NACD kicks off 70th annual meeting in Reno 02/01/2016
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
NACD kicks off 70th annual meeting in Reno
RENO, Feb. 1, 2016 — The National Association of Conservation Districts (NACD) kicked off its 2016 Annual Meeting today in Reno, Nevada. The NACD Annual Meeting, February 1-3, brings together conservation leaders from across the nation for educational sessions, workshops and networking. This year’s meeting marks the 70th such event put on by NACD and focuses on the theme “Historic Legacy Guiding a Brighter Future.”
Monday’s Opening General Session featured a Nevada welcome address from Congressman Mark Amodei [R-NV 2nd District] and a keynote address by National Geographic photojournalist Jim Richardson.
A highlight of the afternoon was a meeting of the Joint Forestry Team coalition made up of USDA Forest Service (USFS), USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), the National Association of State Foresters and NACD. The meeting brought together coalition members from across the country and featured addresses from both NRCS Chief Jason Weller and USFS Chief Tom Tidwell.
The afternoon also featured a Leadership Luncheon sponsored by the Soil Health Institute at which the Chairman of the institute, Bill Buckner, provided the keynote address.
Leading up to the meeting’s kick-off, NACD held an Inspirational Program on Sunday, January 31, at which time NACD and the NACD Auxiliary announced the winners of the 2015 poster and photo contests.
The poster contest theme for 2015 was “Local Heroes Your Hardworking Pollinators.” Students in grade K-12 participated in this year’s poster contest that depicted pollinators at work. First place prizes went to Natalie Miller from Florida (Grades K-1), Alberta Liu from New Jersey ( Grades 2-3), Valerie Torres from Kansas (Grades 4-6), Sophia Ho from New Jersey (Grades 7-9), and Taylor Copko from New Jersey (Grades 10-12). The photo contest focused on the themes of “Close up Conservation”, “Ag and Conservation Across America”, “Conservation in Action”, and “Conservation Practices.”
This year’s adult winner of “Close Up Conservation” is Sid Osofsky from South Carolina and the youth winner is Daniel O’Leary of West Virginia.The winners of the “Ag and Conservation Across America” theme are Joni Mehus from Minnesota (Adult) and Emma Lee from Wisconsin (Youth).The “Conservation in Action” winners are Rick Mickowski from Delaware (Adult) and Eva Lee from Wisconsin (Youth).Finally, this year’s winners of the “Conservation Practices” theme are Cynthia Osofsky from South Carolina (Adult) and Brady Henshaw from Tennessee (Youth).
Both contests were sponsored in part by the Albert I Pierce Foundation. More information on both contests can be found on the NACD website.
For updates throughout the meeting, follow NACD on Facebook and Twitter or check out our Annual Meeting news page. The full agenda and speaker line-up is also available on the Annual Meeting page of our website.
The 2016 NACD Annual Meeting is sponsored by the following partners: Agri Drain Corporation; Bayer CropScience; Bob Warner; Case IH; John Deere; Monsanto; National Farmers Union; Scotts Miracle-Gro; Soil Health Institute; Syngenta; U.S. Forest Service; U.S. Sugar; and Verdesian.
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The National Association of Conservation Districts is the non-profit organization that represents the nation’s 3,000 conservation districts, their state associations and the 17,000 men and women who serve on their governing boards. For more than 70 years, local conservation districts have worked with cooperating landowners and managers of private working lands to help them plan and apply effective conservation practices. For more information about NACD, visit: www.nacdnet.org.