Loudoun Soil & Water Conservation District

Our state Association, the Virginia Association of Soil and Water Conservation Districts is offering four $1,000 scholarships to Virginia students entering college this fall and focusing in a conservation area.  Applications should be sent to suzie.brown@va.nacdnet.net or sent to our office at: Loudoun SWCD, 30 Catoctin Circle, SE., Suite H; Leesburg, VA 20175 by Monday, March 15th.  One applicant will be selected by the Loudoun District and forwarded to the State Association for consideration.  Click on the link for guidelines and the application form. 2010-vaswcd-scholarship-guidelines-application2

The Loudoun Soil and Water Conservation District is now accepting orders for our annual tree seedling sale.  The young, bare-rooted seedlings are well suited to Virginia soils and climate.  Tree species available this year include White Pine, Norway Spruce, White Dogwood, Redbud, River Birch, Sycamore, Shumard Oak, and Paw Paw. The shrub species this year are Indigobush and Silky Dogwood. The White Pine are $25 for a bundle of 50 seedlings and the Norway Spruce are $35 for a bundle of 50 seedlings.  The hardwood species, as well as the shrubs, are offered at $6 for 5 seedlings. Sales tax of 5.0% must be included.

Click on the link 2010-seedling-sale to download an order form  You can also call or stop by the office for an order form.   Pre-paid orders will be filled on a first come-first serve basis.  The deadline for pre-paid orders will be Friday, March 12^th.   The pick-up date for the seedlings will be Friday, March 26, 2010 from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. at the LSWCD office on Catoctin Circle in Leesburg (the Wachovia Bank building).  We recommend that you plant the seedlings as soon as possible to minimize transplant stress.  The District will also have pre-assembled rain barrels available for purchase on pick-up day at $65 each.  If you have any questions, please call the LSWCD office at 703/771-8395 (8:00 am – 5:00 pm).

Suzanne Brown is the Public Information/Education Specialist for the Loudoun Soil and Water Conservation District.

The LSWCD participated in the local Halloween parade with a float promoting our rain barrel program. The float featured an exhibit demonstrating rain barrels collecting rain water from a house gutter and a special appearance by Chris Van Vlack as “rain barrel man”. District staff distributed the “Virginian’s Year-Round Guide to Yard Care” to local residents along the parade route.

The Loudoun Soil and Water Conservation District was mentioned in the summer 2009 issue of Outdoor America magazine.  The magazine is a quarterly publication produced by the Izaak Walton League of America.  Below is the article in its entirety. 

 When the Loudoun County Chapter was looking for a local conservation project this spring, it didn’t have to look far.  With an 85-acre chapter property containing streams and a pond, the chapter decided to plant riparian buffers on their land.  The Loudoun Soil and Water Conservation District sponsored the project, providing 180 seedlings – a mix of American hazelnut, persimmon, and black walnut.  The chapter rounded up 10 members and 10 local Girl Scouts for two days of planting in April.

 According to the chapter’s conservation committee chair, Tim Bigler, members will need to check the seedlings every month to ensure they have water and aren’t being destroyed by deer and beavers.  He hopes to build on the project with more conservation activities on the chapter property in the future, such as planting winter forage for wildlife and having bird house building workshops for kids.  “We are more famous for our recreation resources, like the rifle range,” he admits, “but conservation is our purpose.”

Jay Frankenfield is the Conservation Technician for the Loudoun Soil and Water Conservation District.

If your land is in an agricultural use, you may qualify for cost-share on conservation practices that help protect soils and water quality.  Practices include, but are not limited to, streamside fencing and water troughs, cover crops, and converting cropland to pasture or hay land.

The cost-share program supports using various practices in conservation planning to treat animal waste, cropland, pastureland and forested land. Some practices are paid for at a straight per-acre rate. Others are cost-shared on a percentage basis up to 75 percent.  All practices in the program have been included because of their ability to improve or protect water quality. Many will also increase farm productivity by conserving soil and making wise use of other farm resources.

To find out more about the cost-share program, all of the practices, and the current cost-share rates, contact the Loudoun Soil and Water Conservation District office at 703.777.2075.

Program Year 2010 Virginia Agricultural Cost Share (VACS) Best Management Practices Manual

Jay Frankenfield is the Conservation Technician for the Loudoun Soil and Water Conservation District.

   The end of 2009 marks the conclusion of the five-year Catoctin Creek TMDL Implementation Project to address elevated levels of bacteria in the Creek and its tributaries.  On July 27^th a meeting was held at Ida Lee Park in Leesburg to look back over the past four and a half years and to encourage any farmers or residents still interested in the program to take advantage of the cost share funds available before the end of year.

            Presenters included James Hanlon of the Environmental Protection Agency who gave a federal level view of the TMDL program and the cleanup of the Chesapeake Bay.  Bob Lee and Matt Tolley of the Loudoun County Environmental Health Department spoke about the residential portion of the Catoctin Project which aims to repair malfunctioning septic systems and eliminate straight pipes.  David Ward of Loudoun Watershed Watch presented citizen water quality monitoring data from the watershed and gave an assessment of the current health of the stream.  Information about water quality monitoring and copies of the other presentations from the event are available on the web at www.loudounwatershedwatch.org .  Charles Lunsford from the Department of Conservation and Recreation gave an overview of the Commonwealth’s funding of TMDL efforts, and Chris Van Vlack from LSWCD presented on the agricultural half of the project which provides cost share money for livestock exclusion stream fencing, water trough installation, and winter cover crops among other practices.

            The Catoctin TMDL Program runs through the end of 2009 and funds remain available to help farmers keep their horses, cattle, sheep, goats and other livestock out of streams, ponds and wetlands in the Catoctin watershed, and to provide them with a clean alternative source of water from a well or spring-fed trough.  To find out more about the program e-mail chris.vanvlack@va.nacdnet.net .