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Ohio Farm Bureau has awarded five watershed education mini-grants ranging from $500 to $1,000 to several county Soil and Water Conservation Districts (SWCDs).

The program provides small grants to county SWCDs for projects focusing on watershed education with local teachers. Only SWCDs that work with local Farm Bureaus can receive the grants. Funding comes from the Agriculture in the Classroom Consortium and OFBF's promotion and education and agricultural ecology programs. Individual SWCDs can receive up to $500 and SWCDS can receive up to $1,000 when multiple counties work together on the same project.

OFBF's promotion and education program initiated the project to develop partnerships with local SWCDs and county Farm Bureaus to help classroom teachers prepare students to research local watershed issue-based problems and recognize the contributions of agricultural conservation practices.

Recipients of the watershed mini-grants are:

• Darke and Miami SWCDs for their "Know Your Watershed" project. The goal is to educate students about what watersheds are, which watershed they live in and the importance of personal stewardship. The Stillwater Watershed Project in conjunction with Darke and Miami SWCDs and the Darke and Miami County Park Districts will be administering the award.
• Huron and Seneca SWCDs for their "Healthy Water, Healthy People" project. The SWCDs plan to hold a teacher workshop and Miller Conservation Farm tour June 8-9 to educate teachers about agriculture's role in watersheds by teaching concepts of water quality and conservation.
• Defiance, Fulton, Henry, Lucas, Ottawa, Williams and Wood SWCDs for their Black Swamp Educators Extravaganza, an annual teachers workshop designed to help educators better understand and teach issues regarding natural resources in northwest Ohio. This year's theme is "It's a Water World" and is designed to give a comprehensive look at the Maumee River watershed starting from groundwater to surface water to the final destination in Lake Erie.
• Fayette SWCD for its watershed contour mapping kits, which give students hands-on experience to visualize and draw contour maps. Once students learn how to use and interpret topographic maps, they will learn to identify where they live, go to school and potential pollution sources in relation to the watershed.
• Madison SWCD for a two-day teachers' workshop to be held at the Gwynne Conservation Area and Big Darby Creek. The sessions will focus on watershed education and include hands-on experience with stream quality monitoring on Deer Creek.