Download pdf - Gibson County Soil & Water, January 2015

Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2015 • 6:00 p.m. New Princeton Community High School Cafeteria

The 68th Annual

February 2015Page 2 Princeton Daily clarion February 2015

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Annual SWCD meeting Feb. 10Gibson County Soil & Water

Conservation District’s (SWCD) 68th annual meet-

ing will be held at 6 p.m. on Tues-day, Feb. 10, at the new Princeton Community High School Cafeteria, 1101 N Main Street, Princeton. The evening’s speaker will be Scott Ham, State Soil Conservation Board.

The SWCD will share 2014’s accomplishments and plans for 2015.

Award presentations for 2014 will include: Conservation Farmer, Greg Obert; Friend of Conservation, John Parke Excavating; River Friendly Farmer Joe Kissel; and Gibson Southern High School’s winning Soils Judging team.

Tickets cost $8. Call the SWCD at 385-5033, option 3, to reserve tickets or email [email protected]

Across Indiana, SWCDs help Indi-ana residents conserve land, water, forests, wildlife and related natural resources that encompass the state’s 23 million acres.

2014 Gibson County SWCD Board of Supervisors, Staff

Matt Michel was elected as a supervisor in 2010 after serving as an associ-ate, and was then elected to a second term. Matt is a gradu-ate of Gib-son South-ern High School and Purdue Univer-sity. He is the District Sales Manager for Agri-Gold Hybrids. Matt serves as board chairman.

Dave Gress was elected in 2011 and is unopposed this year. Dave is a crop insurance agent and livestock/grain farmer. He has previously

served as an associ-ate SWCD supervisor. He and his wife Karen live in rural Princeton.

Dave Greubel is a farmer and school bus driver. He resides in rural Haub-stadt with his wife Brenda. They are the parents of two grown children and have seven grandchildren.

Kenny Page was elected as a super-visor in 2014 and has served as a supervi-sor in the past. Kenny farms and lives in Oakland City with his wife, Judy. They have three grown chil-dren and one grand-daughter, with another grandchild on the way later this year.

Dave Weber is a new supervisor, appointed in 2014. He farms and lives in Francisco with his wife, Mary. They have four grown children and two grandchil-dren.

Jim Buck (not pic-tured) is a new associate supervisor, coming on the board in 2014. Jim lives in east-ern Gibson County.

Steve Doerner (not pictured) has been an associate supervisor for the past several years and has been a supervisor in the past. He farms and lives in Elberfeld with his wife, Lita. They have three grown sons and three grand-children.

Cleora-mae G Stunkel (not pictured) is currently an associate supervisor. She lives in rural Haubstadt on her family farm and has served as a supervisor in the past. She is a retired minister and has installed numerous conservation practices.

Greg Obert (not pictured) is cur-rently an associate supervisor, but has been a supervisor in the past. He says he is semi-retired from farming, living in rural Fort Branch with his wife, Rose.

They have four grown children and nine grandchildren.

Page 3Princeton Daily clarionFebruary 2015

Gibson County SWCD office staff (l-r): Tabitha Anthis, office manager; Matt Robinette, technician; Ann Ice, educa-tion coordinator.

Matt Michel

Dave Gress

Dave Greubel

Kenny Page

Dave Weber

Page 4 Princeton Daily clarion February 2015

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Gibson County’s 2014 Conservation Farmer

Greg Obert has been named the Conservation Farmer of the Year by the Gibson County Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD)’s board

of supervisors. Greg lives on a farm in rural Fort Branch where he raises corn and soybeans.

Greg and Rose Obert were married in 1978 and have four children: Lori, Elizabeth, Martthew and Sarah. They have nine grandchildren.

Since 1980, Greg has been an SWCD cooperator. At that time, Greg had quite a bit of erosion on his property and that of his landowners. He started working to help the erosion. Much of Greg’s farmland is highly-erodible ground.

In 1984, he started working on a large-scale with no-till. In 1990, he had approximately 200 acres of no-till.

Today, though he says he is “semi-retired,” he no-tills about 440 acres.

Greg has installed several conservation practices, including WASCOB’s (water and sediment control basins) and filter strips.

The local NRCS/SWCD helped design many of these installations.

Greg serves as an associate supervisor on the Gibson County SWCD board.

What is Greg’s advice to farmers just starting out in

conservation? “You can’t just no-till. You gotta do it right. You need a fertilizer program, a chemical program, and an insect program that works.”

Greg will be honored at the district’s 2015 Annual Meet-ing. Congratulations, Greg!

Greg Obert


Gibson County’s 2014 Friend of ConservationJohn Parke Excavating of Oakland City has been

named 2014 Friend of Conservation by the Gibson Coun-ty Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD)’s board of supervisors.

John has been a partner in hundreds of conservation practices both inside and outside of Gibson County. These conservation practices include Water And Sedi-ment Control Basins (WASCOB’s) to keep sediment and nutrients out of waterways to allow producers to farm

more efficiently, grassed waterways to control soil ero-sion, grade stabilization structures (rock chutes at the end of waterways), and tile work.

John does not advertise at all. He is known only by word-of-mouth and stays very busy with conservation practices. That alone speaks volumes about his work ethic and experience.

John will be honored at the district’s 2015 Annual Meeting. Congratulations to John Parke Excavating!

Gibson County’s 2014 River-Friendly FarmerJoe Kissel of Princeton has been selected as the 2014

River Friendly Farmer by the Gibson County SWCD board of supervisors.

Joe strives to conserve soil on his farming operation through filter strips, water and sediment control basins (WASCOB’s) to keep sediment and nutrients out of waterways, and some no-till. He raises corn and beans on 2,800 acres.Joe has served as a SWCD board supervi-sor in the past.Joe will be honored at the district’s 2015 Annual Meeting and receive a sign for his farm. Con-gratulations, Joe!

The River-Friendly Farmer award was initiated in 1999 as a statewide initiative recognizing farmers who, through good production management, help keep Indi-ana’s rivers, lakes and streams clean.

This award is made possible by the Indiana Associa-tion of Soil and Water Conservation Districts, Indiana’s ninety-two SWCDs, Indiana Farm Bureau, Indiana State Department of Agriculture, Division of Soil Conserva-tion, Purdue Cooperative Extension Service, and the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS).


Farm Service Agency Implements New Farm BillBy Janet Ault

County Executive Director, Gibson County Farm Service Agency

The implementation of the 2014 Farm Bill is here and well underway in USDA Service Centers across the great state of Indiana and the rest of the country. As produc-ers, you have many choices this year on FSA programs and there are plenty of places to seek advice. To help with some of those decisions, USDA has collaborated with universities and cooperative state extension ser-vices to develop online decision tools and other materials and train experts to educate producers about several key farm bill programs. Our FSA employees stand ready to serve you in our offices. With that being said, I’ll give you a brief overview of the new programs and some important deadlines that need to be met.

- The first programs to roll out under the new 2014 Farm Bill in the spring of 2014 were the Livestock Indemnity Program (LIP), the Livestock Forage Program (LFP), Emergency Assistance for Livestock, Honeybees, and Farm-Raised Fish Program (ELAP), and the Tree Assistance Program (TAP). The LIP and LFP programs provide assistance for livestock deaths and grazing losses that have occurred since the expiration of the livestock

disaster assistance programs in 2011. The ELAP program provides emergency assistance to eligible producers of livestock, honeybees, and farm-raised fish that have loss-es due to disease, adverse weather, or other conditions. TAP provides financial assistance to qualifying orchard-ists and nursery tree growers to replant or rehabilitate eligible trees, bushes, and vines damaged by natural disasters.

- The Margin Protection Program (MPP) replaced the Milk Income Loss Coverage (MILC) program in the fall of 2014. This voluntary program provides financial assistance to participating farmers when the margin – the difference between the prices of milk and feed costs – falls below the coverage level selected by the farmer. This allows our dairy producers to build a safety net and fits the need of their operation.

