PEORIA, Ill. — Illinois Soil and Water Conservation Districts (SWCDs) are in danger of closing if a state budget is not passed, warns SWCD managers, including Laura DeOrnellas, in charge of the Macon County conservation program.
According to DeOrnellas, more than half of Illinois’ 97 SWCDs will likely close their doors and lay of staff. This will cause Illinois to lose the infrastructure and "boots on the ground" necessary to deliver critical natural resource conservation on private lands.
Among the critical repercussions would be the hampering of the ability of SWCDs to administer delivery of more than $400 million in conservation contracts with the USDA. In addition, Illinois’ commitment to the new voluntary Nutrient Loss Reduction Strategy (NLRS) to help farmers implement conservation practices would be severely handicapped, sending a message to the U.S EPA that the state’s commitment to reducing the Gulf of Mexico hypoxia zone could be subject to review, she said.
State Rep. Don Moffitt (R-Gilson) of the 74th District said the state budget reductions will vary from district to district, with impacts varying according to how much funding remains in individual district accounts and whether cuts will specifically eliminate or reduce funding.
"No funds or reduced funds will vary around the state," said Moffitt, who is cosponsoring a bill (H.B. 4282) currently hung up in committee that would appropriate $3 million from the Partners for Conservation Fund, for fiscal year 2016 grants to SWCD. The bill appropriates an additional $4.5 million to the Illinois Department of Agriculture from the same fund to implement ag resource enhancement programs.
Moffitt, who is not seeking reelection after 23 years in the Illinois legislature, said his support for the bill is a statement he wanted to make in support of the services SWCD employees provide for farmers, such as himself, and others.
"I want to show my support for these excellent, needed programs that help protect one of the great resources we have in Illinois, the soil," he said, adding one of his greatest concerns for the future of agriculture in Illinois is the issue of nutrient loss prevention.
"If we don’t fix the problem at the state level, the feds will, and it would be better if we dealt with it at the state level, We’re still getting too much runoff and soil infiltration into our rivers and streams."
The outgoing lawmaker spared no words in describing what might happen if SWDCs were no longer able to operate efficiently in Illinois. "Local soil districts have practical, common-sense (personnel). I don’t have these same positive feelings about some bureaucrat from Washington D.C.
"(Former President Dwight) Eisenhower said that if you plow with a pencil and live 1,000 miles from a cornfield, farming looks really easy. Our local SWCDs are not 1,000 miles away, they are out in the fields every day. That’s why we need common-sense solutions implemented by local SWCDs," Moffitt said.
The reduction in funding announced by Gov. Bruce Rauner’s office will affect Illinois agriculture research and development ranging from ag education line items, county fair funding and fair premium payments, University of Illinois extension funding and beyond, said Moffitt, who serves on the Agricultural and Conservation Committee, among others.
DeOrnellas cited projections based on the elimination of Illinois SWCDs closing, in a September email, including:
