Conservation District Local Work

Because Conservation Districts are citizen-directed organizations, they are ideal and practical partners to coordinate local, state and federal initiatives to protect natural resources and enhance water quality. In addition to local programs, Conservation Districts administer the State cost-share programs which provide financial assistance to landowners to install conservation practices. Conservation District employees work closely with employees of the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and cooperate with other federal and state agencies to help protect and conserve natural resources in Kansas.

Conservation Districts work cooperatively with local citizens to solve local conservation problems, which in turn benefit the agricultural community and society as a whole. Additional natural resource conservation challenges continue to emerge even amidst many conservation improvements. The Conservation Districts provide resident leadership by helping landowners address a wide range of local agricultural and urban environmental needs which include the following:

• Protecting federal reservoirs & other public water supplies from pollutants & siltation

• Reducing flood damage in critical flood-prone areas

• Reducing nutrients reaching streams from agricultural run-off

• Achieving non-point pollution reduction goals set forth by the Total Maximum Daily Loads process

• Improving health of stream riparian areas

• Promoting wise use of grasslands

• Reducing soil erosion

• Improving habitat for wildlife & aquatic species

• Reducing consumptive use of groundwater supplies to sustain & preserve agricultural, industrial, & municipal water supplies