Conservation project participants honored

By TY BEAVER

H&N Staff Writer

October 11, 2007

    MIDLAND — Getting through another year of agriculture was the cause of celebration at the annual dinner for the Klamath Soil & Water Conservation District Tuesday night. 

   The event provided the agency’s staff an opportunity to thank and congratulate those who participated in conservation projects funded both by government and private landowners. Now Klamath Basin growers need to look toward the future and continue those efforts. 

   “We’re definitely not done yet and we’ve got a lot to do,” said Lin Brooks, guest speaker with California ’s Natural Resource Conservation Services. 

   About 60 people attended the dinner held in Midland ’s Community Hall, during which staff provided a run down of the year’s activities. 

   KSWCD spent the year working with dozens of landowners on a variety of conservation projects, from juniper management to improved irrigation systems.

   The district issued 90 contracts in the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, spending $ 3.5 million to provide technical and financial assistance to those in agriculture. 

   Nearly 43,000 acres of land on the Oregon and California sides of the Klamath Basin were affected by projects this year. 

   District manager Rick Woodley said that about 50 percent of agricultural land within the Klamath Project in California has received aid from the district. On the Oregon side, it’s about 54 percent. 

   Brooks highlighted how KSWCD and similar conservation services have helped those tied to the land while also improving environmental conditions. He congratulated those in the Klamath Project for continuing to move forward after the water shutoff of 2001. 

   Despite those steps forward, Brooks and others with KSWCD stressed that agriculture must continue to adapt to a changing physical and political environment.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, any copyrighted
material  herein is distributed without profit or payment to those who have
expressed  a  prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit
research and  educational purposes only. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml

Source:  http://pioneer.olivesoftware.com/Daily/Skins/heraldandnews/

navigator.asp?skin=heraldandnews