80 Years of Serving Waldo County
The Waldo County Soil and Water Conservation District was first founded in 1944 by Hezzie R. Ward and John H. Edgerly. The Dust Bowl in the 1930s spurred on environmental concerns about erosion and other effects of farming. Ward and Edgerly were concerned about soil erosion in Waldo County so they banded together with other landowners and farmers within the county who were interested in conservation. Waldo County looks very different now from back then but our concerns are still the same, conservation, but with new problems and solutions.
Our mission is to provide leadership, information, education and technical assistance to conserve, improve and sustain our natural resources through partnerships with individuals, businesses, organizations and government agencies.
Waldo County Soil and Water Conservation District hosted its 80th annual meeting on October 25th at Fair Haven Camps. The meeting was held in the lodge of Fair Haven Camps, which is a beautiful facility. Attendees enjoyed their dinner and socializing before presentations and the outstanding conservationist award, and the evening closed with a light-hearted drawing for various door-prizes. Sebasticook Regional Land Trust was awarded our Conservationist of the Year award for their work in Waldo County, you can check out more information on the award and SRLT here. We had presentations by Peter Abello, NRCS District Conservationist and Joseph Roy, MDIFW Private Lands Wildlife Biologist.
Peter Abello spoke about current projects NRCS is working on like drone cover cropping as well as a past project at Fair Haven Camps. NRCS advised the camp to move their horse barn to a different location to prevent runoff from entering the lake. Our second speaker, Joseph Roy spoke about farming and mowing practices to help conserve grassland birds like the Bobolink and introduced the AgAllies program.
A special thank you to everyone that attended the meeting to celebrate our 80th anniversary! I hope you enjoyed your time! We look forward to hosting everyone again for next year's meeting in 2025!
You can watch a slideshow on the history of the district and future projects below.