Public’s input sought in conservation survey
PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — The Central Aroostook Soil and Water Conservation District, along with Maine’s other SWCDs, in cooperation with the USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), are conducting a natural resource assessment and are asking for the public’s help.
“We have developed a statewide survey, which can be accessed at www.surveymonkey.com/r/JQ5GPL5, that will help us determine natural resource priorities so we can assist you better,” said Kassy Michaud, executive director of the CASWCD in Presque Isle. Though paper copies are available upon request, citizens are encouraged to complete the survey online, she added.
The goal of the assessment is to determine natural resource priorities so that the districts and NRCS can assist landowners, professional, and municipalities with best management practices that protect and improve land and water resources. To gather this information, each district is distributing the statewide survey and will hold local meetings to document natural resource conservation concerns.
Information gathered will build on the data collected in the first assessment, completed in 2011. The priorities articulated in the survey and meetings will inform state and local natural resource programs and funding opportunities in the coming five-year cycle.
According to Dale Finseth, executive director of the Kennebec SWCD, “The natural resources assessment process is a great opportunity for people to express their conservation priorities by completing a survey or participating in a free-wheeling discussion at a locally held meeting. The results of this process stand to have a broad reach starting with your local conservation district on up to the state level. The Dept. of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry, DEP, and state legislators are already anxious to see the survey results.”
Joe Dembeck, Executive Director of the Somerset County SWCD, coordinated the development of the 2016 NRA survey to help guide the assessment process. “This year’s survey will be distributed by all 16 conservation districts and will address statewide conservation concerns as well as give us the chance to drill down to local issues and priorities,” he said. “We are asking that all citizens make their voices heard by participating in the assessment, whether by completing a survey or attending a local meeting.”
Districts encourage farmers, woodland owners, resource professionals and members of the general public to take advantage of this opportunity to make their voices heard. The survey may be accessed online at www.surveymonkey.com/r/JQ5GPL5, or a paper copy may be obtained by contacting a local conservation district. The survey’s final deadline is March 31.
Preliminary survey results will be available at local, county-level meetings that will be scheduled throughout the month of March.
For more information about the assessment, to find a local conservation district or to find out when county meetings will be held, visit the Maine Association of Conservation Districts website at maineconservationdistricts.com.