- The Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC) and Price Loss Coverage (PLC) are the new programs under the 2014 Farm Bill that have probably been one of the most significant reforms to U.S farm programs in decades. These programs are designed to help farmers better man-age risk and ensure families don’t lose the farm because of events beyond their control. The two plans available

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through the ARC program are the ARC-County and ARC-Individual. The ARC-County option estimates individual crop revenue based on countywide projec-tions. Under the ARC-Individual option, farmers receive payments based on their own past revenues, on a whole farm basis. Under the PLC program, payments are made on a crop-by-crop basis if the national price of that com-modity fall below the reference price established in the Farm Bill Legislation. It is a three-step process to elect and enroll in one of these programs. The first step and most critical deadline at the moment involving all of these options is February 27, 2015. This is the deadline for landowners to make the decision to reallocate bases and/or update yields on their farm. In addition to the tools developed by the universities, our FSA office may provide you with additional information on your bases and yields to assist with your decision. Once the land-owner has made the base reallocation/yield update deci-sion, then the second step of electing ARC or PLC can be completed. Producers receiving a share of the crop will need to decide if they want to elect PLC, ARC-County, or ARC-Individual by the deadline of March 31, 2015. The third and final step will be to actually enroll the farm for

the crop years of 2014 and 2015. This will be done from mid-April 2015 through the summer of 2015. The enroll-ment process will need to be completed annually through the duration of this farm bill. If you haven’t done so already, please contact the FSA office right away to get started on the process.

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- The Noninsured Crop Disaster Program (NAP) has undergone some positive changes under the new Farm Bill. The new options provide greater coverage for losses when natural disasters affect specialty crops such as vegetables, fruits, mushrooms, floriculture, ornamen-tal nursery, aquaculture, turf grass, ginseng, honey, syr-up, and energy crops. Similar to commodity crop insur-ance, specialty crop growers will be able to purchase similar levels of protection ensuring these farmers can adequately protect themselves from factors beyond their control and is also critical for consumers who enjoy these products.

- A few of our programs have continued under the new 2014 Farm Bill. The Continuous Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) CRP is a voluntary program that allows eligible landowners to receive annual rental payments and cost-share assistance to establish long-term, resource-conserving covers on eligible farmland throughout the duration of their 10 to 15 year contracts. The Farm Storage Facility Loan Program (FSFL) offers low-interest loans to grain producers to build new or upgrade existing storage facilities and permanent drying and handling equipment.

Marketing Assistance Loans (MAL) are available to

eligible producers beginning with harvest/shearing sea-son and extending through a specific commodity’s final loan availability date. Beginning Farmer Loans assist beginning farmers to finance eligible applicants through either direct or guaranteed loans. Acreage Reporting Dates are still on the agenda and are required to comply with FSA program eligibility.

The following acreage reporting dates are applicable for Indiana: December 15-fall mint and fall seeded small grains, January 15-apples, and July 15-all other crops. And finally, Conservation Compliance continues to link eligibility for payments and benefits to compliance with restrictions on highly erodible land and wetlands.

Many producers have already received important bene-fits from the new programs under the 2014 Farm Bill. We anticipate a lot of activity in the FSA County Office over the next few weeks due to the tight timeline to help our producers with their elections and enrollments.

I plan to present additional information at the Farm-ers Meeting on February 9, 2015 at Gibson Southern High School, sponsored by the Gibson County Extension Service

. If you have questions, please contact the Gibson Coun-ty Farm Service Agency at 812-385-5033, ext. 2 or visit the office at 229 S 2nd Ave., Princeton, IN 47670.


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SWCD/Purdue Extension partnerships successfulBy Hans Schmitz

Extension Educator

In 2014 Purdue Extension of Gibson County and the Gibson County Soil and Water Conservation District shared many experiences and programs together, espe-cially as part of the Indiana Conservation Partnership. In particular this year,

• PurdueExtensionandSWCDsharenewsletterspace and newspaper article space to allow for more pub-licity for each of our programs.

• AttendingaConservationSellingSkillswork-shop increased the ability of natural resource profession-al to promote on-farm conservation. Also, the workshops increased the diversity of different ways to use “soil health” in a sentence.

• PurdueExtensioneducatorsandMasterGarden-ers are perennially present at the Fourth Grade Farm Fair, a great educational opportunity for county youth.

