(MITCHELL) – Melody Allen was named the 2019 Teacher of the Year and Stacey Brown was named 2019 Conservation Farmer of the Year during the Lawrence County Soil and Water Conservation District’s meeting Monday night at Spring Mill State Park Inn.
Allen is a fourth and fifth-grade split class teacher at Dollens Elementary School in Oolitic. She has worked for the North Lawrence Community School System for 15 years.
Allen promotes natural resources and conservation practices by learning about and removing invasive species and teaching and promoting how to grow food using sound principles of composting. Her students also work on looking for additional ways to recycle items with a focus on recycling plastics in the classroom and at home.
Stacy Brown Named 2019 Conservation Farmer of the Year
Stacey Brown of Leesville was named the 2019 Conservation Farmer of the Year.
Brown is the production manager of the Hoosier Times’ printing facility in Bedford and owns a cow/calf operation in Leesville.
Brown was chosen because he changed his farm from a wide-open, overgrazed range to a healthy and successful grazing operation.
Brown was selected to participate in the USDA’s Environmental Quality Incentive Program. He built almost a mile of rotational grazing and a water exclusion fence, installing multiple watering facilities and pipelines to keep cattle off watershed inlets, and built an over 10,000 square feet of heavy use area protection pads to keep manure and sediment from running into his water resources.
Brown soil tested, reseeded and fertilized almost 100 acres. He installed a large amount of gutters and underground outlets to remove standing water from his holding areas.
Brown also took part in the Master Cattlemen Program that was offered in Lawrence County by Purdue Extension in 2018-2019.
Stulz and Ritter chose as Supervisor
Patrick Stultz and Jerry Ritter were chosen to serve as supervisors for the Lawrence County Soil and Water Conservation District.
Mandy Robbins was selected district coordinator for the SWCD. Robbins replaces Christina Bruce, who will serve as the office’s farm bill specialist.
