Uncovering Conservation Careers: SWCD Program Technician
By Adriene Matthews, Agriculture and Outreach Specialist Individual Placement Member / AmeriCorps Member placed at Cottonwood SWCD.
There are several different types of jobs in conservation in America. Wildlife and marine biologists, wildlife technicians, environmental scientists, and foresters, just to name a few. This article will highlight the jobs in conservation that may be overlooked, or people have never heard of before, me included.
Hi, my name is Adriene Matthews, and I am an agriculture outreach specialist for Conservation Corp Minnesota & Iowa in the town of Windom, in Southwest Minnesota. I have had the wonderful opportunity to work alongside so many different organizations and agencies, from Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA), Department of Natural Resources (DNR), Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), Soil and Water Conservation Districts (SWCD), and Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA). I was able to learn about all the different ways these organizations are helping with conservation of land, air and water, in Minnesota.
Going on Dave Bucklin’s 35th and final year at Cottonwood County SWCD, he applies conservation to all parts of his life, even outside of work. Dave grew up in Austin, MN and thought he was going to work with his dad at their donut shop after high school. He went to Mankato Technical College previously known as Mankato Vocational College and studied to become a cook chef/ baker. After meeting his now wife in college he moved to Mountain Lake, MN because he preferred to live in a smaller town. While working at the Mountain Lake school, he was informed by a coworker of a job position that was available at Cottonwood SWCD. Out of the 57 applicants that applied to the job Dave and one other candidate were the top choices for the position. After the other applicant turned down the job, Dave was chosen to be the program technician, in 1990. His main focus was the tree program and running the weed badger during the summer. Dave also was in charge of the Minnesota River Assessment Program, a program that is still used today. Dave would talk to every landowner owner in the Mountain Lake watershed and the Wellner-Hageman Dam project. Having to hand draw maps of the entire watershed, he would note what kind of farming operation they were running, if they had corn or soybeans planted and where each well was and the septic systems in the area.
As stated before, there are a lot of different ways that Dave applies conservation to his home and work life. While Dave has seen and worked with all different backgrounds of people in conservation, he states that it is important to take conservation practices with you outside of work too.
Dave is on the Lake and Tree Commission, and goes around town pruning, and restaking trees for homeowners. This may not seem like a big deal, but the University of MN states that pruning trees are important to preventing insect and disease damage. Dave stated ‘Trees are a part of conservation,’ even on a small scale like in urban areas or as big as in a forest.
Throughout his career, Dave has probably planted close to 1,000,000 trees, and even though he will be retiring, he will still help plant trees around Mountain Lake and Windom, Mn. With over 3 decades of helping landowners with implementing conservation practices, like planting trees, hand drawing maps, being on the lake and tree commission board and trying to reduce gas emissions by riding his bike to places around town, Dave is an example of the little wins in conservation that anyone can do. There are plenty of ways we, at home, can take conservation with us in everything that we do, picking up trash, leaving no trace, using reusable bags, recycling, and a plethora of other practices. As future and current conservationists, we can show others how to help protect our planet. Everyone at the Cottonwood office will miss him dearly, and we all wish you a happy retirement Dave!
