2012 OVERVIEWBLACKWATER SOIL & WATERCONSERVATION DISTRICT

Community Outreach Efforts

The Magnolia

CenterSee page 5

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2012 OVERVIEW

Blackwater Soil and Water ConservationDistrict (SWCD) has now completed its

70th year of service in Santa Rosa County.In that time, Blackwater SWCD has laboredextensively to meet the natural resourcechallenges of the county through voluntarynon-regulatory methods. The District is runby five locally elected board members, whoin turn have a close and personal connectionto the people and place they call home. Thiscaring commitment by which they serve hasmade possible the forging of strong bondsbetween the District and local landowners.As a result, over the years, the District alongwith its employees has dispensed countlesshours of conservation technical assistance tothose in need. Blackwater SWCD has toiled

hand-in-handwith many

in thecountyputting

sound conservation measures on the ground.

This year Mother Nature was in a moregenerous mood and blessed much of ourarea with plentiful summer rains. Someof these storms generated torrentialdownpours, so much so that theyset rainfall event records.Regardless of the periodicheavy shower, the offering ofwet weather was welcomedwith open arms for italleviated much of thedrought conditions fromlast year. This precipitation,which fell during the growingseason, greatly nourished thedeveloping cotton and peanutplants in the field and thus gave riseto a bountiful harvest. Farmers sawbumper yields, with some fields producingalmost double the normal expected crop. Onaverage, yields were about a third higher than

2012 OVERVIEW

typical and set records on manylocal farms. These elevated crop

levels definitely helped offset someof the yield shortages felt from last year,

as well as helped offset some of the constanteconomic stresses being felt by our farmersduring this current recession.

Of course, with all this resource use comesthe need for resource conservation. In orderto meet the demands of tomorrow, farmersmust continuously strive to keep the soilhealthy and the land viable. They do this byworking with the District and its partner theNatural Resources Conservation Service(NRCS) in establishing a conservationplan. This plan is an individualized guidefor each local landowner, designed toassist them in managing their naturalresources with the end goal of creatinga healthy working landscape. It helpsthem decide which conservationpractices fit best on their farm, for the

purpose of building an overall stableresource management system. Aconservation plan supports the

maintenance of resources for their continuedeffectiveness and long-term use, which at thesame time puts more money in the farmers’pocket.

Over the last 70 years, Blackwater SWCDhas worked arduously to spread its messageof resource conservation to those willing tolisten, for if you take care of the land it will

in turn take care ofyou!

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2012 OVERVIEW

DewayneAshworth, long time Districtemployee, retired this yearfrom his job after 36 years ofservice. He started his careerwith Blackwater SWCD inthe summer of 1976 as aConservation EngineeringTechnician. His backgroundin civil engineering, fromschooling at Jefferson DavisJunior College and theUniversity of South Alabama,made him the perfect fit forthe District. In the position,he began his work assistinglocal landowners with theirnatural resource challenges.

In the following years, hededicated himself to theplanning and installing ofconservation practices.Dewayne helped establishnumerous grade stabilizationstructures, terraces, criticalarea treatments, and concrete/grass waterways throughout

the county. He alsoassisted with theestablishment ofseveral conservationmanagement systems

from residue tillage tocrop rotation.

As his career advanced, hestepped up in ranks to aConservation EngineeringTechnician II and thenfinally as the SeniorEngineering Technician,where he took the roleas lead individual overother District staff. Heused his knowledge andexpertise of the job totrain new employees.

Dewayne wholeheartedlyapplied himself to the jobwith passion and a strongwork ethic and thereforecompleted his long years ofservice to the District with ajustifiable measure of pride.His conservation efforts inthe county will continue to beof use long into the future.

DISTRICT RETIREE

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Ray Dewayne Ashworth

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DISTRICT HONOREES

Millard Holley was bornand raised in nearby

Okaloosa County. However,as a young man he moved toSanta Rosa County in orderto start up his own farmingoperation. That was overfifty years ago and from thatmeager beginning he built,with a lot of hard work anddetermination, a justly earnedsuccessful family farmingenterprise.

He was instrumental inthe early prosperity ofthe Conservation ReserveProgram in the county.This program was designedto take highly erodible landout of crop production.Pioneers like Mr. Holleyrecognized the wisdom ofsuch conservation strategiesand quickly adopted theminto their farming operations.Upon his initiative, many

other local landowners soonfollowed and as a result thecounty maintains to this daysome of the most productivefarmland in the state.

Ryan Jenkins has been astaunch advocate of

conservation practices formost of his farming career.

He has utilized resourcefriendly strategies likeconservation tillage

and cover crop plantingthroughout his farmingoperations.

