Columbiana SWCD honors Lindsays

HANOVERTON, Ohio – Pine Hill Jersey Farm, owned by Scott and Tracey Lindsay, earned the Columbiana Soil and Water Conservation District’s Cooperator of the Year award.
The Lindsays and other award winners were honored at the district’s annual banquet Nov. 2 at United Local High School.
Top herd. Since purchasing the farm from his parents in 1987, Lindsay has built one of the top Jersey herds in the state, with a rolling herd average of 18,500 pounds of milk. He is currently milking around 400 herd of registered Jerseys.
Lindsay has worked with the district on many conservation projects, including a comprehensive nutrient management plan. The manure is stored in a 1.8 million-gallon structure, then custom applied to the crop fields.
The Lindsays farm 750 acres of owned and rented ground, raising a rotation of corn, soybeans, wheat, alfalfa and grass hay. About a fourth of the crop acres are planted using no-till; the rest are planted using minimum tillage or conservation tillage, because of the manure application requirements to reduce run-off.
He has also worked with the district on a mine restoration project of a deep cut on his farm that is in the final stages of grading.
Lindsay has also created access roads, installed grassed waterways, and developed stream crossings and erected fencing to keep cattle out of streams to minimize erosion and potential pollution.
Educator award. The district also honored the work of Crestview High School biology teacher Kathy Cattrell, recipient of the Conservation Educator of the Year award.
Cattrell finds ways to get students to see science applications beyond the classroom. In an ongoing stream monitoring project, she and students collect water samples three times a year from Bull Creek, which empties into the Little Beaver Creek. The group’s water quality information is incorporated into official state data.
Cattrell also advises the school’s envirothon team, which tests students’ knowledge of forestry, aquatics, soils, wildlife and current events.
While at Crestview, Cattrell started a recycling program, gathering discarded newspaper and magazines from community residents every two months. Since its start in 1994, the project has recycled more than 1,116 tons of material and workers logged 5,610 volunteer hours.
Money from the program is sued to pay for field trips, supplies and for the taxidermy of animals for the biology classroom. There are more than 100 preserved animals in the Crestview lab. In a unique project, the high school biology students paired with Crestview second graders, who chose a bird from the school’s taxidermy collection to study. A final Power Point presentation of the elementary students’ reports was shared during the district’s technology night.
Following Cattrell’s leadership, many Crestview students volunteer at educational programs like the Highlandtown Lake Outdoor Days, the Leetonia Sportsmen Club Kids’ Day, and at the Beaver Creek State Park Wildlife Education Center.
Cattrell received a plaque, a $300 check and registration to the 2007 conservation education workshop coordinated by the Ohio Federation of Soil and Water Conservation Districts.
Big Tree winner. Jim Elze, service forester with Ohio Division of Forestry, recognized John Harris of Salem, who nominated the county’s winning white ash in the district’s Big Tree contest.
The tree, located on the Harold Sanor farm, was judged on crown spread, height and circumference. The tree measured just over 15 feet in circumference; was approximately 85 feet tall and had a crowd spread of 90 feet.
“I’ve never in my career run into an ash tree this big,” Elze said.
The state contest winner was a white ash in Warren County, with a circumference of 240 inches and height of 111 feet.
Elze, who retired Oct. 31, received a surprise gift from the district’s board of supervisors in appreciation of his work with the county’s landowners.
“It’s a job that I’ve absolutely loved,” Elze said.
County review. Pete Conkle, district program coordinator, reviewed highlights of the agency’s activities. Although appropriations from the county severely curtailed programming, Conkle said the board pursued grant opportunities and “tried to provide as many services as we could.”
A state pollution abatement grant program provided roughly $8,000 last year, primarily for landowners installing heavy use pads.
Federal and state EQIP funding also totaled $154,000, used to develop livestock watering facilities; install heavy use pads; create access roads to reduce erosion; install barn roof water diversion drainage; and build manure management facilities.
Conkle said the county also received $12,000 in EQIP funds specifically earmarked for horse-related projects.
A grant from the Division of Wildlife gives Conkle the added responsibility as wildlife specialist, working with landowners to limit wildlife damage or to develop wildlife habitat.
Election. Tom Butch of Salem Township was re-elected to the district’s board of supervisors. Butch, who is a mining inspector with the Ohio Division of Mineral Resources Management, is also chairman of the Columbiana County Land Use Task Force.
(Farm and Dairy Editor Susan Crowell can be reached at 800-837-3419 or e-mailed at editor@farmanddairy.com.)