• SWCDandPurdueExtensioncollaboratedtopro-mote Area Corn and Soybean Day, the Soil Health Expo, and the Oakland City Cover Crop Breakfast, among oth-ers, in 2014.

• PurdueExtensionpromotedSWCDeventsincluding cost-shares, grant projects, the SWCD Annual Meeting, and other exciting opportunities.

• SWCDannuallysponsorstheSoilandWaterCon-servation 4-H Project Special Awards.

• SWCDboardmeetingsareattendedbytheAgri-culture and Natural Resources (ANR) Extension Educa-tor when possible.

• AmemberoftheSWCDboardservesonthePur-due Extension ANR Educator’s advisory council.

• SWCD,ISDA,NRCS,andPurdueExtensionareworking together in Southwest Indiana to offer the On-Farm Network, an opportunity for watershed farmers to analyze their nutrient management.

• TheConservationCroppingSystemsInitiativeRegional Hubs include collaboration within the entire Indiana Conservation Partnership, of which IASWCD and Purdue Extension are members. There were mul-tiple educational opportunities in the past year through this initiative.

As we look forward into 2015, many more opportuni-ties will exist for collaboration in serving the citizens of Gibson County. May the partnerships between our com-munity organizations continue, and continue to be pro-ductive, in the coming year and years to follow.

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Area Students Participate in Soils ContestBy Ann Ice

Gibson County SWCD Education Coordinator

The Southwest Soils Judging Evaluation was recently held with 50 students competing in Beuligman Brothers’ pasture near Poseyville. Gibson County teams attending were Gibson Southern High School FFA members with sponsor Richard Ritter, and the Arrow True 4-H Club with sponsor Julie Loehr. Other area teams were: Castle, Mount Vernon, and North Posey high schools. This was Castle’s first year in our contest and we welcome them!

In the contest, students tested their knowledge of the area soils. Four soil pits were dug and questions were answered on the soil profile at each site. There were two sites designated as home-sites where students deter-mined if it would be a good site to build a house. The oth-er two holes had questions related to agricultural sites.

Contest winners were determined by the sum of the top four individual scores from each school. Gibson South-ern won with a score of 1509; second place was North Posey with 1364, and Mt. Vernon was third with 1201. The individual top four scores for winning Gibson Southern

were: Caleb Ziliak, 399, Sinda Simmers, 374, Collin Rein-brecht, 372 and Mark Naas, 364.

The contest’s format changed this year. Students visited and evaluated holes at their convenience in the evening. Thank you to soil contest volunteers! The event was planned and sponsored by the Gibson, Posey, Van-derburgh, and Warrick County SWCD’s, and rotates through the counties each year. The 2015 contest will be held on September 1 in Warrick County.

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Southwest SWCD Contractor Workshop is a Huge Success

By Erica Burkemper-Fischer

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Five area Soil and Water Conservation Districts teamed up with the Natural Resources Conserva-tion Service (NRCS) to host a free Contractor’s

Workshop and Breakfast for area excavating contractors. This workshop was held January 23 at the Wirth Park

Community Building in Oakland City. Over 60 contractors representing 19 companies, agency

partners and others interested in the technical side of conservation were in attendance, coming from as far east as Spencer County, Indiana and as far west as Law-renceville, Illinois.

The morning kicked off with introductions of the hosts:

Gibson, Pike, Posey, Vanderburgh and Warrick County SWCDs, and NRCS technicians.

Wes Bryan, NRCS Area Ag Engineer, took the reins and discussed the future of the NRCS Tech team and gave updates on the survey, design and layout of projects in the near future.

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IDEM representative David Carr followed Shepard with a presentation on IDEM Permitting 101 and answered several questions on issues about this topic.

The morning ended with ten attendees receiving door prizes of shirts from the Gibson, Pike, and Posey County SWCD’s, and also free equipment rental tickets from the Warrick County SWCD.


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2014 SWCD Poster Contest WinnersBy Tabitha Anthis

Gibson County SWCD Office Manager

Gibson County SWCD held their annual Poster Contest for all Gibson County 5th Grade students. This year’s poster theme was “Dig Deeper into the Mysteries of the Soil”.

