What is a Soil & Water Conservation District?

We are a non-regulatory, quasi-governmental agency using public and private funds to deliver technical assistance and educational programming to schools, public entities, and private landowners. We promote the sustainable use of natural resources and collaborate with many different partners: federal, state, county, municipal, educational, agricultural, and nonprofit, and for-profit businesses. SWCDs in Maine are run by five-member boards of locally elected and appointed volunteers called a Board of Supervisors. We were created in response to the 1930s Dust Bowl catastrophe and there are 16 SWCDs in Maine and 3000 across the U.S. today.