Ohio Districts Host Music Festival for Water Conservation 10/21/2021
Pickin’ at the Park, a bluegrass music festival, was created to raise awareness of the Caesar Creek watershed and water quality. It was hosted by Warren, Greene, and Clinton County Soil and Water Conservation Districts (SWCD), who provide leadership to the Caesar Creek Collaborative (CCC).
The CCC, whose mission is to improve and protect the water and soil quality in the Caesar Creek Lake and surrounding watershed, has members from local non-profits, governmental agencies, universities and colleges, local citizens, agricultural producers and other interested members from the Southwest Ohio area.
“The CCC has several priority areas including urban, suburban and rural areas in the watershed. Grant money will be available to groups like the CCC with one of the funding priorities set as agricultural best management practices (BMPs). Incorporating BMPs into agricultural operations can help agricultural producers with their operation and ultimately affect their bottom line of their business,” stated Molly Conley, director of Warren County SWCD.
Pickin’ at the Park included food trucks, music and displays and activities from CCC representatives. Warren County SWCD uses multiple educational tools to interact with the public, including “Dagmar the Dragonfly,” the Warren County SWCD education character ambassador. Dagmar engages community members of all ages on water quality issues. See what Dagmar has been up to in this video!
Local agricultural producers were also invited to participate to learn how area SWCDs can assist them in achieving farm production goals in the Caesar Creek watershed area.
“Just like Governor Mike DeWine set water quality as a top priority for Ohio, the CCC is focusing on water quality as an ongoing effort. We know that water quality improvements can make a difference when local efforts are paired with a larger scale vision. When water quality is analyzed on a watershed scale and collaborators come together, goals and targets can be aligned with larger downstream water bodies and change can really become effective,” said Conley.
These voluntary BMP projects allow producers and area residents to establish conservation practices on their property at little to no cost. Some of these projects might include reestablishing riparian corridors and wetlands, and building grassed waterways, filter buffers, filter strips, drainage water management structures and manure storage structures.
Learn more at https://www.warrenswcd.com/.
Tags: Ohio, water quality