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York remembers celebrating first Earth Day in 1970 Tuesday, April 25, 2006
Agri News staff writer
MENTOR, Minn. -- Dana York was an eighth grader when America celebrated its first Earth Day in 1970.
This year the associate chief for the USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service attended the 36th anniversary of Earth Day at the Glacial Ridge Project near Mentor with more than 130 sixth graders. The flat, grassy field where they stood is part of a 28,000-acre wetland restoration site York says is a premier project in the nation.
The cooperation of 30 public and private agencies and landowners were involved in the project. The model will become the norm for future restoration projects, she said.
"We can't do (projects like this) anymore using all federal dollars," she told the group. "We need to work together with other agencies and private landowners to make this happen."
The Glacial Ridge Project includes 13,000 acres of Nature Conservancy lands and 3,500 acres of privately owned farmland all enrolled in the Wetland Reserve Program.
Farmers identified conservation as a top priority during recent listening sessions with Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns, she said.
"With shrinking federal dollars the cooperation we have with other agencies and groups is the way we will get it done," York said. "Our new motto, 'Helping people help the land' is what we do at the NRCS and we do it with a lot of volunteer effort."
Seventh District Congressman Collin Peterson, Nature Conservancy's Ron Nargang, Jim Leach of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Steve Adair from Ducks Unlimited all talked about the importance of conservation projects like Glacial Ridge.
While the agencies worked to procure the lands and developed a restoration plan, University of Minnesota-Crookston students and staff monitored the site and wildlife habitat.
Earth Day was started to draw attention to the earth's health and pollution problems, said Bill Hunt, NRCS state conservationist.
"It started with people like you," he said to the students. "It was the youth that really started it and as a result we had millions who acknowledged the need to celebrate Mother Earth...I hope that we can pass on a legacy to you." |
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