People are the key to conservation district success, whether serving as officials on district boards of directors or volunteering in a river cleanup. Local people offer extensive expertise and personal interest regarding the best ways to take care of their own natural resources. This effective management of natural resources at the local level reduces the need for outside intervention and regulation.

Among the things you can do:

• Become a member of NACD. Your dollars will help conserve America’s natural resources. Your membership can improve the water quality of the river that provides your family drinking water and a place to swim and fish.
• Volunteer. Districts need help with everything from planting seedlings in wetland restoration projects to filing in the office. Contact your district to let them know you are willing to help.
• Practice good stewardship at home. You can improve your corner of the world by composting food scraps and lawn clippings in your backyard, conserving green areas in your urban neighborhood or implementing best management practices on your farm. Ask your district for assistance.

In the early 1930s, along with the greatest depression this nation ever experienced, came an equally unparalleled ecological disaster known as the Dust Bowl. Following a severe and sustained drought in the Great Plains, the region's soil began to erode and blow away, creating huge black dust storms that blotted out the sun and swallowed the countryside. Thousands of “dust refugees” left the black fog to seek better lives.

But the storms stretched across the nation. They reached south to Texas and east to New York. Dust even sifted into the White House and onto the desk of President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

On Capitol Hill, while testifying about the erosion problem, soil scientist Hugh Hammond Bennett threw back the curtains to reveal a sky blackened by dust. Congress unanimously passed legislation declaring soil and water conservation a national policy and priority. Because nearly three-fourths of the continental United States is privately owned, Congress realized that only active, voluntary support from landowners would guarantee the success of conservation work on private land.

In 1937, President Roosevelt wrote the governors of all the states recommending legislation that would allow local landowners to form soil conservation districts. Brown Creek Soil & Water Conservation District in North Carolina was the first district established. The movement caught on across the country with district-enabling legislation passed in every state. Today, the country is blanketed with nearly 3,000 conservation districts.

* To update the contact information for your state, please send all information to your NACD Region Representative.