The top three winners were from Barton Elementary School. First place was Mavren Heavrin and second place was Anthony Siekman (both pictured at right).

Third place was Trinity Taylor (not available for photo). Honorable mentions were: TaraKate Thompson of Bethel School, and Elizabeth Rich-ardt of Barton Elementary School.

Posters were judged on conserva-tion message, visual effectiveness, originality, and universal appeal. Staff, supervisors, and others in the conservation partnership judged the

posters. The first place poster was sent to the state contest.

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SWCD Grant UpdateClean Water Indiana (CWI) Grantsfrom the Indiana State Department of AgricultureIn 2012 Pike County was awarded $30,000 to partner

with Gibson County for a part-time technician for three years. In 2015 Pike and Gibson Counties were awarded $75,000 to extend the technician position full-time thru 2017. This technician checks fields for residue manage-ment, cover crops and no-till planting, assists with transect studies, produces maps, enters data to generate reports, and performs many other helpful task for the districts, ISDA and NRCS.

In 2013 Gibson County was awarded a grant for $25,000 to partner with Pike County to cost share with landown-ers on fall cover crops and spring no-till planting. All these funds have been spent to cost share on 1,557 acres in Gibson County and 1,285 in Pike County.

In 2014 Gibson County was awarded a $75,000 grant to partner with Pike County to cost share with landown-ers for planting fall cover crops and spring no-till plant-ing. All grant funds have been spent on fall cover crops or allocated for spring no-till planting. Gibson has cost shared on 1,374 acres and Pike has cost shared on 1,664 acres.

In 2014 Posey County SWCD received a CWI grant for $51,000 for cover crops and no-till planting.

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This grant is nearly completed. This was a joint grant between Posey, Gibson, Pike, Vanderburgh, and Warrick counties.A three-year 2015 CWI grant is $75,000 for an additional agronomic technician to assist NRCS in Pike, Gibson, Posey, Vanderburgh, and Warrick counties. This new person will be announced in the near future.

The Dubois County SWCD received a 2015 CWI grant for $75,000 and will be partnering with Gibson, Pike and Posey County SWCDs. The purpose of this grant is to reduce sediment and nutrients from non-point sources and improve water quality by encouraging producers to utilize soil testing, no-till, and cover crops. Details to qualify for this grant will be available in the spring.

With funds from the CWI grants, many educational events have been held such as a contractor’s workshop, women in agriculture evening, conservation breakfast, soil health workshop, and other events.

The Southwest Indiana districts also partnered with the Conservation Cropping Systems Initiative (CCSI) and Southwest Purdue Extensions for some events.

Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) 319 Grant

A grant was awarded by IDEM in 2006 to develop a Watershed Management Plan for the Patoka River water-shed in Gibson County.

The plan was completed September of 2008. Gibson County SWCD was awarded an implementation grant in 2013 and moved forward with implementation in 2014.

The grant for $236,950 allows $118,500 to be used for Best Management Practices in the target sub-watersheds of Yellow/Goose Creek, Houchins Cutoff/Indiana Creek and Trippett Ditch. Julie Loehr was hired in 2014 as the Watershed Coordinator to oversee the implementation of the conservation practices and Ann Ice is the grant manager.

LARE awarded by Dept. of Natural ResourcesThe Gibson County SWCD was awarded $13,500 for

conservation practices in the Scott and Loeffler water-sheds near Owensville. There is currently $7,200 avail-able for landowners to cost share on practices that would reduce sediment and nutrients from non-point sources and improve water quality. This grant will end in 2015.

For grant information, contact the Gibson County SWCD at 812-385-5033 extension 3. Contact Julie Loehr for cost share information on the IDEM Patoka River grant. For CWI and LARE grants, contact Ann Ice.

Gibson County has acquired, assisted, and partnered in managing $656,450 in grants for conservation practices since 2012. Ann Ice also acquired funding grants from Toyota Motor Manufacturing and Duke Energy to bring the World Bird Sanctuary’s Birds of Prey program to all Gibson County third grade students.


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Gibson SWCD Hires Watershed CoordinatorBy Ann Ice


Gibson County SWCD hired Julie Loehr as the Water-shed Coordinator to implement the requirements of the Districts 319 grant awarded by the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) in 2014.

