About Us

The Posey County Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD) is a local unit of government that serves as an environmental resource to its community. The Posey County SWCD was formed in 1951 to provide technical assistance and education to the community with the goal of conserving and improving our natural resources. ​

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The "Father of Soil Conservation," Hugh Hammond Bennett noticed the concerns of soil erosion early in his career as a surveyor for the USDA Bureau of Soils. He considered is such a threat that he began writing about the crisis to the public. His 1928 publication, "Soil Erosion: A National Menace," convinced Congress to conduct its first soil erosion experiment in 1929.

But nothing brought notice to the crisis more than the Dust Bowl beginning in 1932. Millions of tons of soil were blown away from the land and lost forever. While there was the Soil Erosion Service established, Hugh urged Congress to create a more permanent soil conservation agency, which lead to President Roosevelt signing off on the creation of the Soil Conservation Service in the USDA (Now called the NRCS-Natural Resource Conservation Service) in 1935.

USDA managers, however continued to look for ways to provide conservation assistance to more farmers at a local level. They believed the solution would be to create democratically organization districts to implement the conservation planning for their own community. So in 1937, the USDA created the Standard State Soil Conservation Districts Law, which President Roosevelt then sent to the governors of all states.

These districts are sub-units of state government, but governed by 5 supervisors that are to be landowners of that county. This dynamic allows farmers to establish better relationships with their district because the district is comprised of fellow farmers. The duties of each district vary and depend on what that specific county needs from it, but most all are geared towards promoting conservation practices to protect our natural resources.