SWIFT COUNTY SWCD The Swift County SWCD has a variety of services to offer. Landowners and operators can receive one stop shopping for all their conservation needs……from engineering and designing conservation practices to assisting in farm planning and implementing tree and grass plantings. The SWCD has engineering staff available at the area level to survey and design plans for waterways, terraces, ag waste management systems, sediment basins, diversions and other practices. The SWCD can help install tree planting for shelterbelts, riparian buffers, wildlife plantings, direct hardwood seeding, field windbreaks and living snow fences. A grass drill is available for landowners with native grass plantings to be seeded for CRP and other programs. What is a Conservation District? In the early 1930s, along with the greatest depression this nation ever experienced, came an equally unparalleled ecological disaster known as the Dust Bowl. Following a severe and sustained drought in the Great Plains, the region's soil began to erode and blow away, creating huge black dust storms that blotted out the sun and swallowed the countryside. Thousands of "dust refugees" left the black fog to seek better lives. But the storms stretched across the nation. They reached south to Texas and east to New York. Dust even sifted into the White House and onto the desk of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. On Capitol Hill, while testifying about the erosion problem, soil scientist Hugh Hammond Bennett threw back the curtains to reveal a sky blackened by dust. Congress unanimously passed legislation declaring soil and water conservation a national policy and priority. Since about three-fourths of the continental United States is privately owned, Congress realized that only active, voluntary support from landowners would guarantee the success of conservation work on private land. In 1937, President Roosevelt wrote the governors of all the states recommending legislation that would allow local landowners to form soil conservation districts.
QUICK LINKS   What's New [pdf]   District Brochure [pdf]   CRP Programs     Tree Order Form [pdf]   Grant Reporting
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