The position involves meeting with landowners, evalu-ating their land use issues and coordinating educational outreach programs to promote implementation of prac-tices to improve and conserve natural resources within the Patoka River Watershed.

Landowners in the Lower Patoka River watershed can contact Loehr to discuss the cost-share program and Best Management Practices offered to help improve water quality in the critical areas. Implementation will be in the critical areas of Houchins Cutoff/Indian Creek, Yel-low/Goose Creek and Trippett Ditch. Cost share projects currently being designed and considered for implemen-tation are: cover crops, stream crossings, WASCoB sys-tems, and grassed waterways.

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Fourth Grade Farm Fair More Than AnimalsBy Ann Ice


Gibson County SWCD held their 28th annual Fourth Grade Farm Fair at the Gibson County Fairgrounds Pavilion in April 2014. There were 21 sessions of vari-ous topics for students. All Gibson County fourth grade students were invited to attend the presentations given by tri-state volunteers. Over 350 students, teachers and school assistants visited the 21 stations. Ann Ice coordi-nated the event.

Farm Fair sponsors were Farm Bureau of Princeton and Superior Ag Resources of Gibson County. Funds were also contributed by Duke Energy and Toyota Motor Manufacturing of Indiana. Door prizes for presenters were donated by Taco Tierra, F&M Hardware, Dick Clark’s Family Restaurant, Gibson County SWCD and First Place Trophies, all in Princeton; and White River Valley Honey, Matt Collins.

New presenters for 2014 were: Megan Hoffherr, Pur-due Extension, providing information on the cycle milk takes from farm to store shelf; Bill Tuley, Gibson County Health Department, food safety; and SWCD Watershed Coordinator Julie Loehr and her son Joe gave an inter-active session on water quality. Master Gardeners June

Neyhouse and Judi Miller did a backyard conservation session. New this year with animals were: Chris and Jen-nifer MacKay with different breeds of chickens; and Cin-dy Titzer with her hog, Miss Charlotte, with help from Deann Gress and Kenny Page. After helping his mother for many years with the horse presentation, Colt Hadley had his own session on donkeys. We were glad to have the addition of these presenters this year.

We appreciate returning presenters: Jamen Frederick, wildlife; Darlene Cromer, laundry of the past; Kanda Walden, recycling; Pat Sauer, quilting; Chuck Froehle, conserving currents; Stanley Madison and Krista Hadley, Lyle Station School; Debi Tomassetti, wool and spinning; Tim Jones, farm safety; CJ Sauer, blacksmithing; Matt Robinette, pollution; and Dave Kunkel, antique tractors. Master Gardeners helping during the day-long event were Joe Padgett, Judy Dossett, Charlie Miller and Doris Glover.

Returning animal presenters were: Matt, Larry and Emma Robling, fainting goats; Diane Hadley, horses; and John Feutz, DVM, and Lisa Bloodworth, bovine provided by Henry Rexing. Teams and wagons for horse-drawn wagon rides were furnished by Mike Ice, and Rodney and Shawna Weems. Wagon helpers were Luke, Drew, and

Continued on page 19

Gibson Homeschool Team Wins State EnvirothonBy Julie Loehr

Gibson County SWCD Watershed Coordinator

The Gibson County Homeschool Envirothon team competed in the State Envirothon contest on Wednesday, April 30that the Beck Ag Center on Purdue’s West Lafay-ette campus. They won first place in oral presentation and first place team overall.

With this win, they earned the right to represent Indi-ana at the Regional Stewardship Challenge at Loyola Uni-versity, Woodstock, Illinois.

The team consists of: Colson and Kanaan Doyle, Ivy Heldt, Rebekah Munro, and Tyler Pressley. Jacob Loehr was the alternate. The team is coached by Julie Loehr and is partial supported by the Gibson County SWCD.

Seventeen teams throughout Indiana qualified for the state competition by placing at state regional competi-tions. Several SWCD employees, including Ann Ice from Gibson, Jeri Ziliak from Posey, and Erica Fischer from Pike, were assisted by other southwest district staff at the local regional contest held at Hornady Park in Peters-burg. Gibson Homeschool team placed first at this contest with Washington High School finishing second and Vin-cennes Rivet third. All three teams were invited to the state competition at Purdue.

