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Eight Ohioans participated in this year’s Watershed Heroes Conference in mid-June at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minn.

"Everyone seemed to walk away with something he could use," according to Larry Antosch, OFBF director of environmental research and coordinator of the trip. In fact, a possible field day cosponsored by a county Farm Bureau and the Extension service in that county may be a direct result of the trip, Antosch said.

Also attending from Ohio were Dave Woodring, Ashtabula County Farm Bureau public affairs chair; Jack Lillich, Greene County Farm Bureau vice president; David Scheiderer, a certified crop adviser from Union County and winner of this year’s OFBF Excellence in Crop Advising Award; David Marrison, Ashtabula County Extension agent; Dale Arnold, executive director of the Ohio Land Improvement Contractors Association; and Edwin Kroeger, Van Wert County Farm Bureau agricultural ecology chair and a certified crop adviser. Also from Ohio and presenting information was Jim Volkert from WaterWorks America in Medina.

This is the eighth year AFBF has offered the Watershed Heroes Conference and the second year the event was held in Minnesota. Earlier Watershed Heroes conferences were held in Iowa. Antosch anticipates next year’s event to move to a state in the South.

According to Antosch, the purpose of the conference is to "provide the opportunity for a team of individuals to formulate their own systems approach to solving watershed scale problems through voluntary efforts and to provide the latest scientific information on solving water quality problems in practical and profitable ways."

Watershed Heroes is sponsored by the American Farm Bureau Federation, American Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture, Minnesota Farm Bureau Federation, Minnesota Department of Agriculture and Conservation Technology Information Center. Co-sponsors are the Illinois Farm Bureau, Iowa Farm Bureau Federation, National Association of Conservation Districts and the American Society of Agronomy.

For more information about next year’s Watershed Heroes Conference, contact your county Farm Bureau agricultural ecology chair after Jan. 1, 2004.

Cutline:

Edwin Kroeger, Van Wert County Farm Bureau agricultural ecology chair, holds a yard stick as Dave Woodring, Ashtabula County Farm Bureau public affairs chair, measures a corn plant during the annual Watershed Heroes Conference held in mid-June near St. Peter, Minn.