This week I had the privilege to attend the National Association of Conservation Districts (NACD) Annual Summer Meeting hosted right here in Milwaukee, WI at the Pfister Hotel. The event moves around from city to city each year but with our home court as the location for this year, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to get together with like-minded conservation ag-focused folks and see what the week had in store.
While I was not present for some of their weekend excursions and activities, I attended several great presentations from a wide variety of important individuals in the agricultural world on Monday followed by a day and a half worth of off-site bus tour visits all over the greater Wisconsin area.
Monday’s gauntlet of speakers featured Mayor of Milwaukee Cavalier Johnson, Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers, and Aubrey Bettencourt — Chief of the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), the primary private lands conservation agency at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). It was a privilege to be in the same room as these high ranking officials and to hear directly from them about the importance of no-till, cover crops and other conservation agriculture strategies.
And while I might be biased, perhaps my favorite part of the day came when I got to hear our very own President of Lessiter Media, Mike Lessiter, address this very same room of individuals as the keynote speaker and share the history of no-till as a practice as well as the history of our own No-Till Farmer publication.
I encourage anyone who is unfamiliar with our origin story to watch the video below.
Tuesday was full of even more action as 2 groups of attendees boarded two buses and traveled to farms and parks all over Wisconsin to see first hand what sorts of conservation projects are taking place right here in our own state.
It was a proud moment for me as a resident of Milwaukee for the better part of the last 10 years to see so many out of towners marvel at the great work being done in our state.
From Elkhorn, WI where the Walworth County Land Conservation Department (LCD) has been working since 2013 to install conservation best management practices on a 560-acre farm, to Pritchard Park in Racine County, where a unique regenerative stormwater conveyance system and habitat restoration projects are in motion, and everything in between — the day was filled with collaborative projects with partners that are improving soil and water health across Wisconsin. Click here to read more about the entirety of what was seen throughout the 5 different stops we made on the tour.
I’m extremely grateful to have been able to attend this NACD meeting and not only see all these great speakers and exhibits across Wisconsin, but network with so many intelligent people working in similar fields across the nation to improve soil and water quality in our country.