The Envirothon is a competitive learning event for high schoolers that tests students’ knowledge of Free Hoosier Riverwatch

Training ScheduledBy Julie Loehr


Middle Patoka River Watershed Coordinator Julie Loehr announces a free Hoosier Riverwatch Training on Wednesday, March 4th, 2015 at Sugar Ridge Fish and Wildlife Area (2310 E SR 364, Winslow).

Gibson County SWCD District Educator Ann Ice will lead the workshop.

At the training, attendees will learn to assess a stream’s water quality by spending the morning session in a classroom and the afternoon session in a wadeable stream.

Volunteers will learn accurate testing methods for habitat, chemical and biological assessment, and quality control for accuracy.

All workshop materials are free, but will need to be ordered for attendees. Pre-registration is required due to limited space. To register call Julie Loehr at 812-779-7924 or e-mail: [email protected].

After completing the training you will have informa-tion to enter data on the Hoosier Riverwatch website and receive your Hoosier Riverwatch training card.

Page 19February 2015 Princeton Daily clarion

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Fourth Grade Farm FairContinued from page 18

Jim Ice. Dan Lashbrook, and Darrell, Becky and Kier-sten Rexing also helped with animals. Presenters are happy to be part of this educational experience and look forward to returning each year. Some take time from work and from their busy schedules to assist. It takes many willing individuals cooperating to make the farm fair a success.

Thank you to the Princeton FFA for help with facilities and to everyone who assisted. Anyone interested in help-ing with or participating in next year’s farm fair should call Ann Ice at 812-385-5033, extension 110, or email [email protected]. To keep up with SWCD events and activities, like us on Facebook or visit www.gibsonswcd.org.

Gibson Homeschool Team Wins State EnvirothonBy Julie Loehr


The Gibson County Homeschool Envirothon team competed in the State Envirothon contest on Wednesday, April 30that the Beck Ag Center on Purdue’s West Lafay-ette campus. They won first place in oral presentation and first place team overall.

With this win, they earned the right to represent Indi-ana at the Regional Stewardship Challenge at Loyola Uni-versity, Woodstock, Illinois.

The team consists of: Colson and Kanaan Doyle, Ivy Heldt, Rebekah Munro, and Tyler Pressley. Jacob Loehr was the alternate. The team is coached by Julie Loehr and is partial supported by the Gibson County SWCD.

Seventeen teams throughout Indiana qualified for the state competition by placing at state regional competi-tions. Several SWCD employees, including Ann Ice from Gibson, Jeri Ziliak from Posey, and Erica Fischer from Pike, were assisted by other southwest district staff at the local regional contest held at Hornady Park in Peters-burg. Gibson Homeschool team placed first at this contest with Washington High School finishing second and Vin-cennes Rivet third. All three teams were invited to the state competition at Purdue.

The Envirothon is a competitive learning event for high schoolers that tests students’ knowledge of

environmental resources including: soils, aquatics, for-estry, wildlife, and a current topic. This year’s current topic is Sustainable Local Agriculture.

At Envirothon competitions, teams consisting of five students take written tests and then use teamwork to develop creative solutions to environmental problems which are presented orally before a panel of judges.

The Indiana Academic Standards are taken into consid-eration in the structure of Indiana’s Envirothon Competi-tion and are covered in part or fully at each contest.

Gibson County SWCD will pay the registration fees for up to three county high school teams to attend.

The first place Gibson County team will receive $150 and the second place team $50.

Page 20 February 2015Princeton Daily clarion

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Boy Scout Merit Badge Workshop Successful

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Posey County SWCD Soil Technician

Southwest Indiana Soil & Water Conservation Dis-tricts (SWCDs) sponsored a Boy Scout merit badge workshop on Soil and Water Conservation on May 17th at Camp Reveal. Twenty boys from Gibson, Pike, Posey, Vanderburgh, and Dubois counties participated, includ-ing: Mark Abell, Alex Allen, Maxwell Braselton, Ben Hausmann, Ben Hess, Logan Hunter, Ian Kyle, Eric Loveless, William Mast, Ryan Maynard, Tensei Naka-maura, Gabe Pfeffer, Thomas Rapp, Jacob Schneider, Caleb Sholtz, Michael Simutus, Cameron Smith, Michael Smith, Braden Tucker, and Alex Ward.

