Time to tell Soil Conservation Districts what you want from them

Maine’s sixteen Soil & Water Conservation Districts are seeking public input on local priorities for federal conservation funding. Districts are convening meetings of Local Working Groups, which provide input to the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service on local natural resource priorities and criteria for conservation activities and programs.

More information on the work of the districts can be found here.

The following Local Working Group meetings have been scheduled for various counties:

Androscoggin and Sagadahoc Counties
December 2, 2017
11 a.m. – 1p.m.
Topsham Public Library,
25 Foreside Rd., Topsham, ME.
FMI, contact: Jocelyn Lahey,​ 241-5374 

Southern Aroostook County
December 12, 2017
10:00 – 11:30 a.m.
USDA Service Center,
304 North St., Houlton, ME
FMI, contact: Angela Wotton, 532-9407 

Cumberland and York Counties
December 12, 2017, 9 a.m. – noon
USDA Service Center
306 US Route One, Scarborough, ME
FMI, contact: Wayne Monroe 883-0159

Franklin County
December 11, 2017
Chesterville Town Office
409 Dutch Gap Rd., Chesterville, ME
FMI, contact: Amanda Burton 778-4767 or Rosetta White 778-4297

Kennebec and Lincoln Counties
December 6, 2017
Whitefield, ME
FMI, contact: Dale Finseth, 622-7847 or Hildy Ellis 596-2040

Oxford County 
December 15, 2017
10 a.m. – Noon
USDA Service Center
17 Olson Rd., South Paris, ME
FMI, contact:  Jean Frederico, 744-3119 

Somerset County
December 21, 2017
1:30 p.m.
USDA Service Center
70 East Madison Road, Skowhegan, ME
FMI, contact: Joe Dembeck, ​474-8324 x3 

George Smith

About George Smith

George stepped down at the end of 2010 after 18 years as the executive director of the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine to write full time. He writes a weekly editorial page column in the Kennebec Journal and Waterville Morning Sentinel, a weekly travel column in those same newspapers (with his wife Linda), monthly columns in The Maine Sportsman magazine, two outdoor news blogs (one on his website, georgesmithmaine.com, and one on the website of the Bangor Daily News), and special columns for many publications and newsletters. Islandport Press published a book of George's favorite columns, "A Life Lived Outdoors" in 2014. In 2014, George also won a Maine Press Association award for writing the state's bet sports blog. In 2016, Down East Books published George's book, Maine Sporting Camps, and Islandport Press published George and his wife Linda's travel book, Take It From ME, about their favorite Maine inns and restaurants.