He was the first farmerin Santa Rosa County toadopt the new precisionagriculture practice,which enables the

application of a very preciseand a just needed amountof pesticide and nutrientmanagement chemicals onthe field with the use of GPSsatellite, grid soil sampling,and other computer software

technologies. Mr. Jenkinseven helped the NaturalResources ConservationService build a program inthe first place to support theapplication of this practice,therefore setting the stagefor his participation and hiscounterparts. As a result,precision agriculture is nowbeing implemented on over20,000 acres of farmland inthe county yielding greaterefficiency and drasticallyreducing the over applicationof agricultural chemicals.

Hall of Fame AwardMillard Holley

Conservation Farmer AwardRyan Jenkins

2012 OVERVIEW

One of Blackwater SWCD’syearly initiatives is local

community outreach. TheDistrict participates in avariety of civic activitiesthroughout the year in aneffort to inform the publicabout potential services.Working with a diversegroup of community

organizations, the Districthopes to help as many

people as possible with theirresource concerns and problems.

One such event was this year’sMagnolia Educational and RecreationalCenter Cookout. The District partnered withThree Rivers RC&D to assist this facility,located in East Milton, with funds to aid inits operations. This center whose slogan is

“where education and community bloomtogether,” offers summer school programs tolocal children of various ages. Donatedfunds were used to purchase much needed

games, crafts, educational materials, andplayground accessories for use at the center.A cookout was held during the summerschool session to honor the center’s staff,local supporting citizens, and the program’sparticipating youth. Also in attendancewere individuals from the Santa Rosa CountyARC organization. The event brought thecommunity together for an afternoon offellowship, communion, and fun. It alsoprovided an opportunity for the District to

get together with additional folksand offer its services to any

of those in need.

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COMMUNITY OUTREACH

MAGNOLIA

CENTER

The District also participated in theannual Farm Tour, an event hostedby the University of Florida’sInstitute of Food and AgriculturalSciences Cooperative ExtensionService. This all day tour ofSanta Rosa County farmspromotes agricultural awarenessand its role in our local economy,to those in attendance. Each yearthe tour acknowledges severalagricultural enterprises within thecounty. Stops during this year’sevent included the ExtensionService Teaching and DemonstrationGardens, Whispering Pines Christmas TreeFarm, Flinn’s Family Farm, a Honey BeeExpo at Chumuckla’s Farmers’ Opry andCampground, the West Florida Research and

Education Center’s Jay Research Farm, andBruce Holland’s Farm. Participants learnedeverything there is to know about Christmastree production, bee rearing/honey processing,class one soils, and research projects in SantaRosa County. They were also given insightabout local farming operations from ShannonFlinn and his family, this year’s honoree forthe Outstanding Farm Family Award, (givenby Commissioner Don Salter) and BruceHolland of Holland’s Farm, who not onlyshared his farming tradition butbounty as well with samples ofmelons and boiled peanuts.

Throughout the year, theDistrict strives to improvecommunity awareness bybreaking down barriersof communication. Byreaching out to peoplethrough events such asthese, the District hopes toincrease participation in itsprograms and services and beof some help to the community.

COMMUNITY OUTREACH

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TOUR

FARM

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BlackwaterSWCD’s

main weaponin the fight

against naturalresource harm is

the USDA’s federallymandated Farm Bill programs. These federalprograms offer cost-share incentives for theimplementation of site specific conservationmeasures. Farm Bill programs, like theEnvironmental Quality Incentives Program(EQIP) and the Wildlife HabitatIncentives Program (WHIP),enable the District to assistlandowners with the planningand eventual application ofenvironmentally sound andcost effective agriculturalpractices.

EQIP has been one of themost employed conservationprograms in Santa RosaCounty. For the past fifteenyears it has been reliablyfunded in our area and hasprovided much needed

assistance to local landowners. Theprogram helps identify the appropriateconservation practices needed toaddress particular natural resourceconcerns. Landowners havetherefore been able tosuccessfully treat a varietyof local natural resourceissues with the financialand technical assistanceoffered through thisprogram. Practicesimplemented in our

area this year thanks to EQIPinclude crop rotation, covercrop, conservation tillage,precision agriculture, pastureplanting, cross fencing, irrigationupgrades, seasonal high tunnels, andtree planting. These practices improvesoil, water, plant, animal, air, energyconservation, and related resources onagricultural land. The goal of this programis to optimize these environmental benefitswhile at the same time ensuring sustainable

CONSERVATION PROGRAMS

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agricultural production for the landowner.