The boys spent the morning learning about soil forma-tion, erosion, best management practices, water pollu-tion, and wastewater treatment. In the afternoon, they planted 100 black walnut and 100 tulip poplar trees to replace trees that had been blown down during a storm at Camp Reveal. Congratulations to the boys who com-pleted the badge!

The event was coordinated by Carrie Parmenter, with help from Gibson County SWCD Education Coordinator Ann Ice and Vanderburgh County SWCD Secretary Erin Shoup. Assistance was also provided by retired NRCS Engineering Tech Chuck Froehle, John Smith, and Jeff Loveless.


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Birds Soar for Local StudentsBy Tabitha Anthis

Gibson County SWCD Office Manager

On May 19-20, third grade students enjoyed World Bird Sanctuary’s “Birds of Prey” educational bird program at public and private schools in North, South, and East Gibson School Corporations.

The birds visited North Gibson’s Princeton Commu-nity Intermediate School gymnasium, East Gibson Oak-land City Elementary School and South Gibson’s Fort Branch Elementary School. Presenters were naturalist Sarah Oliver from St. Louis, Missouri, and intern Sarah Cambron from Oxford, England. Diurnal birds (birds awake during the day) were: Wyatt, a Harris hawk; Flip, a red-shoulder hawk; Desi, a hooded vulture; and Detour, an American kestrel. Nocturnal birds (birds awake at night) were: Junior, a 28-year-old great horned owl; Timber, a tiny Eastern screech owl; Silo, a barn owl; and Sanibel, a bald eagle. To the audience’s amazement, many birds flew from handler to handler, and a breeze could be felt when the birds flew overhead. Children saw the birds up close and were able to ask questions.

These programs, made possible by generous grants from Toyota Motor Manufacturing Indiana and Duke Energy, were also supported by the Mt. Olympus Com-munity Center. Programs were coordinated by Gibson County SWCD Education Coordinator Ann Ice. For more information, visit www.WorldBirdSanctuary.org.

Page 22 February 2015Princeton Daily clarion

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August 6 Soil Expo involves 5 SWCDsBy Ann Ice


The five Southwest Soil and Water Conservation Dis-tricts of Gibson, Pike, Posey, Vanderburgh and Warrick, hosted a Soil Health Expo on Precision Ag. Featured speakers were Mike Shuter, a Conservation Cropping Systems Initiative (CCSI) hub farmer; Paul Gordon, Gor-don Ag Group; and Dr. Randall Reeder, Ohio State Uni-versity Faculty Emeritus.

The day started with Mike Shuter speaking on VR A N with High-Clearance Sprayer Modifications. He spoke on his experience developing a high clearance seeding machine to seed cover crops in standing corn and soy-beans to get these crops off to a faster, earlier start.

He was followed by Paul Gordon who assists producers to lower production costs while maintaining and improv-ing yields through crop monitoring and soil plant analy-sis using Geo-referenced (GPS tagged) Data.

Jon Neufelder of Posey County Purdue Extension gave updates for producers earning PARP credits. Lisa Holscher, Indiana Association of Soil and Water

Conservation Districts, CCSI, and Meg Leader, Indiana State Department of Agriculture (ISDA) spoke on using precision ag, On-Farm Trials, and the On-Farm Network guided stalk nitrate testing that is continuing in South-west Indiana fields by the Districts and other conserva-tion partners.

Dr Reeder, considered one of the leading research and education advocates for conservation tillage and no-till, spoke on using technology to avoid soil compaction and how continuous living cover plus long-term continuous no-till reduces soil compaction and achieves soil quality, chemical quality, physical and biological soil health.

The day’s final speaker was PrecisionHawk on using drones for crop scouting to collect data, surveying, col-lecting images, and visual thermo in high resolution for up to a 300 acre field.

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