ResouRce conseRvation Plan Five-Year Plan Fiscal Year 2018 - 2022 Version 18.0 Contact Information: David Huggins, Chairman Kenneth Stinson, District Manager (509) 338-2549 220 East Fifth Street, Suite 208 Moscow, ID 83843-2964 [email protected] www.latahsoil.org Supervisors David Huggins, Chairman Frank Walker, Vice Chairman Kevin Meyer, Treasurer Josh Jones, Secretary Garry Esser, Supervisor Kyle Hawley, Supervisor Tom Trail, Supervisor Cody Anderson, Associate Supervisor Lee Hawley, Associate Supervisor Andy Hill, Associate Supervisor Kevin Wagner, Associate Supervisor Staff Tabitha Brown, Soil Scientist Bill Dansart, Resource Conservation Planner Brenda Erhardt, Resource Conservation Planner Trish Heekin, Resource Conservation Planner Aven Julye, Assistant Resource Conservation Planner Kendall Kahl, Soil Scientist Jason Marchinek, Resource Conservation Planner/Field Operations Manager Kenneth Stinson, District Manager George Zamora, Assistant Resource Conservation Planner Latah Soil and Water Conservation District During its seven decades in existence, the Latah Soil and Water Conservation District has maintained a firm commitment and solid level of support for voluntary conservation and responsible management of Latah County’s natural resources. s the first legally organized conservation district in Idaho, the Latah Soil and Water Conservation District (Latah SWCD) demonstrated its high ambitions early on and has continued to strive to meet the needs of landowners and land users in Latah County. A The Latah SWCD is 1 of 50 conservation districts in Idaho which serve 99% of the state’s area. The Latah SWCD provides the public with a formal channel for cooperating with one another and with city, county, state, tribal, and federal agencies in resource conservation on lands in Latah County. The Latah SWCD offers guidance, technical and financial assistance, and information to people with land use and other natural resource needs and concerns. The Latah SWCD supervisors and staff supply educational information and outreach programs to increase community awareness about the sustainable management of our local natural resources. This Resource Conservation Plan facilitates these activities by outlining procedures and methods, prioritizing current needs, and identifying future expectations. It also provides a means to prioritize the Latah SWCD’s resources, allowing the Latah SWCD Board to measure progress and results, promote sustainable resource management, and encourage collaboration between individuals, organizations and government agencies. The Latah SWCD seeks to ensure that the land, water and wildlife resources under its care will be viable and sustainable for current and future generations. This document identifies resource conservation needs throughout Latah County and presents the Latah SWCD’s Five-Year Resource Conservation Plan for meeting those needs. This Five-Year Plan will be reviewed and updated annually by the Latah SWCD Board of Supervisors. II Latah Soil and Water Conservation District Mission Statement Lead local efforts to promote the stewardship of natural resources through the development of comprehensive plans and the implementation of strategies for economic and ecological sustainability, on behalf of our citizens, through the coordination of leadership, information, and funding. Goals Local Governance - Lead and support landowner, land user, local community, and government agency efforts to collectively identify natural resource issues of concern, review alternative solutions to address these issues, and undertake local efforts to resolve priority issues using voluntary mechanisms. District Capacity - Develop and maintain the political and organizational capacity to fully exercise Latah SWCD rights and responsibilities. Community Outreach - Promote efforts to enhance local community understanding of ecological systems, the social systems directly dependent upon these natural systems, and the political and organizational systems developed for the management of natural resources within Latah County. Comprehensive Planning - Promote individual, local, regional, state, tribal and national planning efforts that recognize, and manage for, the interconnected elements of natural systems and seek sustainable management approaches for the natural resources within the Latah SWCD while providing for the long-term natural resource conservation objectives of landowners and land users, strengthening the long-term health of local economies, and protecting the long-term public interest of the community. Coordinated Implementation - Lead the voluntary implementation of conservation efforts that seek to simultaneously protect and enhance the long-term productivity of the Latah SWCD’s natural resource base while providing for the long-term natural resource conservation objectives of land owners and land users, protecting the established rights of individual landowners and land users, strengthening the long-term health of local economies, and protecting the long-term public interest of the community. Latah SWCD policies and conservation practices will seek consistency with the mission statement and related goals. III Certificate of Adoption We, the Board of Supervisors of the Latah Soil and Water Conservation District, this ______ day of March, 2017, do hereby approve the following document known as the Latah Soil and Water Conservation District Resource Conservation Plan. As evidence of our adoption and final approval, we do hereby affix our signatures to this document. David Huggins, Chairman _____________________________________ Frank Walker, Vice Chairman _____________________________________ Kevin Meyer, Treasurer _____________________________________ Josh Jones, Secretary _____________________________________ Garry Esser, Supervisor _____________________________________ Kyle Hawley, Supervisor _____________________________________ Tom Trail, Supervisor _____________________________________ IV Resource Conservation Plan Overview Planning for comprehensive natural resource management in a coordinated fashion at a county scale is a challenge. The Latah SWCD, as a formal governmental subdivision of the State of Idaho, is charged with providing local leadership regarding natural resource management in addition to technical and financial support to private landowners and land users with respect to the conservation of natural resources. The Resource Conservation Plan has been developed for two primary audiences. First, there are those entities that want to understand, in the broadest sense, the natural resource conservation approaches proposed by the Latah SWCD Board of Supervisors. For those readers, the Resource Conservation Plan, in its entirety, provides a comprehensive view of the work that could be undertaken by the Board of Supervisors and staff over the next five years if adequate resources become available. The entire document should prove useful to elected officials and conservation agencies who would like to coordinate conservation management programs with the Latah SWCD. Second, the Resource Conservation Plan has also been organized for those individuals and/or organizations that have a resource-specific interest within Latah County (e.g., erosion within agricultural fields, restoring fish runs within the Potlatch River, or weed control on range and pasture lands). For these entities, individual resource work plans have been developed as comprehensive informational sheets that can be reviewed somewhat independently of the entire Resource Conservation Plan. These individual resource conservation work plans are located within Chapter 10. The table of contents has been designed as a detailed outline of the Resource Conservation Plan so readers can easily find information that is of interest. The table of contents, especially Chapter 10: Coordinated Implementation, is designed to be the first point of reference for readers with a resource-specific interest. Within the table of contents are active links to the individual sections within the document. The first four chapters of the Resource Conservation Plan are designed to provide background information pertaining to conservation districts, Latah County, resource conditions within Latah County, and the framework within which the Latah SWCD works in a collaborative fashion with other agencies and organizations. The Resource Conservation Plan addresses, in detail, the five primary management goals of the Latah SWCD. Each goal has a set of detailed work plans to address issues related to each goal. Local Governance Chapter 6 District Capacity Chapter 7 Community Outreach Chapter 8 Comprehensive Planning Chapter 9 Coordinated Implementation Chapter 10 The Resource Conservation Plan is designed to be continuously critiqued from within as well as outside the Latah SWCD. As new local, state, and federal policies are adopted and current resource management practices are reviewed, there will be regular changes to V the Resource Conservation Plan to reflect changes in community priorities, natural resource management policies, and research findings. Once the Resource Conservation Plan is developed with proposed strategies and tasks, the Latah SWCD will develop an Annual Work Plan. While the Resource Conservation Plan identifies strategies and tasks that could be accomplished within the next five years if adequate technical and financial resources become available, the Annual Work Plan will identify those prioritized tasks suggested within the Resource Conservation Plan