District seeks new board member

RBC I The White River Conservation District was established on June 23, 1964, with the mission to provide guidance and technical assistance to encourage and promote the wise use of all the natural resources within the district by private landowners and government land management agencies.The district is governed by a five-member board comprised of landowners whose land falls within the district boundaries. The district is currently looking for an additional board member. Current board members include: president J.D. Amick; vice president Gary Moyer; secretary/treasurer Neil Brennan and supervisors Allan Jones and Bill Lake. Terms are for four years and there are two required meetings per month. The first meeting is the White River meeting and the other meeting is the Upper Colorado Environmental Plant Center (UCEPC) meeting. The White River district is co-owner of the UCEPC with the Douglas Creek Conservation District and thus both districts are on the UCEPC board and are required to attend their meeting once per month. The district has a three-year plan derived from an input session where local landowners provide their input on how the district should focus time and efforts. The district develops an annual plan of work and budget based on the long range plan. During the 2010 input session, local landowners told the district they want time and efforts devoted to weed and pest management, wildlife, public lands management, rangeland health and water quality/quantity. Therefore, the district has held a range monitoring workshop, diligently worked to encourage BLM to comply with their range management plan, provided technical assistance on rangeland health and water conservation, and hosted a worker protection standards workshop for pesticide/herbicide applications. The district budget is adopted in December and the funding comes from sources such as the mill levy, matching grants, direct assistance grants and district programs. The district’s landowner services include the sale of seedling trees, stocker fish and Polyacrylamide (PAM). They offer rental equipment including no till drill, weed sprayers and broadcast seeder. The education program consists of offering youth and teachers scholarships to camps and workshops, sixth grade conservation poster contests and college scholarships for students going into natural resource or agriculture fields. The district hosts the annual meeting to provide landowners a report on activities and a July landowner appreciation barbecue.The district employs a district manager (Stacey Gould) who handles the day to day operations of the district, an executive director (Callie Hendrickson) who handles all the policy issues, and a district technician (Matt Scott) who offers technical expertise to landowners. The district partners with NRCS for on-the-ground conservation efforts to enhance and promote the lands across the district. Additionally, they also partner with local and state governmental agencies, groups and industries to carry the voice of the local landowners.  If you are a landowner and interested in becoming actively involved in natural resource conservation, please call or come by the office at 351 Seventh St., (970)878-5628 ext 3.