WARRICK COUNTY 2017 DISTRICT SUCCESS STORY
Warrick County SWCD had several successful ventures in the year 2017. The district wrote an effective Clean Water Indiana grant addressing urban conservation practices. Partnering county SWCD’s included in the grant are Vanderburgh and Posey. By means of CWI funds and district cash match, and in partnership with Warrick County Storm Water agency, Warrick County 4-H Board and Warrick County Highway Garage, a conservation exhibit has been constructed on the grounds of Warrick County 4-H Center. The exhibit includes examples of cover crops, a pollinator garden, a xeriscaping garden, a rainwater capturing system, and a rain garden. A workshop for interested parties combined the efforts of all three districts and was funded as a portion of this grant.
In addition to the CWI grant funding, the district was successful in securing an ALCOA Foundation grant that allowed the purchase of a no-till drill, a very effective tool in establishing additional acres of cover crops and pasture lands. Some additional highlights of this cost-share grant include agricultural (filter strips, livestock exclusion, nutrient scavenging crop planting and prescribed grazing) and residential cost-share practices (alternative groundcovers, rain gardens, tree planting and water harvesting). The combination of these grants adds to the recently-updated SWCD’s business plan and our commitment to raising awareness of soil health in southwest Indiana.
The district secured a contribution agreement with the National Resource Conservation Services (NRCS) aimed at urban conservation on a smaller scale. With NRCS funding, an urban conservationist has been employed and is based in the Boonville office. The priority of this agreement is to establish local working groups that combine both SWCD employees, partnering agencies and land owners in the joint effort to promote soil conservation efforts in the developed, urban areas of the Indiana NRCS southwest administrative area and to provide technical assistance to those interested groups.
In Field Advantage is another program the district is heavily involved in, working with small regional groups of farmers who are interested in improving their nutrient use efficiency on their corn fields. Our staff helped collect corn stalk samples for submission and analysis of producers’ future management considerations.
The district was also awarded a Toyota Foundation grant to build an “Augmented Reality Sandbox”, a hands-on sandbox exhibit that combines 3D visualization of land elevation, topographic contour lines and simulation of a water feature. District staff utilized this display at the 2018 AG-Days, an event sponsored by Purdue Extension for Warrick County 3rd graders, and it was very well received.
SWCD staff has been involved in Envirothon (an event for high school students interested in pursuing an agricultural degree or similar career path) by contributing in-kind hours to the events. Staff assisted the regional Envirothon committee with an event held at Camp Illiana in 2017. Additionally, Warrick County SWCD will be hosting the regional Envirothon competition in the spring of 2019.
Gibson, Pike, Posey, Vanderburgh and Warrick SWCDs have been active in Women4TheLand workshops, hosting a pollinator event and a pasture grazing event in 2017. These workshops are limited to 25 participants plus agency staff, and have had a waiting list of interested women as a result.
The SWCD hosted “Adventures in Agriculture” through another Toyota Foundation grant. This event was advertised to all Warrick County elementary students and included a farm equipment display, a raptor presentation, a reptile demonstration, and soil health/water health elements.
Submitted by Susan King/Warrick County SWCD office manager