Allamakee County SWCD hosts 40th annual Conservation Education Day

The Allamakee Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD) sponsored the 40th annual Conservation Education Day Thursday, May 4 in the Waukon City Park. An estimated 88 sixthgraders from Waukon Middle School and St. Patrick School in Waukon attended the event. The weather was great and the morning was filled with many fun activities, many of which are pictured in the surrounding photos.

Russ Hagen, Allamakee SWCD volunteer, taught a canoeing station with assistance from Kerry Troendle and Jeremy Leitz from the Allamakee County Farm Service Agency office. The students learned how to get in and out of a canoe safely and enjoyed floating on the Indian Springs Pond. The students had fun and no one fell in.

Sara Berges from the Allamakee SWCD and Megan Waechter from the Allamakee Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) presented a station about soil and water conservation. Topics included the importance of protecting soil and water, potential pollution sources and conservation practices. Watersheds were discussed using an Enviroscape model to show how water carries pollution through a watershed to a body of water. A run-off demonstration compared what happens when rain falls on a bare soil versus a soil with plant cover. The students discussed soil formation, soil erosion, and soil components and then made edible “soil” cups using crushed up cookies to represent different sized soil particles, pudding to represent organic matter and glomalin (soil “glue”), and gummy worms to represent soil biota.

Ross Geerdes from Allamakee County Conservation talked to the students about native animals and their habitats. The kids played a game to show food, water and habitat requirements for the animals.

Dave Asche, Department of Natural Resources District Forester, talked about tree planting, types of trees, determining tree ages and tree care. The students were each given a Colorado Blue Spruce seedling from the Allamakee SWCD to take home to plant.
New this year to Conservation Education Day was Allie Rath from Pheasants Forever. She talked about the importance of pollinators and had the students talk about food items that wouldn’t be available without the help of pollinators.