Representatives from the Soil and Water Conservation Districts in Cook, Lake and South St. Louis counties met with their representatives at the Capitol recently, including Sen. Tom Bakk. (L-R) Joan Farnam (Cook SWCD supervisor), Senator Bakk, Debra Taylor (South St. Louis SWCD supervisor), Cindy Gentz (Cook County Water Plan coordinator) and Tom Gelineau (Lake SWCD supervisor).
Joan Farnam, supervisor for Cook County Soil and Water, and Cindy Gentz, Cook County Water Plan coordinator, attended a legislative briefing and met with legislators at the state capitol Feb. 17-18.
They went to St. Paul to talk to legislators about successful SWCD projects in the county and plans for the future, as did Soil and Water Conservation officials and staff from around the state.
“It’s important for us to get the conservation message out to our elected officials in St. Paul,” Farnam said.
The 2010 legislative session will be a difficult one, as the state faces a budget deficit and develops a capital improvement bonding bill. “With budget concerns being what they are at the state level, we must make sure local soil and water conservation issues don’t fall by the wayside,” she said.
“We brought pictures of the outreach, monitoring and conservation construction work we do,” Gentz said. “It is important that legislators hear from counties outside the Metro or farm country. Our issues are much different up here, and we want to make sure they prioritize the Arrowhead region along with the rest of the state when they are planning how to spend conservation dollars. Thefunding our local Soil & Water office receives is used to leverage federal money and our projects put local contractors to work. I think our pictures showed them that.”
During the visit to St. Paul, Farnam and Gentz, along with SWCD supervisors from Duluth and Two Harbors, met with Senators Tom Bakk, Yvonne Prettner-Solon and David Tomassoni as well as Representatives David Dill, Mary Murphy and Tony Sertich.
The event was sponsored by the Minnesota Association of Soil and Water Conservation Districts. SWCDs provide land and water conservation services to owners of private lands. Minnesota has 91 Soil and Water Conservation Districts.
For more information, call the Soil & Water office at 387-3647 or visit www.co.cook.mn.us. The photo presentation given to the legislators can also be seen in the office on the second floor of the courthouse.
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