Our Haxtun Life Blog: Haxtun Conservation District

Our Haxtun Life

Haxtun Conservation District

Last Tuesday night was the Haxtun Conservation District Annual Meeting. I'm afraid it snuck up on me and I forgot to put it on the calendar. I will get better, I promise.

For those who don't know, a conservation district is a locally organized entity that promotes and supports conservation of natural resources, especially land and water. Usually, conservation districts operate on a county scale, but I'm sure there's one somewhere that does it differently. These entities exist in every state, but some states call them by different names, although I can't think of an example at the moment. Anyhow, they work in conjunction with the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS, once known as the Soil Conservation Service).

Haxtun Conservation District covers Phillips County. Denise, pictured here, is the District Manager. There is also a board of local people that guide the district. Jim, the man with Denise, was actually a board member for a neighboring district, so how he ended up working the welcome table for our district's meeting I don't know - but that's darn nice of him!

Back on topic! HCD provides technical assistance to farmers and ranchers planning new conservation practices on their land. Some examples of conservation practices are windbreaks, terraces, low pressure irrigation systems, fences and tanks for rotational grazing of cattle, and more. The district sometimes provides cost-share on projects, too. To ask about any of these practices, see the contact information below or check-out the NRCS office in your area.

The district also organizes a lot of educational activities for local kids. The big one is their annual summer day camp. I'll try to remember to put that on the calendar next summer because the kids always have a great time and learn gobs about nature.

Every year HCD hosts a meeting open to the residents in their district. The meeting consists of a presentation of the previous year's accomplishments, the plans for the upcoming year, announcement of the Conservationist of the Year, a guest speaker, and dinner (not necessarily in that order). They've also started inviting local businesses and organizations to have display tables. Above is the display for the district and below right is my husband's table for his wind turbine business.

Pictured here is Gary Hodgson, the guest speaker Tuesday night. He does the Market Report on the Livestock News Radio each day and also writes the "Under the Wire" column in our local papers. I didn't recognize him at first, but he started his talk off with the market report and suddenly his voice sounded incredibly familiar! I sometimes forget that the people I hear on the local radio stations are people that I likely run into on a regular basis and just don't realize it! Maybe I'll never get used to small town life . . .

Gary's talk was very amusing. But one very serious quote stuck out to me and I wanted to share it: "I am deeply impressed and appreciative of my neighbors and friends, the American farmers and ranchers, who care for this good earth we have been provided with to feed a sometimes ungrateful world."

Haxtun Conservation District
1280 SW Interocean Dr, Holyoke (see map)
970-854-2812 ext. 3