Rock Creek Watershed meeting in Addison, AL on Thurs., Feb 4th at 7:00 p.m. at the Traders and Farmers Bank

A meeting for stakeholders in the Rock Creek watershed is planned for Thursday, February 4th at the Traders and Farmers Bank meeting room in Addison. The meeting will begin at 6:00 p.m. for those interested in serving on either the technical committee or the evaluation/outreach committee, with the regular meeting beginning at 7:00 p.m. The purpose of this meeting is to complete a Watershed Management Plan by mid-March. Having participation from a broad range of citizens is important to the success of this plan.

Alabama Water Watch is also planning on having bacteriological water testing training sessions on Friday and Saturday. After the training on Saturday morning, they will conduct a "Bacteria Blitz" where several volunteers will conduct bacteriological water testing at several sites in the Smith Lake Watershed. Volunteers will turn in their samples to Alabama Water Watch later on Saturday so that the samples can be incubated properly. Watch here for further details on the bacteriological water testing training.

Sponsored by Winston County Smith Lake Advocacy Inc.
& Alabama Water Watch. For information, Mona Scruggs with Alabama Water Watch at 251-282-9998, or LaVerne Matheson with WCSLAI at 256-747-4422.
Posted by Mike at 9:00 AM

Attn: Land Owners/Agricultural Producers

The Walker County Soil and Water Conservation District will be accepting cost share applications thru the end of February 2010 for the AACDC program. This program is designed to address soil erosion, forestland and grazing land. The program offers a 75% cost share rate for approved conservation practices. Some popular practices include: cross fencing, pasture planting, pasture improvement, tree planting and livestock water systems. For more information regarding this program please call 387-1879.

ACDEA scholarship applications available

The Walker County Soil & Water Conservation District is now accepting applications for a $500.00 scholarship sponsored by the Alabama Conservation District Employees Association. Applicant must be a U. S. citizen, high school senior, and living in the State of Alabama. Applications may be picked up at the District office located in the Board of Education Building, Room 207, in Jasper or may be requestd by email. Deadline to receive completed applications in the District office is March 5, 2010. For more information, please contact Katherine Patton at (205)387-1879 or by email at kpattonwalkersoil@gmail.com.

5th Annual Alabama Clean Water Partnership Conference

The Walker County Soil and Water Conservation District was recognized by the Black Warrior Clean Water Partnership at the Alabama Clean Water Partnership 5th Annual Watershed Conference that was held in Clanton, AL, on December 2, 2009. Each agency that is represented in the photo was awarded a limited edition print for their efforts in assisting the Black Warrior Clean Water Partnership. The print is the 5th in a series of numbered nature prints by Keith Smith who is a local artist. Pictured from left to right is Danny Hensley (US Army Corp of Engineers), Patti Pennington (Black Warrior Clean Water Partnership), Johnnie Johnston (Southeast Sewer Systems), Abner Patton (Patton Geologics), Ann Wynn (Geological Survey of Alabama), Katherine Patton (Walker County Soil and Water Conservation District) and Barbara Newman (Jefferson Co. Health Dept).

Cawaco RC&D Council water chemistry kit grant received

15 water chemistry kits were received and donated to Maddox Middle School and Walker High School. The kits were made available thanks to a grant that was received from the Cawaco RC&D Council. These kits will be used in science and chemistry classes to perform monthly monitoring tests on Town Creek and Doctors Branch. Each month the students will monitor temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen, oxygen saturation, total alkalinity, total hardness and turbidity and will then enter the resulting data on the Alabama Water Watch website. Maddox Middle School will be monitoring Town Creek which has recently undergone a $500,000 Cawaco funded restoration project. The kits will allow the students to study how a revitalized stream maintains a healthier aquatic ecosystem as well as providing an outdoor hands on activity along with participating in a long term study that teaches the importance of how our every day life activities impact water quality and the environment.

2009 Walker County annual land judging contest

The Walker County Soil and Water Conservation District along with the Natural Resource Conservation Service hosted the annual land judging contest for high school students on October 27th at the farm of Gene Berry located in Curry. Score cards are completed on four different land uses: cropland, pastureland, forestland and home sites. This event is designed to help the students learn more about land, soil types and capabilities, methods of soil conservation, treatments to obtain higher crop production and selection of suitable home sites. Curry High School finished 1st, Oakman High School finished 2nd and Parrish High School finished 3rd.

The Walker County Soil and Water Conservation District would like to give special thanks to Gene Berry for the use of his farm, equipment and time. We would also like to thank District One Commissioner, Dual Tubbs and his staff for digging the judging pits.

Pictured 1st place L-R: Gene Berry-landowner, Amber Johnson-NRCS District Conservationist, Cody King, Riley Goforth, Lane Keeton, Jamie Campbell, Chris McCullar-Curry High School Ag teacher.

Pictured is highest individual score L-R: Gene Berry-landowner, Amber Johnson-NRCS District Conservationist, Riley Goforth, Chris McCullar-Curry High School Ag teacher.

Governor Riley proclaims soil and water conservation week

On August 28, 2009, Governor Bob Riley signed a proclamation declaring the week of September 14, 2009 through September 19, 2009 as soil and water conservation week. Due to the signing of this proclamation I thought it would be a good time to provide a little background history as to how and why the soil and water conservation district's were formed. In 1933 the United States Department of the Interior created the Soil Erosion Services as a temporary division to deal with the widespread erosion and environmental problems such as the dust bowl. By 1935 there were 13 soil conservation camps in operation in Alabama and 3 conservation demonstration projects. Due to the increased demand for additional conservation services Franklin D. Roosevelt signed legislation creating the Soil Conservation Service which was the first soil conservation act in the history of the country. In 1937 President Roosevelt sent the Standard State Conservation Districts Law to the governor of each state, urging each state to pass enabling legislation that would allow the state to form local conservation districts. In 1939 Governor Frank Dixon signed the law creating the Alabama State Soil and Water Committee and authorized the formation of local soil and water conservation districts. There are currently more than 15,000 soil and water district supervisors directing the affairs of nearly 3,000 conservation districts across America with Alabama having 335 supervisors and 67 districts. The soil and water conservation districts are the only local unit of government charged with the responsibility of conserving Alabama's resources. The soil and water conservation district's mission is to put each acre of land in Alabama to use for which it is best suited, stop any form of soil deterioration, increase soil productivity, protect and conserve our precious water supply, and plan and implement the reforestation and replanting of the acres of countryside.