News & Notes November 2001

Fall Conference Attendees Welcome Changes to
PACD Meeting Structure

The Pennsylvania Association of Conservation Districts, Inc., held its fall meeting on October 24-26, 2001, at the Toftrees Resort in State College, PA. Conservation districts and related agency officials from across Pennsylvania assembled to attend a variety of sessions focused on current conservation issues, as well as the Executive Council session of the PACD.

For those in attendance, this particular meeting proved to be a very productive and efficient PACD meeting, due to a number of changes made to the meeting structure at the recommendation of the PACD Participation Task Force.

Most notably, conference attendants sited the addition of the Conservation Issues Forum – a one-hour session highlighting the activities of the various PACD committees, as a welcomed change. The Forum is designed as an alternative to the former PACD committee structure, which featured a series of individual committee meetings held concurrently throughout the conference.

With the addition of the Conservation Issues Forum, committees with a current item of business at hand can report to the entire conference audience at one time, in turn keeping all of PACD involved with committee issues, while minimizing time spent in the smaller committee sessions.

Committee matters will now be handled primarily outside of PACD conferences, through e-mail, the PACD website, and telephone conferences. However time will still be allotted during PACD meetings for those committees that need to meet to address a current issue.

Committee business addressed during the Conservation Issues Forum included:

• The Rural and Urban Land Use Committee recommended that PACD endorse the conservation organization 10,000 Friends, accompanied by a presentation made by their officer, Terry Kaufman; and
  
  
• The Forest, Recreation and Wildlife Committee presented information on the Pennsylvania Department of Forestry’s Forest Legacy Program, and encouraged districts to voice their support of the program.

The meeting also presented an opportunity for district personnel to provide input on the Department of Environmental Protection’s Environmental Futures Planning Process (EFP2). Doug Brennan, EFP2 coordinator, presented the basic framework of the process and explained details regarding the pilot project used to develop the overall approach.

District representatives in attendance in-turn provided DEP with numerous suggestions for EFP2, primarily stressing the importance of ensuring that the conservation districts are officially involved in the initial stages of the process – as part of the local watershed teams.

Bruce Holbrook of DEP made arrangements for three county commissioners: John Sughrue of Clearfield County, Dr. Fred Soisson of Cambria County and Kent East of Huntingdon County, to moderate a discussion focused on the relationship between the county commissioners and the conservation districts.

Additional programs included a presentation on the Ombudsman Program, provided by Amy Van Blarcom of PennAg Industries, and Dan Greig of the Chester County Conservation District. This included a presentation on the Pennsylvania Environmental Agricultural Conservation Program (PEACCE) pilot program, presently being conducted in Chester, Berks and Lancaster counties.

Also, Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture Deputy Secretary Chris Herr, provided an overview of the structure of the Department of Agriculture, explaining the different departmental bureaus and programs, including the State Conservation Commission.

Applications for the 2002 PACD Conservation Awards, and Pennsylvania Chesapeake Bay Clean Water Farm Awards can be submitted to the PACD office at anytime. Unless noted otherwise, all nominations for the next award program should be submitted to the PACD office by February 28, 2002.

The forms can be found at www.pacd.org, direct link: http://www.pacd.org/about/award_progr.htm. Posters being submitted to the state poster contest are due by May 30, 2002.

Please note that PACD will no longer be conducting the Goodyear/NACD Award Program. Goodyear withdrew its sponsorship of the award prior to the start of last year’s award program and presently, NACD is undecided about continuing its sponsorship of the award. The lack of sponsorship, combined with a declining level of participation both factored heavily into the decision to postpone the program indefinitely.

Page 2>