Conservation that makes dollars and sense
A Q&A with Erin Ogle, Project Coordinator in Southwest Iowa
Erin Ogle is the 2021 winner of an Impact Award. She is a Project Coordinator in Taylor County in Southwest Iowa. Erin helps farmers and landowners put in conservation practices on unprofitable or underperforming land.
Taylor County is a livestock friendly county, so popular practices include grazing pasture lands including establishing paddocks and water supply, seeding hay fields, and grazing cover crops.
Why are you passionate about conservation and the work that you do?
I love where I work and what I do. Raising my family back home in small town southwest Iowa while being involved in my community has helped make this one of the best decisions I’ve made. The flexibility of field work and office work, the support of producers, and simply driving around seeing the differences I’m helping make on the landscape keeps me motivated and proud of what I do. From working with elementary students who don’t live on a farm, to multi-generation producers who have farmed all their life, I am always learning. I love how much this job lets me apply what I learn at work to our family farm and having our kids right there beside us.
How do you envision Iowa's future when it comes to conservation and agriculture?
Iowa’s future is promising. With opportunities becoming available, ongoing research, and more producers who are passionate and wanting to take that extra step to hand the farm down to the next generation, agriculture with conservation has a lot to offer. I am glad to see such progress being made and I’m proud to be a part of that. For Taylor County, I see the impact that our Water Quality Initiative (WQI) project is making and I expect word will continue to spread on the benefits of this project because this project makes dollars and sense.
What are farmers doing in your community that's making a difference?
By focusing on improving marginal acres, producers are reducing soil loss which improves water quality and soil health because they are seeding those acres down rather than row cropping them year after year and constantly disturbing highly erosive soil. By improving soil health, crops and forages thrive. For a livestock community, such as Taylor County, when forages thrive, the livestock thrive. When the livestock thrive, producers are more likely to live on the farm. When livestock producers stay with the farm, those families support local veterinarians, co-ops, general stores, restaurants, sale barns, seed/feed stores, grocery stores, gas stations, schools, and other shops and businesses. Dollars are spent locally and conservation is being put to use for the better.
What is your favorite conservation innovation?
It may not be a “new innovation,” but I love the simplicity of the impact of a living root. A living root is so important to the success of agriculture because it helps build soil structure - step one in having good growth above the ground. Leaving bare soil is not a viable option; however, cover crops, diversifying and extending crop rotations, and long-term seeding rotations with livestock are simple alternatives and are so beneficial to the foundation of agriculture. Not all soil is the same; therefore, not all soil should be farmed the same. However, it should all be protected. Protected soil will be less erosive and less compacted, allow for better water infiltration, provide a healthier ecosystem for the life beneath our feet, increase moisture holding capacity, reduce nutrient runoff, and can even help suppress some pests. I love that this WQI project focuses on that key point: keeping the ground covered with living roots and even taking that next step of incorporating livestock.
How did your Watershed Award impact you, your community, and your work?
The Impact Award was a wonderful opportunity for acknowledging the project’s success and has been a great way to receive credibility. It opened doors to be recognized by not only local media, but also in the tri-state region. Media sources reached out to me as a result of being a recipient of the award. Our message has expanded and continues to gain interest throughout the region. It has helped showcase how reliable the practices are which encourages more participation and support of the project.
As a project coordinator, several hats are worn, daily: salesman, public relations, conservationist, listener, media relations, public speaker, grant writer, accountant, educator, and planner to name a few. This award complements all the diverse work that it takes to help a project succeed. Showcasing the project’s success has allowed the community to take pride in what they are demonstrating and accomplishing.
If you’d like to get ahold of Erin for water quality projects in your area, click here for the Taylor County SWCD website.