Lower Sangamon River RC&D Newsletter Archives

Newsletter Archives

JULY 2004

The Lower Sangamon River RC & D Council continues its mission to promote the economic, human and natural resources throughout this six-county area in central Illinois which will result in a rich and sustainable quality of life for all our citizens.

A new brochure focusing on our goals and objectives is finished and is being distributed any time we have an opportunity to promote our organization. We are in the process of developing our website and expanding our public outreach.

Our most recent projects in the works are: "Prairie Creek Habitat - Outdoor Educational Opportunity for Schools". This Habitat is on the campus of the Pleasant Plains Middle School, west of Springfield and is available as an outdoor classroom for all schools to use. Lesson plans for K-12 have been developed for the three types of habitat at this site (woodlands, prairie and wetlands), based on IL State Board of Education standards and are available free of charge. We are providing assistance to the school district by mailing a letter and brochure about the Habitat directly to all science teachers in this 6-county area, to spread the word about this site. The "Urban Conservation Guidance" project is to provide all municipalities in this RC & D with a copy of the IL Urban Manual CD, recommending its adoption and use when developing or changing ordinances pertaining to urban development, erosion and sedimentation control and storm water management, etc.

We are planning a project with the city of Virginia to research, identify and find a working solution to a community problem--trash burning.

Plans are being made for our 2nd Annual Meeting to be held on October 5th, as well as preparations for submitting our new application to USDA this fall. We are really anxious to become an authorized RC & D!

In addition to making preparations for our April 13th legislative day, the Lower Sangamon River RC & D has the following projects scheduled for 2004: A "Gardening with Shiitake Mushrooms" workshop to be held on Saturday, April 17th at the Farm Bureau Building in Petersburg. This workshop will include presentations on how to grow and use Shiitake mushrooms.

 We have recently received funding for the project, Cass County Area Project: Interagency Collaboration Gang Prevention and lntervention. This project will provide funds to the city of Beardstown to assist them with their community-wide efforts to address the issues of gang prevention and intervention. The LSR RC & D also have a representative serving on the Cass County interagency Council--Hispanic Task Force.

We will be co-sponsoring two prescribed burn workshop/demonstrations "Using Fire as a Management Tool" to be held in Menard County on March 23rd and April 7th in cooperation with the Menard County SWCD, NRCS and Lower Sangamon Valley Ecosystem Partnership. This is a free education and outreach opportunity for all interested parties, especially landowners who may be required to do a prescribed burn of the native grasses as part of their CRP/CREP contract. Our RC & D partnered with the Sangamon County SWCD, the City of Springfield and the IEPA to inform and educate landowners/tenants on the importance of establishing vegetative filter strips along the tributaries in the Lake Springfield Watershed to protect the public water supply of Springfield and surrounding communities. On February 13th, brochure entitled 'Filter Strips - The Right Choice" was mailed to almost 600 producers, along with an invitation to attend informational meetings on this filter striP initiative. This outreach effort contacted many of this watershed's local landowners, but also those who live all over the United States, some as far away as Hawaii, Texas, New York, Minnesota, and California. We have submitted a grant proposal along with the Prairie Rivers RC & D to the Illinois Humanities Council for the project, "Voices of Illinois Farm Women". The project will use oral history with black and white photos and personal historical documents as the "tools of the humanities". This project will seek to express the experiences of diverse farmwomen and their families across the state.

The Lower Sangamon River RC & D remains optimistic that authorization for Illinois' applicant areas will come soon. What greater opportunities we will have to serve the citizens in Cass, Christian, Logan, Mason, Menard and Sangamon counties of central Illinois once we are authorized!

NOVEMBER 2003

The first Annual Meeting of the Lower Sangamon River Resource Conservation and Development Council was held on Tuesday, October 7, 2003 at Fulgenzi's on the Hill in Petersburg.  Guest speaker, Mark Jackson, lnterstate RC & D Coordinator, presented the message "RC & D, Simple Yet Effective!". Special guests included Larry Sterett, President of the IL Association of RC & D, State Representative Rich Brauer and Jae Williams, representing State Senator Bill Brady.

The mission of the Lower Sangamon River RC&D is to develop and promote economic, human and natural resources through cooperative efforts. Our overall goal is to manage and conserve our finite and valuable natural resources in partnership with citizens, business, organizations, governments and individuals to improve and area's economy, environment and living standards. We seek to accomplish this goal by working with those who are already deeply invested in the understanding of the region's problems and opportunities, so that our efforts are optimized, rather that duplicative. The Lower Sangamon River RC&D Council is working towards the development, conservation, and wise use of the human, financial, and natural resources in our area that will result in a rich and sustainable quality of life for all of our citizens.

While the Lower Sangamon River RC&D is waiting for official USDA authorization, we continue to actively seek projects that meet our goals and objectives, and which we can support with our in-kind services and limited financial resources. Activities planned for the coming year include co-sponsoring the "Connecting Illinois Watersheds" conference to be held on February 5 and 6 in Peoria; providing private well testing for citizens in Mason County; distributing educational materials about the Prairie Creek Habitat of Sangamon County to all regional schools and science educators; installing dry fire hydrants in Cass County; hosting a "Gardening with Shiitake Mushrooms" workshop in Menard County; hosting a multi-county prescribed burn training for landowners in the CRP/CREP program.
 
 

©2004, Lower Sangamon River RC&D.  USDA, NRCS and RC&D are equal opportunity employers and providers. Maintained by LSRRCD. Hosted by Illinois RC&D.