARE) program to provide financial assistance for agricultural Best Management Practices (BMPs) since our first LARE Watershed Land Treatment (WLT) project in the Turkey Creek Watershed in 2001. By 2007, we expanded our LARE program to include three watersheds (Pigeon Creek, Turkey Creek, and Ball Lake) and were the only District in the state to have three active LARE WLT grants at the same time. These LARE funds enabled us to work with landowners in these watersheds to develop conservation plans and implement BMPs on their farms.
Word of available LARE funds spread quickly over the next few years, to the point that many times we would build up a waiting list of participants by the time new LARE grants were announced. The 2010 freeze of LARE funds hit our District hard, causing some agricultural projects to go unfunded. When a minimal amount of funding was released in 2011, we were able to fund only a few projects, causing landowners’ faith in the program to dwindle, greatly reducing the momentum we had worked hard to build since 2007. LARE is up and running again for the time being; while we still struggle with putting the energy back into this program, we are confident we will succeed in restoring its strength in our District agricultural program.
Fortunately, we are a versatile District, actively seeking funding from a variety of sources and were able to continue working with our landowners on agricultural issues with funding from our IDEM 319 grants in the Pigeon Creek Watershed and Clean Water Indiana Grants. We continued building strong partnerships in the county, also working on our urban storm water conservation program with the City of Angola/Trine University MS4, Steuben County Lakes Council, and Purdue Extension through the 319 grant.
Due to the LARE funding freeze, we began looking at other funding options. The District applied and won the National Conservation Foundation Award to implement our “RISE Up to Reduce Your Stormwater” program, which expanded our successful rain barrel program started through our IDEM grant. Our goal was to expand the program throughout the rest of the County’s urban and lake areas. By building 200 rain barrels through the Rehabilitation and Industrial Services Enterprises (RISE), a non-traditional partner of conservation, who enables disabled individuals to work at their fullest potential, the program exploded as we worked with many additional partners including the City of Angola, Steuben County Lakes Council, Habitat for Humanity and other local organizations. By the end of 2011, RISE had constructed 272 barrels, with plans to incorporate the program into “RISE Creations” a new self-made product line.
The partnerships formed through these grants has not only financially supported our District, but strengthened our community by bringing it together to promote the wiser use of Steuben County’s natural resources.