November 19, 2008
The 2008 New England Association of Resource Conservation & Development Areas Annual Conference took place on October 23rd-25th and was hosted by Eastern Connecticut RC&D Area Council in Mystic, CT. Each fall since 1974 New England states have rotated organizing and hosting these conferences. New England is one of five RC&D regions in the country that hold similar regional meetings. The National Association of RC&D holds a national meeting once every three years, the next occurring in June of 2009 in Albuquerque, NM.
The Opening Session on Thursday, October 23rd began with a welcoming from John Guszkowski, President of Eastern Connecticut RC&D Area Council. Other speakers included Jan Dybdahl, the State Resource Conservationist of Connecticut, James Sipperly, President of New England Association of RC&D Areas, and Gerald Willis, Special Assistant to the Chief.
After the Opening Session, NRCS staff and council members attended either the
NEARC&D Business Meeting or the NRCS meeting. The
NRCS meeting focused on
potential project ideas and brainstorming new ways to get local recognition of
RC&D. Energy was a hot topic in this meeting, specifically the use of alternate
forms of energy such as wood biomass and algae.
Following these meetings was the New England Association Strategic Planning meeting, with guest speaker Roberta Jeanquart, Executive Direction of the National Association of RC&D Areas. The meeting was intended to focus on the question, “Where Do We Go From Here?” This meeting was essential to the mission of RC&D and tackled a range of issues from finding a local voice for RC&D to examining possibilities to increase funding to the program. As it stands, RC&D across the country has a budget of a little over $50 million, which may appear to be a significant number, but the constraints are felt especially in smaller agricultural producing states such as New Hampshire, in which RC&D has a budget of around $280,000 for the year. Ms. Jeanquart instilled in the crowd a sense of energy to motivate us in getting the movement started by engaging council members, seeking new project ideas, and connecting with the community.
The Strategic Planning meeting concluded and from here the conference travelled to the Mashantucket Pequot Native-American Museum. The group was guided through a tour of an authentic recreation of a Mashantucket Pequot village to get an idea of life before the arrival of the Europeans. The tour guides explained how the natives made tools, found food, and survived the harsh winters using the resources available to them. The tour wrapped up with guest speaker Gina McCarthy, Connecticut DEP Commissioner, praising the work that conservationists do, followed by a delicious Native inspired buffet dinner.
Day two began with a Morning Welcome from John Guszkowski, Joan Smith-Freeman, President of Eastern CT RC&D Area Council, and Roberta Jeanquart, followed by two concurrent training sessions. These invaluable trainings brought to light different ways of utilizing an RC&D council. Topics included Agricultural commissions, promoting local agriculture, farm friendly town governments, leasing town owned land to farm, grants to set up farmers markets, buying local vegetables, and even creating a website that would list what local farmers grow and sell.
Area Planning, one of the training sessions, covered diverse environmental topics such as how to get in touch with community needs and wants, moving forward with alternate energy, clean water and air…the limits are seemingly endless, so long as they apply to land conservation, water management, community development and land management.
Once the trainings finished the group sat down for lunch with the keynote
speaker Kevin McBride, University of Connecticut Associate Professor of
Anthropology and Director of Research at the Mashantucket Pequot Museum. He
prepared an interesting lecture on the history of local land use and topography
dating back 10,000 years!
Following lunch, the group split up and attended either a tour of Long Island Sound with the Project Oceanology group or a bus tour to visit some of the farms in Connecticut. A reception was held once the tours concluded and dinner was served while Connecticut State Conservationist Douglas Zehner addressed the group. The night finished up with an auction of donated items each RC&D council brought from their native states.
Saturday was the final day of the conference and began with an Awards Breakfast. Among the awards handed out, North Country RC&D, with Rick DeMark as coordinator, took home three awards! Russ Dowd was awarded with Outstanding Performance by a Council Member, North Country RC&D won Outstanding Performance by a Council, and Rick DeMark received the award for Outstanding Performance by a Coordinator. After the awards, each state Council gave a brief presentation of the ongoing projects they’ve worked on over the past year. The conference ended on a high note for New Hampshire and all that attended were appreciative to get the chance to take part.
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