The SWCD has worked hard to complete our mission statement and provide conservation services to county landowners and producers and that hard work has paid off. The attached map speaks volumes for the endless amount of work that the SWCD Administrator, Erica Burkemper-Fischer, and the SWCD Supervisors and staff has put into this effort which would not be possible without chasing state and federal funding. Highlights of this effort include:
• Pike County, sitting at #72 out of 92 counties in the state agricultural rankings, is home to an SWCD that currently holds the state record for the largest amount of Clean Water Indiana (CWI) grants ever awarded to a District directly or through partnerships (see map on next page). Through endless meetings, hours spent grant writing and networking, the Pike SWCD District Administrator has secured almost $1,000,000.00 in state funds for conservation efforts.
• Currently, the Pike SWCD has FOUR active soil technicians employed by CWI grant funding – again, holding another record in the state for the amount of technicians funded by a CWI and staffed in an SWCD. At any given time there are five people in the SWCD office working on soil & water conservation efforts when five years ago there was just one part-time administrator.
• In the past three years, the SWCD alone - through grant funding - has cost shared on over 3,500 acres. Cost share projects have included rain barrels, cover crops, no-till and grid sampling.
• 2014 saw the highest number of grants awarded to Pike County for a total of six funded. Each year, the District Administrator has set Pike on the map to be a partner in as many grants as possible to keep the technicians and cost share program funded. For 2015 we were awarded just three grants but it still resulted in another job creation and more funds for our cost share program.
And this is just a fraction of the work that the SWCD has done. At the end of 2015, the Pike SWCD was notified that their application for a federally funded grant program through the Indiana Department of Environmental Management had been awarded. Called a 319 Watershed Implementation Grant, the application continues to focus on the Middle Patoka Watershed with a critical area being deemed south of Otwell, west of Hwy. 61 and north of Hwy. 64 with some of the area spilling over into Dubois County too. The Board of Supervisors and staff was elated to learn that their application had been selected for funding and are eager to start assisting landowners and producers in that critical area who will be able to receive cost share opportunities on conservation practices to improve their soil health and water purity.