Conservation District Celebrates 40 Years The staff of the Armstrong Conservation District, which is celebrating 40 years of service to Armstrong County, is pictured above. From left, front row, Cindy L. Smith, district clerk I; Sharon Cockroft, district clerk II; and Laurel Hoffman, nutrient manage ment technician. Top row, David R. Rupert, district manager; David Beale, watershed specialist; and Christine Cramer, erosion and sedimentation technician. KITTANING (Armstrong Co.) The Armstrong Conser vation District’s staff, board of directors, and volunteers have been celebrating the organiza tion’s 40 years of service to maintain and improve the coun ty’s soil and water resources. When it was established in February 1963, the focus for conservation was on the coun ty’s farmland. There was limited staff, a manager and committee of advisors, mostly from the agricultural commu nity. The mission of the Armstrong Conservation .District (ACD) was “to provide for the conser vation of soil and water re sources; assist in watershed pro tection and flood prevention; to prevent damage to dams and reservoirs; to help in maintain ing the navigability of rivers; to protect and promote the health, safety and general welfare of the people.” Forty years later, the staff has grown to six fulltime individuals plus a seven-man board of di rectors and nine associate direc tors. They work not only with the control of run off and ero sion problems from farming, but with watershed associations, en vironmental organizations, mine discharge problems, sportsmen groups, landowners and wood land owners with various con cerns, and individual homeown ers with storm runoff problems. Education of the youth in en vironmental concerns has been an ongoing emphasis by the ACD directors and staff. They have gone into the schools to speak about the environment and natural resources. They have involved the Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, 4-H, Americorps, and many school children in a wide variety of projects. Generator Systems Diesel or Propane, 10-500 KW, Agricultural and Industrial. New, Used or Reconditioned Martin Diesel Services Shop (570) 658-5303 Office (570) 922-4494 One of their objectives has re cently become a reality “The Crooked Creek Environmental Learning Center which is available to people of all ages in the county. Since 1982, Dave Rupert has been the district manager. He was bom and raised in Kittan ing. He is ably assisted by a staff, considered by many coun ty residents as “one of the finest in Pennsylvania.” Chris Cramer started out as a clerk at ACD in 1974 and, after completing educational require ments, she became the erosion and sediment technician in 1985.,5he has first hand experi ence on the growth of the con versation district’s work and its many achievements. In sum ming up the district’s environ mental interests, she said, “I think Armstrong County is ex ceptional. We have a lot of peo ple who care.” Research Needed On Possible Johne% Human Illness Link UNIVERSITY PARK (Centre Co.) The possible relationship between a serious cattle disease and a similar human illness sug gests the need for more focused research to establish any links, according to a new report from the National Research Council. The report, “Diagnosis and Control of Johne’s Disease,” was prepared by a panel of eight ex perts from across the United States. Lawrence Hutchinson, ex tension veterinarian and profes sor of veterinary science in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences, was one of the co-au thors. Johne’s disease (pronounced YO-knees) is a bacterial intestinal disease of cattle and other rumi nants (sheep, deer, goats) that can cause weight loss, diarrhea and decreased milk production. “Once cattle contract the disease, it’s incurable,” says Hutchinson. “It’s estimated that between 20 and 40 percent of dairy herds in Pennsylvania have cattle with Johne’s disease.” Studies have estimated that dairy producers with a 100-cow herd in which at least 10 percent of cull cows show symptoms of Johne’s could sustain costs of about $23,000 per year, mostly due to reduced milk production. This translates into an estimated $2OO million annual loss for dairy producers nationally. The costs of Johne’s disease would expand into the public health arena if researchers were to establish a link between Johne’s and Crohn’s disease, a chronic intestinal inflammatory illness that affects humans. Symptoms of Crohn’s disease in clude malaise, weight loss, abdo- Pa.’s Drought Ends; Seven Counties Upgraded To Normal HARRISBURG, Dauphin Co.) Department of Environmental Pro tection (DEP) Secretary Kathleen A. McGinty recently announced that seven counties on the western edge of Pennsylvania have been upgraded from a drought watch to normal sta tus, putting all 67 Pennsylvania counties in normal drought status for the first time since Aug. 8,2001. The seven counties returned to normal status are Beaver, Crawford, Erie, Greene, Lawrence, Mercer and Washington. While under the drought watch, residents in these counties were asked to reduce water use voluntarily by five percent. A drought watch is the least severe of the levels, alerting the public of the potential for drought and warning water suppliers why pay? ...for hauling grain to the mill? ...for storage at the mill? ...for shrinkage at the mill? ...for hauling the grain back to your farm as feed? Lancaster Farming, Saturday, June 28, 2003-A33 minal pain and diarrhea. Crohn’s is a life-long disease, the cause of which is unknown and for which there is no cure. At issue is whether the patho gen that causes Johne's disease, Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis, or Map, is also a cause of Crohn’s disease in hu mans. Studies designed to con firm or refute a link to date have been small and have yielded in conclusive or inconsistent results. The report calls for a new ap proach to studying the possible relationship between Map and Crohn’s disease and for the con vening of an independent panel to establish standardized proto cols and laboratory methods for research on the question. The report also spells out steps for controlling Johne’s disease, reducing the spread of Map and minimizing effects of the disease in animals. “An integrated, bot tom-up approach to on-farm dis ease control is needed that meets the needs of the livestock produc er and motivates behavioral change, with support at broader industry, state and federal lev els,” the report states. The Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, in cooperation with Penn State’s College of Ag ricultural Sciences, currently sponsors one of the nation’s long est-running voluntary Johne’s disease monitoring and control programs for livestock producers and veterinarians. To obtain a copy of “Diagnosis and Control of Johne’s Disease,” call the National Academies Press toll-free at (888) 624-8373, or visit the Website at http:// www.nap.edu. to increase monitoring, awareness and preparation for response if con ditions worsen. Recent rains have pushed precipi tation to near normal for the region this year, leading to significant recov ery of stream flows and groundwater levels. Until recently, the border counties in western Pennsylvania had not been experiencing the wet weather pattern that has affected the rest of the state this spring. “Last year at this time, most of Pennsylvania was in the throes of one of the worst droughts on record,” Secretary McGinty said. “It has been a long recovery for the western part of the state, but the last remnants of the 2002 drought.fi nally have been erased.” Store grain On-Your-Farm for as low as 15C per bushel we can also process your feed with roller or hammer mills. A Agri-Service, LLC ' \ RonMi&CuttomSwvioas IHft 14137 Pwvwyhmnte Av» I V Hao*nMMWl, MO 21742 or tdl free 1
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