WHIP is another Farm Bill program that hasbeen implemented in our county, though not

as frequently as some other conservationprograms. This program provides for

a voluntary approach to improvingwildlife habitats. Landowners

willing to establish, restore,and improve essential plantand animal habitats receivetechnical and financialassistance. In the Southeast,the program promotes therestoration of the historically

present longleaf pine savanna.This ecosystem once covered

more than 90 million acres ofwhat is now the southeastern United

States. Today, only 3.4 million acresremain and much of that is fragmented and

in poor condition. The goal of WHIP is toreverse the decline of this criticalhabitat on private lands, while atthe same time protecting theirproductive capacity. The programutilizes practices that create andmaintain forest health and

manage for wildlife. These practices includesite preparation, tree establishment,prescribed burning, and invasive speciescontrol. A new conservation effort underWHIP is the Working Lands for WildlifeInitiative. This initiative targets habitats thatbenefit at-risk wildlife species. In our area,the target species is the gopher tortoise. It isa keystone species of the longleaf pinehabitat and plays a critical role in maintainingthe structure of this ecological community.This tortoise has been listed as a threatenedspecies as a result of recent habitat andpopulation losses. The goal of this newinitiative is to enhance gopher tortoise habitat,increase habitat connectivity, and support thepotential down-listing of the species.

Participation in these two programs, this year,resulted in nearly $500,000 federal dollarsbeing obligated for conservation work in ourcounty. These Farm Bill programs andresulting conservation investments provide

a valuable service to our localarea farmers.

CONSERVATION PROGRAMS

ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION

Blackwater SWCDparticipates in several

local conservation educationactivities throughout the year.The District takes part in avariety of classroom lecturesand career/science day eventsin order to develop awarenessabout our natural resourcesand the need for conservation,among local students.

District staff utilize a widearray of interactive exhibits,at these functions, as a wayto reach out to students in amore memorable fashion.Tools like the District’s SoilTunnel help generate an evengreater curiosity about soils

and soil formation. Thetunnel enables students toexplore the unexplorable; thecomplex physical, chemical,and biological world belowthe surface. The kids learneven more about soils withadditional demonstrationsthat cover particle size, color,texture, and structure. Thisinteractive program, now inits second year, has been ahuge asset to the District andits work in environmentaleducation.

Anothereducationendeavorcarried

out by the District is theNational Association ofConservation District’sannual Poster Contest. Toparticipate, local studentssubmit a poster with theirown unique conception of thecontest’s annual conservationtheme. First place Districtwinners advance to the Statecontest. Many of our localstudents have also placed atthe state competition level,receiving placement awards

and monetary prizes.

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SOIL TUNNELTHE

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ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION

A long time educationfavorite of the District isthe Land Judging Contest.This annual event, co-sponsored by the SantaRosa County School Board,tests local high school FFAteams’ expertise when itcomes to soils and soilcharacteristics such astexture, permeability, slope,erosion, and drainage.Students, on school teams,examine four sites in whichthe soil has been exposedfor several feet. Theyevaluate specific conditionsat each of these sites andanswer questions regardingthem. Their responses areused to develop their scores

and for determining thewinning team andindividual high

scorer . This year’swinning team and highscorer were from MiltonHigh School. The eventtook place on Mr. HankinMathews’ pastureland, whogenerously loaned us use ofhis property and facilitiesfor purposes of furtheringagricultural knowledge.

The reason BlackwaterSWCD spends time eachyear spreading awarenessof conservation issues, is tofurther the continued wiseuse of our natural resourcesfor the health and vitalityof all. With just a littleextra encouragement, ourchildren can gain a betterunderstanding of the worldthey live in and develop agreater respect and love forits resources.

WINNING TEAM

Milton High SchoolTeam 1 (l to r)

HIGH SCORER

Laura Nelson

Micaela Corley

Karissa Hebner

Laura Nelson

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BLACKWATER SOIL & WATERCONSERVATION DISTRICT

The United States Department of Agriculture prohibits discrimination in all its programs and activities on the basis ofrace, color, national origin, gender, religion, age, disability, political beliefs, sexual orientation, and marital or familialstatus, (not all prohibited bases apply to all programs.) Persons with disabilities who require alternative means forcommunication of program information (braille, large print, audio tape, etc…) should contact USDA’s TARGET Centerat (202) 720-2600 (voice and TDD).

To file a complaint of discrimination, write USDA, Director, Office of Civil Rights, Room 326-W, Whitten Building, 14thand Independence Avenue, SW, Washington, DC 20250-9410 or call (202) 720-5964 (voice and TDD). USDA is anequal opportunity provider and employer.

6285 Dogwood DriveMilton, Florida 32570(850) 623-3229 Ext. 3Contact Info:

The District Would Like To Acknowledge The FollowingAgencies For Their Valuable Support And Cooperation: