A significant milestone

By DEB BENTLY

News Editor

“Three quarters of a century is a significant milestone,” observes Mark Schaetzke, manager of the Waseca Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD) for the past 5 years. “It’s good to celebrate what we’ve accomplished over that time.”

The state of Minnesota authorized counties to establish local soil and water conservation districts in 1938. Over the next decades, local groups took action; in Waseca County, that happened in 1948. At that time, five area landowners became SWCD “supervisors,” acting as advisors to hired staff. Waseca County’s first supervisors were Reuben Youngerberg, Walter Rosenthal, Ernest Marquardt, Arnold Keller and Ray Dinneen.

Their contributions were among those celebrated during an open house this Thursday, Sept. 7, at the Waseca American Legion building. A 1 p.m. luncheon thanked past and present supervisors and SWCD employees.

Schaetzke notes that the state first authorized “soil conservation” districts, adding the term “water” in 1960; the programs were founded in reaction to the dust bowl conditions that developed in the US heartland in the 1930s.

“In those early days, the programs were focused on erosion,” Schaetzke says. “The agency’s purpose has definitely evolved since then.” His agency continues to help individual farmers with erosion control, he says, but now also works to monitor and protect water quality, both above and below the ground.

The local office works with the state board of water and soil resources and the federal natural resources and conservation service. Among them they manage and oversee a wide range of programs. Speaking loosely, their intent is to protect public resources by helping private landowners preserve their property.

“Think for a minute of a cubic foot of soil,” Schaetzke says. “In the field, it’s a resource that can benefit the farmer and be an asset to the economy.

“Now imagine that soil erodes into a nearby stream. There, it interferes with drainage.  Sooner or later, that soil will find its way into the local watershed, even, eventually the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico. In those places, it’s a liability–harmful to the watershed and to the vegetation and wildlife of those public waters.”

For the past 75 years, the SWCD has been helping farmers and landowners keep soil in its place, sometimes by helping engineer and install improved drainage. More recent programs aim to take marginal or low-producing land–often consisting of soils most prone to erosion–out of production. According to Schaetzke, of Waseca County’s roughly 277,000 acres, more than 15,000 have been transformed into natural habitat using native plants. About 500 acres are in parks. Funding for SWCD projects, he adds, is roughly one-third local, two-thirds from the state, and ten percent or less from national sources.

Other programs overseen by the SWCD focus on “soil health.” 

“Our state and nation have made tremendous investments in protecting our resources,” Schaetzke observes. “Those accomplishments are among those recognized during our celebration.”