Lamoille County Natural Resources Conservation District was organized on October 5, 1945 under Acts of the 1939 Vermont Legislature in response to the Soil Conservation Act enacted by Congress in 1935. In the more than sixty years since the district was formed many changes have taken place. The original Act entitled us as Lamoille County Soil Conservation District later changed to Lamoille County Soil and Water Conservation District, and later still changed to Lamoille County Natural Resources Conservation District. Most recently and only for marketing purposes, we've shortened our name to Lamoille County Conservation District.

As our name has changed so has the functions we serve to our constituents, Lamoille County landowners. Over time, the greatest change has been in the manner for which land is used. The demand of land use for practices other than agricultural purposes has increased tremendously since the districts beginning. As a result, we have experienced a shift in the demographics of our constituents in Lamoille County. At our inception many, if not all, of our constituents were agricultural producers. In the past sixty years, our constituents now include towns, villages, schools, businesses, private landowners, and diversified farmers. Our mission reflects our service to assist farmers, landowners, homeowners, and communities in conservation and the protection and improvement of natural resources.

LCNRCD is comprised of all the towns in Lamoille county which are Belvidere, Cambridge, Eden, Elmore, Hyde Park, Johnson, Morristown, Stowe, Waterville and Wolcott. The ten towns of Lamoille County have a total acreage of 304,000 acres.

What are Natural Resources Conservation Districts?

Natural Resources Conservation Districts (NRCD's) were created by the federal government in 1939 in response to the Dust Bowl to teach farmers about better soil erosion control methods. Established through Congress with the Soil and Water Conservation Act in 1935, they are political subdivisions under state law. Intially, Conservation Districts served as a citizen's branch of the local U.S. Department of Agriculture Soil Conservation Service, now known as the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). Presently, Conservation Districts exist in partnership with NRCS but function as non-profit municipalitites that develop and implement programs for conservation and land management practices for the protection and improvement of soil and water resources.

Districts work with land managers, local government agencies and other local interests in addressing a broad spectrum of resource concerns: erosion control, flood prevention, water conservation and use, wetlands, ground water, water quality and quantity, non-point source pollution, forest land protection, wildlife, recreation, waste water management and community development. Such work varies according to the needs and resources of the districts. There are over 3000 districts that cover 98 percent of the privately owned land in the fifty states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, the Northern Mariana Islands and Guam. Vermont is broken down into 14 districts.

Go to the National Association of Conservation Districts’ web site to see what districts are doing around the country! http://www.nacdnet.org/

VACD

Click here for the delineation of all of Vermont's Conservation Districs & major watersheds.